Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Hands On 1
Deus Ex is a game that I have long hailed as one of the finest in its genre, unfortunately the series as a whole has not faired as well in my opinion. The sequel, Invisible War, was an a bit of a disappointment to say the least. Now we have Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution which will be arriving in just a few months time. The previews have lead me to believe that things were heading in the right direction, all of the early indicators seemed to show that Eidos would staying true to the formula that made the original so unique and enjoyable. Earlier this week when I heard that there was a preview build that had been leaked I immediately jumped on it, what can I say I could not resist temptation. It is the sequel to one of my favorite PC games after all. I had to check it out if only to just get a taste of what to expect come August. Now that I have had the opportunity to play through a good chunk of the game I can safely say that things are looking good, real good. It may borrow a few elements from recent games and overall be a bit flashier than the original, but at its heart it is still is Deus Ex and that is quite a relief.
I will admit from the get go I was a not at all impressed. While the introduction did well to set up the story and the events to come the the game play here left much to be desired. You really have no freedom or choice to how you approach things. It devolves the game play to a generic FPS corridor shooter. It is obvious that the intent of this segment is to introduce basic gameplay elements to the uninitiated masses, but it was a bit too tedious for my likings. Thankfully this experience is very short lived.
At the end of the intro Jensen, the main character, finds himself essentially on the brink of death thanks to a band of mercenaries who decided to come trash Sarif Industries. There seems to be only one way to get back to the land of the living, full body augmentation. The scene that unfolds next is quite amazing and closely details Jensen’s transformation. All of this is rendered in beautiful CGI, just the quality you would come to expect from Square-Enix. It really is a top notch display and after witnessing this greatness I can’t help but yearn for more..
Once Jensen has recovered he is immediately called into action. Who needs rest when you are a nano-augmented killing machine, right? This is where the game really opens up a bit and is the point at which I actually started enjoying myself. There are multiple paths and side objectives to undertake, finally I felt a bit of freedom that I was expecting to see in a Deus Ex title. There is even a nice boss “battle” which gives you the first chance to utilize the conversation system to defuse the situation, things could get messy without some thought to your responses here. During this initial mission you will also get the first opportunity to spend a point or two to develop the augmentations of your choosing.
While the game pretty much kicks off with Jensen’s body completely augmented you do not initially have access to all of these fancy bells and whistles. They are unlocked slowly as you progress via ingame xp which is gained in normal fashion by completing quests and killing enemies, exploration, or special items which are purchased or picked up. There are many augmentations to choose from and most will directly impact how you will play the game. Wether you choose to play the game as a stealthy operative(relying on cloaking technology and hacking ability), an unstoppable killing machine(focusing on brute strength, heavy fire power, and explosives ) or a little bit of both the augmentations are there to tailor the gameplay experience to your choosing.
One thing that I love about this game is how many ways you can accomplish the objectives. Take for instance one of the early quests in the game which has you visiting the local police department to recover some evidence that appears to hint toward who was responsible for the chaos that unfolded in the intro. There are a myriad of ways to approach this mission. You can waltz in the front doors and through the conversation system you could potentially convice the receptionist to let you roam free without worry, though this is easier said than done. Or you can sneak through the sewers and hack your way in to the precinct, stealth is key if this path is chosen otherwise you will inevitably be going out in a hail of gunfire. I chose the latter since I have primarily focused on stealth gameplay during this play through. This decision gave me the pleasure of getting very familiar with the hacking system in game as I compulsively searched every nook and cranny for secrets or information that would flesh out the story. Hacking is great fun. Clearly a lot of work went into its design. It is a fairly indepth mini-game that is consistently enjoyable. If this mission is any indication of how the rest of the game plays out I can safely say there are some great times ahead.
Its somewhat difficult to accurately comment on performance and graphical issues as this is a leaked beta build after, but lets just say there is some room for improvement. The graphics look a bit dated, especially when it comes to facial animations and models. Despite those graphical quirks I am really enjoying the artstyle and the environments so far. While many of the areas are industrial/office spaces there is a nice diversity to what you can find and some of the environmental lighting and effects are looking quite good. Unfortunately it does seem that the developers have made an interesting design choice to severely limited the ability to interact with the environment. In the original nearly every object could be picked up or moved around, now only the rare object here and there can be picked up and of course you wont have to guess which one as they are all covered in an odd orange glow. Also I must say that I am not at all pleased with these pre-rendered in game cut scenes that are used.. I really don’t understand the inclusion of these.. they just seem so very out of place oh and did I mention they look absolutely horrible? These pre-rendered scenes must go or at least capture them in high resolution.. there is no reason why a cut scene should look worse than the regular in game graphics. I hate to nitpick, but loading times seem a bit too long. Maybe I am just impatient or I need to clean up things a bit on my PC, but waiting 20-30 seconds to reload after a death or enter a building etc is a bit excessive. Thankfully though even at this stage the game is running pretty smoothly and with very few bugs. I have experienced a CTD or two, but that is not unexpected considering this is no where near the final build.
I am very surprised how well the devs are handling this leak. They have actually encouraged people to come forth and share their experiences which is quite rare.. It seems the developers are actively listening to the community and hopefully will be tweaking things to perfect this title come release time. The overwhelmingly positive reaction surrounding this preview build release has only helped to promote this title and give it some well deserved attention. If things continue to improve I have no doubt that this game will be great and a worthy addition to the Deus Ex series.
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