{"id":585,"date":"2011-09-26T16:41:26","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T15:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/26\/deus-ex-human-revolution\/"},"modified":"2011-09-26T16:41:26","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T15:41:26","slug":"deus-ex-human-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/26\/deus-ex-human-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Deus Ex: Human Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/vg79715_deus_ex_wall_adam1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"vg79715_deus_ex_wall_adam1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"vg79715_deus_ex_wall_adam1\" src=\"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/vg79715_deus_ex_wall_adam1_thumb.png\" width=\"460\" height=\"293\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">I\u2019m a big fan of the first Deus Ex\u2026 it was one of the first games to feature \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Emergence\">emergent behavior<\/a>\u201d as part of the design. You had the feeling that all the problems had different solutions, and you could tackle them in a variety of ways, much like pen-and-paper role playing games.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Then I watched \u201cDeus Ex: Invisible War\u201d turn a beloved game into a mockery of his former self, with huge amounts of bugs, silly AI, and a dumbing down of the overall concept (to appeal to more people, I guess).<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">So I was kind of divided about \u201cHuman Revolution\u201d\u2026 on one hand, I hoped they would go with the legacy of the first one, on the other hand, I was fearful they would turn it into a cover based shooter like so many others\u2026<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Thankfully, they went with the better choice: Human Revolution follows in the footsteps of the first one, which is great news for everyone that loved it!<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">The game has plenty of faults (which I don\u2019t remember the first having, but that might be the age-goggles speaking):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">Although this game is a prequel to the first Deus Ex, the game feels more modern that the first one, not just because of the graphics, but because of the general tech level of things\u2026 The augments seem more primitive than the first Deus Ex, but the overall environment seems more futuristic<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">Loading times are huge (on the XBox, at least)\u2026 that might be mitigated by installing the game in the HD, but since I have one of those old XBoxes, I don\u2019t have the HD for it and I\u2019m not buying a new one anytime soon\u2026 This is very noticeable since you tend to reload a previous savegame to try to get through an area without being detected, which implies some trial-and-error\u2026<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">The voice of Adam Jensen is terrible\u2026 well, overall the voice acting is terrible\u2026 all characters seem to be stuck in just one emotion (whatever that one is) and it doesn\u2019t match up to the graphics \u2013 for example, there was one woman crying and very disturbed by something, but her model was smiling! It didn\u2019t seem the least bit distraught, and that kind of spoils the emotional bond\u2026 In the case of the main character, he seems to be pissed off at something, even when he\u2019s trying to be empathic or nice to someone\u2026 It reminds me of someone that took lessons in the \u201cChristian Bale School for Actors\u201d\u2026 It was trying too much to be dark and gritty.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">The game world is too empty\u2026 You have great cities, loads of space for wandering, even a kind of sandbox groove to it, but nothing happens there\u2026 there\u2019s just some side-quests (that are extremely linked to the game plot anyway)\u2026 I\u2019d like to see more stuff happening; sometimes I\u2019d wander around town and think to myself: \u201cI wish there was some \u201cclear the gang activity\u201d quest here.\u201d. I understand that the main character is probably too important for that (it would be kind of silly to have someone as important running errands), but if that\u2019s a problem, maybe they should have built the game the other way around: start with an insignificant character that grows in importance.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">The main character was too dumb\u2026 There\u2019s nothing worse than you having connected the dots for ages now and the main character still acts completely oblivious to the situation\u2026 Five or six hours into the game, you\u2019d already have a good idea on who the bad guy was, but Adam would happily run errands for him anyway\u2026<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">Story was too convoluted\u2026 I know the idea is to build a good \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d, but it reaches a point where you can think of at least 10 different ways the \u201cbad guys\u201d could win without getting so complicated at it\u2026 Most of the game just seems like a prelude to the inevitable (and totally predictable) backstabbing\u2026 <\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">Worse of the worse: the boss fights were stupid\u2026 This is a game mainly aimed at stealth (at least for me), but the only way to defeat the bosses was by shooting\u2026 no smart thinking, no stealth, not intelligent use of the environment\u2026 Nope, plain old \u201cshoot-the-bastard-until-he-dies\u201d\u2026 This is particularly nasty if you (like me) haven\u2019t invested in combat skills, preferring to spend your upgrades in hacking and stealth. This is a stupid design decision; it breaks the entire core of the game and just frustrates the player \u2013 it\u2019s not a challenge if the game is actually cheating by design!<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"justify\">&#160;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">But\u2026 even with all these faults, it is a great game\u2026 It took me about 16-18 hours to finish (which is good value for money in this day and age of 8 hour games), without me ever thinking \u201cWill this never end?!\u201d\u2026 Good area design, with plenty of options and choices to go around, depending on how you like to play (could have some more stuff for the hacker-ish)<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">If I notice all those problems in the game is because I feel the game could have been much more, but what it is is enough\u2026 Hopefully this will not be the end of the saga, and I wish in the future someone does a kind of cross between Deus Ex and the sandboxing of GTA (that would be totally sweet!).<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Special mention to the music of the game\u2026 although it\u2019s a complete rip-off of Blade Runner\u2019s OST, it\u2019s very good at establishing the mood\u2026 <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">After playing this one, I just feel like making a cyberpunk game and listen to some Billy Idol\u2019s \u201cCyberpunk\u201d album, while reading some William Gibson\u2026 <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile\" alt=\"Smile\" src=\"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/wlEmoticon-smile5.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Overall, it\u2019s a <strong>9\/10 <\/strong>game, for those that like scores! <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile\" alt=\"Smile\" src=\"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/wlEmoticon-smile5.png\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton585\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fshadowcovenant.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F09%2F26%2Fdeus-ex-human-revolution%2F&amp;text=Deus%20Ex%3A%20Human%20Revolution&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal&amp;counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fshadowcovenant.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F09%2F26%2Fdeus-ex-human-revolution%2F\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a big fan of the first Deus Ex\u2026 it was one of the first games to feature \u201cemergent behavior\u201d as part of the design. You had the feeling that all the problems had different solutions, and you could tackle them in a variety of ways, much like pen-and-paper role playing games. Then I watched [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton585\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fshadowcovenant.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F09%2F26%2Fdeus-ex-human-revolution%2F&amp;text=Deus%20Ex%3A%20Human%20Revolution&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal&amp;counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fshadowcovenant.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F09%2F26%2Fdeus-ex-human-revolution%2F\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shadowcovenant.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}