PC
PlayStation 3
XBox 360
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Product Features

Genre
Action and Shooter
Publisher
Square Enix
Release Date
August 26, 2011
Available Platforms
PC, PlayStation 3, XBox 360

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Deus Ex Human Revolution Limited Edition

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Including Explosive Mission Pack The Explosive Mission Pack features an entirely new mission with a special cameo appearance from one of the original DEUS EX characters, plus the Automatic Unlocking Device, the M-28 Utility Remote-Detonated Explosive Device (UR-DED) and the Linebacker G-87 multiple shot grenade launcher. You play Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT specialist who's been handpicked to oversee the defensive needs of one of America's most experimental biotechnology firms. Your job is to safeguard company secrets, but when a black ops team breaks in and kills the very scientists you were hired to protect, everything you thought you knew about your job changes Badly wounded during the attack, you have no choice but to become mechanically augmented and you soon find...

  • Andrew Highton October 28, 2011 PS3
    ****

    Unbridled freedom to complete story and side-missions dispersed between exciting and useful augmentations amongst other factors make this game a must-own for 2011 and here is why...

    Story
    You are Adam Jensen, the chief officer of security at Sarif Industries and former S.W.A.T member. Sarif Industries has hit the headlines for being able to manipulate the human body and manually reshape your own evolution through augmentations (robotic enhancements). Your procedures and security measures have been implemented to ensure the well-being of the company and everything should be just dandy. But as well all know that's not going to be the case now is it. During a conversation with your boss, David Sarif, an alarm sounds and you're whisked away to the laboratory area where everything is not what it should be. Explosions, dead scientists, a multitude of debris, fire, more dead bodies and what appear to be terrorists. After an encounter with a heavily augmented terrorist, Jensen is quite literally left for dead. But thanks to your wonderful boss David Sarif, you're essentially rebuilt using some of the most expensive and state-of-the-art augmentations money can buy. After a few operations you're capable of being upgraded into a cross between the Terminator and Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, depending on your style. The story throughout is never over-complicated, there's some nice twists during the story too to make things fresh and quite thrilling. But the best thing of all is that YOU write your own story! Now I'm not saying you need to whack out the lined paper and pen that Shawshank Redemption quality script, I mean that the decisions you make, the words you utter to other people and your actions will all have consequences, reap rewards and possibly incite trouble etc. The ramifications of what you do can deliver you an unexpected upgrade or make it that bit trickier to circumnavigate the game.

    Gameplay
    The marketed selling point of Deus Ex is the freedom of opportunity to dictate the game how you want to play it. I have completed this game 3 times and I can 100% categorically declare that I could've completed the some of the missions in an entirely different way to the previous 3 times I'd done it. By taking the main doors you're basically subjected to a fire fight, maybe you fancy yourself to be the expert hacking technician, you can hack your way in through different locked doors and hack camera's to be turned off allowing seamless entry in and avoiding confrontation. If you fancy yourself to be your dream action hero then by all means fill your inventory with upgraded weapons, grenades and health ready to mow down your enemies in an epic dogfight of explosive proportions! Or, like I chose to do, you can become the silence of the night, the shadowed assassin, the cloaked...aw I could do this all day. Basically you can never set off an alarm and never be seen whilst taking down your opposition. One of my playthroughs had me complete the game WITHOUT killing anyone as I tranquilized, stunned and knocked out enemies till its conclusion which is so satisfying. What isn't satisfying however, is the famed bosses which, let's be fair to them, are utterly shambolic. The game prides itself on letting you choose how wanna play but when it comes to the stupidly ridiculous bosses, it decides you MUST kill the boss and MUST fight them in a small enclosed room with no other choice. It not only disrupts the mentality of the game, but the fights are so pointless that you wonder what possessed them to be inserted unwelcomingly into the game in the first place. The people you have to kill have about a minute or so of back-story and don't really feel like hardcore antagonists. Even the end boss was so unusual that I wondered if it was even supposed to be a boss as I believe it was intended to be the end of game boss but I triumphed by pressing a couple of buttons and shooting someone a few times without so much as being breathed on. Nevertheless, you're supplied with a healthy choice of weaponry that can be upgraded. Although another gripe is that playing the game as a freelance killing machine isn't always advisable due to the severe lack of ammo at times. If you're the stealthy, non-lethal forgiving kind of person; then ammo will just stockpile. The Bioshock equivalent to hacking is actually a surprising delight to do as, depending on the level required to hack, you have to think quickly, strategise as you take over nodes and hack yourself some treats like XP or nukes to destroy the nodes allowing easier decryption.

    Presentation
    The game is pretty enough and more than capable of holding its own against leading the games boasting superlative graphics. The facial animations are good and mostly convincing, although sometimes I'm not convinced by the lip-synching and it just doesn't seem quite as good as Uncharted or L.A Noire. The game uses several different and unusual effects which I find creative and interesting to the eye. For example, I walked down a corridor and as soon as you cross that invisible line; the normal colours change to a completely different colour. This is very probably to define the next section of the game which uses the same colours of the room that the corridor switched to. Occasionally you get the uneven textures as well but Deus Ex is a fine game to admire and doesn't really harm itself. The game has a feel that's both spy and futuristic to keep you on edge somewhat whereas some of the dialogue and facial capture doesn't really. I never found Adam Jensen's voice to be fitting throughout the game and I never knew why and I still can't put my perplexed finger on it now. For a man who's a supercharged, fully-armed and equipped weapon of menace (badass coat and all) his voice doesn't have the instrumental effect it really should have. It kind of makes him seem quite soft and more of a gentle sub-character instead of the typical heroic protagonist.

    Length
    Upon first glance of this game it is quite easy to mistake this for a typical first-person shooter, but it anything but. In my eyes this game falls under the Action Role-Playing genre as it's got quite a few side missions that can easily take a while to do each one. You have the customary collectables to find in the form of electronic books providing additional detail about characters and locations in the game. Like I've said, each mission can be completed in a multitude of ways from a lethal to non-lethal approach, through vents, all guns blazing or a mixture. This means you can easily have a completely different adventure through each playthrough. I myself played through it 3 times and on each journey I always encountered new paths or new things to do and explore.

    Conclusion
    If you've never played one of the two Deus Ex games then it just doesn't matter. However if you choose to never play Deus Ex: Human Revolution then that is simply a crime as this is one of the finest games I've ever had the distinction of playing. The game is a joy to play in whatever way you to choose to play (and you will find your own particular way), the story is compelling trinket of delight which engulfs you in drama but occasionally spits you out with almost disgracefully bland and poor boss battles with no back story or substance. The casual and catchy grooves of the soundtrack blend seamlessly between highly enjoyable gameplay and almost tip-top graphics; with facial animations not quite hitting their peak. Deus Ex is undoubtedly one of the games of 2011 and has great replay value, so either be there or be augmented!