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PostPosted: 02 Sep 2011 00:39 
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Joined: 25 Mar 2010 20:32
Posts: 1247
Location: Austin, TX.
James Bond, Ethan Hunt, Solid Snake, and Sam Fisher. What do these names have in common? They are all spies that excel at smooth-talking, sneaking, and kicking ass. Well, we can now add Adam Jensen to the list of super spies. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an extremely well-crafted game that blends awesome gameplay with an extremely well-written plot.

Story: You play as security specialist Adam Jensen who is in charge of overseeing all the security at Serif Industries; a leading corporation that specializes in human augmentation research. Adam is called in to protect scientist Megan Reed, who has discovered a major breakthrough in augmentation that could revolutionize the field. The shit hits the fan when Sarif is compromised and attacked by a team of rogue spec op agents and leaves Jensen for dead until he is brought back to life via mechanical augmentation to the majority of his body. He then sets out to seek the truth on who the agents were and what their agenda was. The plot was so intriguing that I had to play multiple times to understand the meaning behind it (and there is a hidden message within the story.) Not once did I ever become bored with what was going in the game in terms of the story. It'll grab and hold onto your attention until the very end and I was just amazed with how great it was all coming together.

Gameplay: Being that this is the first Deus Ex game I've played, I was very surprised at how well the RPG aspects of the game blended well with the FPS feel. You do gain experience points for certain actions and once you accumulate a certain amount, you are awarded a so-called "Praxis Point" to unlock special augmentations that will help you further your goals. Most of the augmentations are useful and then there are those that seemed very useless. But what seemed useless to me could, in actuality, be useful to the way you play; which leads me to my next point. This game is made to where achieving your goal MAY seem impossible at first but if you look around hard enough, you'll find alternatives. I really loved this because you have, at your disposal, multiple ways to accomplish your mission. If you're the type to go gung-ho and blast everyone to oblivion, then go all out and kill anything and everything (enemies that is and not civies.) If you love to sneak your way past your enemies then you have that path at your disposal, and finally, if you're the type to adapt to your surroundings then you can mix it up using guns AND stealth while also using crates and metal boxes to help hide you while you move around. This game truly encourages the player to look for multiple paths and if you discover these hidden paths, you're awarded with experience points.

The cover system felt very familiar to Rainbow Six Vegas 2's cover system. If you are hugging against a wall, you can hold your right mouse button to put your back against to it and peek around corners, take shots around corners, and take cover from enemy fire. I really love games that utilize these kinds of cover systems because it means that I don't have to strafe around and dodge incoming fire. The player should NOT abuse the cover system because the A.I. will start chucking grenades of all kinds at you if you stay behind cover for too long.

And for my final note on the gameplay, you have the ability to do take-down maneuvers. These maneuvers are very similar to the way you take down people in Splinter Cell. All you do is get up close to an enemy, press or hold Q and it'll perform either a knockout (tapping Q) or a fatal take-down (holding Q). Knocking them out is a more subtle way of taking them down without being noticed by the other wandering sentries.

System requirements:

The nice thing about Human Revolution is that it has support for DirectX 11 and the differences between it and DirectX 9 were pretty noticeable. In DX11, the surroundings had more color and looked brighter, characters had more detail, and the environment looked more realistic. The only downside in using DX11 settings is that it requires more power (DUH!) and a DX11-enabled card. Here are the specific details for the requirements:

Minimum requirements:

- Operating system: Windows XP, Vista, or 7
- Processor: 2.0ghz dual-core CPU
- Memory: 1gb of memory (XP) and 2gb of memory (Vista & 7)
- Storage: 8.5gb
- Graphics: Nvidia 8000-series or ATi HD Radeon 2000-series

Recommended requirements:

- Operating system: Same as above
- Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 or Intel Core 2 Quad CPUs or better quad-core
- Memory: 2gb of memory AT LEAST
- AMD HD Radeon 5850 or greater/Nvidia equivalent (GTX 470)
- Storage: same as above

Conclusion: To conclude this review, Human Revolution is a fantastic game and I highly recommend it to people that love taking multiple approaches to accomplish a task, love spy games (Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, Splinter Cell), and are wanting a game with a fantastic story. There are things wrong with the game and the biggest one that I feel needs to be taken care of is the jumpy framerate. There will be times that the game hiccups for unknown reasons and that really needs to be addressed. There is a small nitpick that people over the net have been complaining about (inclusion of boss fights.) This is a love it or hate it situation because I really didn't mind having to fight bosses (kind of used to it with playing too many RPGs back in the day.) Some of the voice acting could be better and needs serious re-working. There were some of characters that just didn't express the emotion needed during some scenes and sounded very dull. Finally, the point and clicking system in the game needs a bit more work. What I mean is that there were times when I'd point and then click to select something and it just wouldn't be selected (probably either the game or my mouse.) All in all, a fantastic game with a fantastic gameplay style and fantastic story.

Pros:

- Very intriguing plot with an extremely fun gameplay system.
- Multiple paths to take to accomplish your goals
- Social battles are very interesting and can change certain points in the game
- A great amount of weapons with good customization options
- Very nice cover system (truly love this cover system!)
- Various ways to engage the enemy (either sneak by them all or go Rambo-style)
- Take-downs are freaking awesome!

Cons:

- Very jumpy framerates
- Clicking to select stuff isn't responsive as I would like it to be
- Voice acting could use some work
- Some clipping issues

Overall score: 9/10

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PostPosted: 02 Sep 2011 09:29 
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Joined: 25 Mar 2010 19:07
Posts: 8392
Nice review. I am very picky with video games, and this actually sounds like a game I would enjoy.


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PostPosted: 04 Sep 2011 11:11 
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Joined: 25 Mar 2010 19:21
Posts: 5029
yeah I am gonna download it and see what I think, then I might have to download the other ones. This actually has me excited to play a spy when normally that is against my style of play.


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PostPosted: 29 Sep 2011 04:08 
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Joined: 29 Mar 2010 17:20
Posts: 991
Location: Los Angeles, CA
i knew this game would do as good
and im very happy you did a GREAT review like always
been awhile :)
but keep at it


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