marfig
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This is the third and final part of this user review and continues from Deus Ex: Human Revolution - A user review (Part II)
The Story
Deus Ex: Human Revolution tells a good insider story about a society coming to grips with genetic and bio-mechanical engineering in a world largely dominated by corporations and heavily subdued by paramilitary organizations and apolitical factions. Governments are considered corrupt at large, including USA's, and only the UN still holds some manner of dwindling credibility. This setting however runs parallel to the story of Adam Jensen who, amidst the eminent social breakdown, works as security manager for Sarif Industries. He's mostly concerned in uncovering the truth behind who attacked the company he works for and why. The debate around genetic engineering is of little concern to his goals.
The most compelling thing in the game story I felt was the fact that for the most part Adam Jensen (and the player by extension) didn't know they were actually on a quest to "save the world". I always found that the most engaging heroes are the mundane ones, not tasked with grandiose goals. And for the largest part of the game this is exactly how we experience Adam Jensen. All sidequests, but also the main quest line, are dominated by helping people in a direct way or going on with our job as Sarif Industries Security Manager. It's not up until very late in the game that the whole world suddenly turns upside down and we find ourselves on the role of savior or destroyer of mankind. In a very serious way, I would have liked it better if the game hadn't introduce this sudden change of tone. Hugh Darrow -- the one responsible for the whole mess -- wasn't even a central figure in the game up until that point, and surprisingly enough he ceases to be one quite soon after. It felt too artificial as Hugh Darrow clearly took the role of a deus ex machina. And even considering the game's name, that's very rarely a good plot device. It would have been great if the game had finished as it started; a good detective story. No saving the world this time. But just caring for our jobs and those we care.
But if indeed this story couldn't have been told in any other way, there were plenty of other elements that could have served the purpose. Definitely not a character which interaction in the game can be summed up as one incoming infolink and one dialog scene. Still, the game story was surprisingly interesting and I found myself sharing most of Jensen's unknowns and desire to find the truth. Worth of praise was how the game setting mingled with the story and how NPCs would contribute to give the player good knowledge of the world they were playing in. The mechanisms were varied; from overhearing conversations on the street to how they reacted to Jensen's augmentations, but also through newspapers, TV news and computer emails. All together, the player is told about this dystopian reality in a progressive and very natural manner. At no moment that I can recall, you are interacting with an NPC and thinking "You wouldn't normally say that. This is you saying it just so that I, the player, get introduced to the game setting". The game assumes that at the start Adam Jensen's knows more than the player. And that's fine, because we are introduced to his world in a more organic and pleasant way, without feeling we are being artificially guided.
There were still some story elements that could have been avoided. I may or may not understand this urge to always tell the past story of the protagonist on every RPG game. But what I find disturbing is the necessity to make it look like a cheap afternoon soap. I don't know if most people realize this, but not knowing who your parents are or finding that your parents are someone else other than who you thought, is the most beat -- and by extension the most boring and excruciatingly asinine -- story element that is always present on every soap opera ever done by anyone in any part of the world. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like my games didn't look so foolish. It weighs heavily on my mind that RPGs have too much in common with these type of TV shows.
Inextricably connected to the game story is its plot. And here, like so many before it, DE:HR ends up becoming a mediocre experience. It's excellent that these are games we are talking about here. It's just that the whole entertainment factor coming to us from jumping buildings, fighting the bad guys and experiencing a world in the first person, masks most plot deficiencies by simply making them secondary to the experience. But were Deus Ex: Human Revolution a book, or a movie -- and were it told the same way -- and we would immediately recognize it as just plain and simply bad storytelling. In a world so rich and inspiring, it can be frustrating if you are after that element in your gaming.
What transpired to me as I kept unraveling the game plot was that this is a great game, but it's not a smart game. So better if I just put that behind me and move on forward trying to have fun. The plot deficiencies become evident very soon, just after you fight Barret and he needlessly, and entirely out of the blue, spills the beans on where you ought to go next. He hates your guts, he's in his last breath and he's about to try one last move at killing you, but tells you exactly which address you need to go next. Or Zhao Yun Ru revealing critical information as she's about to trap you in a room full with Belltower Security. None of that makes sense, regardless of whatever spin one may wish to conjure to give it some. Through careful use of the language and a good dose of dialectics, I can relate an ant with an elephant. But that doesn't mean I should. DE:HR plot fails at several points in the game by simply not being very smart. And that can be annoying at times, because it becomes really evident to the player that it didn't need to be this way. The game shows obvious signs of geniality and ingenuity. So these deficiencies, that can be crucial to some, just end up looking like careless work.
A critical moment in the plot has already been discussed above. When Hugh Darrow steals the show for everyone else, there's very little doubt at that point the game just went nose down on the ocean of plausibility. From there on you are playing some sort of zombie game, with enemies coming for you in a sudden and completely unrelated throwback to the Island of Dr. Ned. Only they aren't zombies but deranged humans with similar arm movements... Which makes them zombies. At that point the game becomes unrecognizable and it will not get any better from then on. Thankfully, soon enough you are fighting precogs, with Tom Cruise nowhere to be seen, while Madonna ties herself to the stage props and gets ready be abused. And then its over. But not without you having to choose from four end-of-the-world buttons (and let me make this clear, they are actual buttons you need to press). Credits then roll, and you'll have at that time the opportunity to finally take a deep breath and... stay confused.
You'll have the opportunity to speak with Hugh Darrow about what he's done. But within all of his half-witted mad scientist ramblings there's no clue whatsoever as to how he was able to enlist a huge corporation and very powerful individuals to his Armageddon cause. Neither you get any satisfaction from having him turn to reason and tell you how to stop the signal broadcast because your best argument ends up being "you are killing millions of innocent victims". Well, duh!
I don't want to sound mean when I say Hugh Darrow antics and the whole end game just look like something out of the final stages of the game development process, when there's just not enough time to make it right. It's the only explanation I can find for this, what's the word I'm looking for, clusterfuck. It's the only explanation I can find, because all things considered Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the best games of the past couple of years and doesn't deserve to be remembered for this mess right at the end.
Bugs and Annoyances
Oh this is going to be a short section, I'm telling you. When you have a modern AAA title being released with only two(?) minor patches happening in the first month, you know you have a work of quality here and, behind that work, excellent professionals. A sure reminder of how it used to be in the gaming industry. DE:HR fulfills its responsibility of being a work of quality worth of the full price tag. And its these type of games, and these type of developers, that we should respect and praise regardless of anything else that we may want to throw at them concerning the actual gaming experience.
There seems to be a serious issue with the game for some users though. Some sort of camera wobbling issue, I reckon. Despite the fact I have the almost exact same specs as some of those reporting this, I'm afraid I haven't experienced anything like that. I'm past halfway on my second playthrough and keep not experiencing it. It also seems it only affects a comparatively small portion of the game user base. So I don't know what to say about that. But it's the one outstanding game bug that has been reported...
There's two others I found. In the first image, the text probably went above the maximum allowed and in consequence got cropped. The next image doesn't really constitute a bug, but an overlook in that hack minigame where the datastore is unreachable. The only one in the game that does this, I believe.
UPDATE: The hacking minigame shown in the image is not a bug. This is intentional. See here why.
As for annoyances just one to report really (boss battles, which also annoy me, have however been beaten to death on the internet).
The annoyance is the fact that the game designers decided that 2027 privacy and security concerns didn't develop at all from the present day. If anything, they got worst and everybody writes passwords on pocket secretaries, including IT managers. You would think we'd be over that by then. But even if not, you would expect that a silicon-based society was at the very least more security aware than it is today. This game device was actually introduce so the game could stay true to its objective of not forcing the player hand when choosing their Adam Jensen's augmentation and still allow them to break into a good deal of computers, since these often contain a wealth of information concerning the world setting. It's one of those cases of being careful what you ask for. By giving playing freedom because we ask for it, we must be aware that it may have its cost. Even if a small one. Still, I'd like to imagine it would have been possible to handle this inconsistency in a better way.
The End
Well, that all folks. Uff!
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game you should definitely buy if you haven't already and have fun with while excusing it for some of its flaws. I personally found this to be an easy task. There's so much goodness in this game, that it went straight to my list of favorite games of all times.
I'd like to congratulate Eidos Montreal and Nixxes Software for their amazing work, and Square Enix for being a cool publisher. Also Michael McCann for the music score that I found excellent (and that one from the credits screen... you rule, McCann!). I would also like to congratulate Soloto for being the most powerful company in Deus Ex, selling about anything that passes for an appliance in 2027. Bet everyone hates you.
Many, many thanks to Robin Williams (our TG Robin Williams). You know why, Rob. A huge and sincere thank you. You rock!
The Story
Deus Ex: Human Revolution tells a good insider story about a society coming to grips with genetic and bio-mechanical engineering in a world largely dominated by corporations and heavily subdued by paramilitary organizations and apolitical factions. Governments are considered corrupt at large, including USA's, and only the UN still holds some manner of dwindling credibility. This setting however runs parallel to the story of Adam Jensen who, amidst the eminent social breakdown, works as security manager for Sarif Industries. He's mostly concerned in uncovering the truth behind who attacked the company he works for and why. The debate around genetic engineering is of little concern to his goals.
The most compelling thing in the game story I felt was the fact that for the most part Adam Jensen (and the player by extension) didn't know they were actually on a quest to "save the world". I always found that the most engaging heroes are the mundane ones, not tasked with grandiose goals. And for the largest part of the game this is exactly how we experience Adam Jensen. All sidequests, but also the main quest line, are dominated by helping people in a direct way or going on with our job as Sarif Industries Security Manager. It's not up until very late in the game that the whole world suddenly turns upside down and we find ourselves on the role of savior or destroyer of mankind. In a very serious way, I would have liked it better if the game hadn't introduce this sudden change of tone. Hugh Darrow -- the one responsible for the whole mess -- wasn't even a central figure in the game up until that point, and surprisingly enough he ceases to be one quite soon after. It felt too artificial as Hugh Darrow clearly took the role of a deus ex machina. And even considering the game's name, that's very rarely a good plot device. It would have been great if the game had finished as it started; a good detective story. No saving the world this time. But just caring for our jobs and those we care.
But if indeed this story couldn't have been told in any other way, there were plenty of other elements that could have served the purpose. Definitely not a character which interaction in the game can be summed up as one incoming infolink and one dialog scene. Still, the game story was surprisingly interesting and I found myself sharing most of Jensen's unknowns and desire to find the truth. Worth of praise was how the game setting mingled with the story and how NPCs would contribute to give the player good knowledge of the world they were playing in. The mechanisms were varied; from overhearing conversations on the street to how they reacted to Jensen's augmentations, but also through newspapers, TV news and computer emails. All together, the player is told about this dystopian reality in a progressive and very natural manner. At no moment that I can recall, you are interacting with an NPC and thinking "You wouldn't normally say that. This is you saying it just so that I, the player, get introduced to the game setting". The game assumes that at the start Adam Jensen's knows more than the player. And that's fine, because we are introduced to his world in a more organic and pleasant way, without feeling we are being artificially guided.
There were still some story elements that could have been avoided. I may or may not understand this urge to always tell the past story of the protagonist on every RPG game. But what I find disturbing is the necessity to make it look like a cheap afternoon soap. I don't know if most people realize this, but not knowing who your parents are or finding that your parents are someone else other than who you thought, is the most beat -- and by extension the most boring and excruciatingly asinine -- story element that is always present on every soap opera ever done by anyone in any part of the world. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like my games didn't look so foolish. It weighs heavily on my mind that RPGs have too much in common with these type of TV shows.
Inextricably connected to the game story is its plot. And here, like so many before it, DE:HR ends up becoming a mediocre experience. It's excellent that these are games we are talking about here. It's just that the whole entertainment factor coming to us from jumping buildings, fighting the bad guys and experiencing a world in the first person, masks most plot deficiencies by simply making them secondary to the experience. But were Deus Ex: Human Revolution a book, or a movie -- and were it told the same way -- and we would immediately recognize it as just plain and simply bad storytelling. In a world so rich and inspiring, it can be frustrating if you are after that element in your gaming.
What transpired to me as I kept unraveling the game plot was that this is a great game, but it's not a smart game. So better if I just put that behind me and move on forward trying to have fun. The plot deficiencies become evident very soon, just after you fight Barret and he needlessly, and entirely out of the blue, spills the beans on where you ought to go next. He hates your guts, he's in his last breath and he's about to try one last move at killing you, but tells you exactly which address you need to go next. Or Zhao Yun Ru revealing critical information as she's about to trap you in a room full with Belltower Security. None of that makes sense, regardless of whatever spin one may wish to conjure to give it some. Through careful use of the language and a good dose of dialectics, I can relate an ant with an elephant. But that doesn't mean I should. DE:HR plot fails at several points in the game by simply not being very smart. And that can be annoying at times, because it becomes really evident to the player that it didn't need to be this way. The game shows obvious signs of geniality and ingenuity. So these deficiencies, that can be crucial to some, just end up looking like careless work.
A critical moment in the plot has already been discussed above. When Hugh Darrow steals the show for everyone else, there's very little doubt at that point the game just went nose down on the ocean of plausibility. From there on you are playing some sort of zombie game, with enemies coming for you in a sudden and completely unrelated throwback to the Island of Dr. Ned. Only they aren't zombies but deranged humans with similar arm movements... Which makes them zombies. At that point the game becomes unrecognizable and it will not get any better from then on. Thankfully, soon enough you are fighting precogs, with Tom Cruise nowhere to be seen, while Madonna ties herself to the stage props and gets ready be abused. And then its over. But not without you having to choose from four end-of-the-world buttons (and let me make this clear, they are actual buttons you need to press). Credits then roll, and you'll have at that time the opportunity to finally take a deep breath and... stay confused.
You'll have the opportunity to speak with Hugh Darrow about what he's done. But within all of his half-witted mad scientist ramblings there's no clue whatsoever as to how he was able to enlist a huge corporation and very powerful individuals to his Armageddon cause. Neither you get any satisfaction from having him turn to reason and tell you how to stop the signal broadcast because your best argument ends up being "you are killing millions of innocent victims". Well, duh!
I don't want to sound mean when I say Hugh Darrow antics and the whole end game just look like something out of the final stages of the game development process, when there's just not enough time to make it right. It's the only explanation I can find for this, what's the word I'm looking for, clusterfuck. It's the only explanation I can find, because all things considered Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the best games of the past couple of years and doesn't deserve to be remembered for this mess right at the end.
Bugs and Annoyances
Oh this is going to be a short section, I'm telling you. When you have a modern AAA title being released with only two(?) minor patches happening in the first month, you know you have a work of quality here and, behind that work, excellent professionals. A sure reminder of how it used to be in the gaming industry. DE:HR fulfills its responsibility of being a work of quality worth of the full price tag. And its these type of games, and these type of developers, that we should respect and praise regardless of anything else that we may want to throw at them concerning the actual gaming experience.
There seems to be a serious issue with the game for some users though. Some sort of camera wobbling issue, I reckon. Despite the fact I have the almost exact same specs as some of those reporting this, I'm afraid I haven't experienced anything like that. I'm past halfway on my second playthrough and keep not experiencing it. It also seems it only affects a comparatively small portion of the game user base. So I don't know what to say about that. But it's the one outstanding game bug that has been reported...
There's two others I found. In the first image, the text probably went above the maximum allowed and in consequence got cropped. The next image doesn't really constitute a bug, but an overlook in that hack minigame where the datastore is unreachable. The only one in the game that does this, I believe.
UPDATE: The hacking minigame shown in the image is not a bug. This is intentional. See here why.
As for annoyances just one to report really (boss battles, which also annoy me, have however been beaten to death on the internet).
The annoyance is the fact that the game designers decided that 2027 privacy and security concerns didn't develop at all from the present day. If anything, they got worst and everybody writes passwords on pocket secretaries, including IT managers. You would think we'd be over that by then. But even if not, you would expect that a silicon-based society was at the very least more security aware than it is today. This game device was actually introduce so the game could stay true to its objective of not forcing the player hand when choosing their Adam Jensen's augmentation and still allow them to break into a good deal of computers, since these often contain a wealth of information concerning the world setting. It's one of those cases of being careful what you ask for. By giving playing freedom because we ask for it, we must be aware that it may have its cost. Even if a small one. Still, I'd like to imagine it would have been possible to handle this inconsistency in a better way.
The End
Well, that all folks. Uff!
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game you should definitely buy if you haven't already and have fun with while excusing it for some of its flaws. I personally found this to be an easy task. There's so much goodness in this game, that it went straight to my list of favorite games of all times.
I'd like to congratulate Eidos Montreal and Nixxes Software for their amazing work, and Square Enix for being a cool publisher. Also Michael McCann for the music score that I found excellent (and that one from the credits screen... you rule, McCann!). I would also like to congratulate Soloto for being the most powerful company in Deus Ex, selling about anything that passes for an appliance in 2027. Bet everyone hates you.
Many, many thanks to Robin Williams (our TG Robin Williams). You know why, Rob. A huge and sincere thank you. You rock!
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