The Machine Needs Some Fine Tuning- A Deus Ex: Human Revolution Analysis

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is not only an attempt at reviving the brand, but trying to make a successful player choice driven game. While it isn't perfect, it's still a well designed game.

The PC is home to a number of classic and amazing games: Star Control 2, X-Com, Thief and so on. Deus Ex came out of nowhere to deliver a player driven gameplay and story model that other designers to this day are still playing catch up with. The sequel however, wasn't the amazing success we all hoped it would be and the franchise was put on the back burner. Eidos: Montreal took the challenge of revitalizing the brand . The big question on everyone's mind is: did they succeed? From my time spent, while it's not a grand slam, it is definitely a home run.

DEHR is a prequel/reboot of the franchise. The story begins at the start of the augmentation craze as mankind finds itself at a turning point. The cure for physical limitations is just a surgical implant away and the argument between remaining natural or modified is on. While heading security at one of the major manufacturers of augments, Adam Jensen is nearly killed in an attack and is forced to become augmented to survive. After recovering, he begins the long process of finding out what happened and uncovering a good old world wide conspiracy.

There are several elements to the gameplay. Like previous games in the series, there are multiple paths through the game. From finding vents, blowing up walls and more, there is never a point in the game where the player only has one option to progress. Further exemplifying choice, is the use of augmentations or augs.

Past the intro, the player will be able to choose how Adam upgrades his abilities. Praxis points, that can be bought, found or earned, can be used to unlock new abilities or enhance ones. The designers limited the amount of points in the world, meaning that the player will have to choose what upgrades to get, and which ones to ignore. The upgrades fit into the various solution paths the player has through the game and because of how open the world is; there isn't one upgrade that is required to beat the game.

The level design is built around giving the player a wide berth. If a door is too advanced for the player to hack, there is probably a vent nearby or a pass-code the player can find. Walking straight through a crowd of enemies, while possible, is usually the last choice for the player. One side effect of this design, is that the levels feel a little unfocused to me, as sometimes the players will find multiple paths through the level without really trying, and other times they'll have to spend awhile going through each room to find that one errant vent that they can crawl through.

My favorite game mechanic would have to be the "conversation battles". At key moments in the game Adam will have an argument with a major character and it will be up to the player to decide how Adam will respond to the person. The player will have to listen to the character and then respond with the right phrase and emotion to convince the character that Adam is right. Succeeding will unlock new information or make things easier for the player.

I really love this, as it reminds me of Alpha Protocols' dialogue system, but HR takes things a step further. Characters will say different things if the player repeats the conversation, requiring the player to go by what the character is saying instead of pre-can responses. I really hope that this mechanic takes off and that other designers throw in non violent mechanics for getting around problems.

When HR is firing on all cylinders, the game is amazing, but when it's not, and the player sees "the man behind the curtain", it really drags the game down. First issue is that while the AI is adequate, I noticed that it was a little finicky when it came to stealth. Sometimes I would do something that got me by undetected, to only be seen when I tried it again. There were odd times when someone would hear me kill someone with a silenced weapon and other times I could kill without any worry. Characters would sometimes become hostile at me for reasons unexplained, which doesn't bode well when you are suddenly thrust into a firefight.

Second is with the gameplay itself. I wish there was a little more variety with the augs available, such as more ways of avoiding detection, something to give the player more choices. Energy usage feels like an arbitrary mechanic. To use certain augs or perform melee attacks, the player uses up energy cells. For some reason, only the first cell the player has will recharge not any others the player unlocks through aug upgrades.

My complaint with the energy model is that it punishes players who went with strategies that use a lot of augs at once. Granted the use of the cloaking aug can be overpowered, but at the rate it drains would keep the player from using it constantly. This reminds me of a design complaint I hear from JRPGs, that players would limit their strategies away from using powerful items as they didn't want to be caught in a situation (that never comes) that they really need them. If you're going to give the player all these different tools to play with, at least give them the opportunity to use them.

My last two complaints are the biggest ones I have with the game. The boss battles are just horrible and completely go against the spirit of the game (with exception to one spoiler fight that I won't mention.) Each boss fight is a "bullet sponge" battle where the only strategy is to put enough lead (or explosions) into them to win. For players who went the non violent stealth route (like me,) they will be in for a world of hurt here. As I struggled with each fight, I had flashbacks to Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines which did the same thing. Bloodlines offered players non violent abilities, and then proceeded to force the player into violent situations with the boss fights.

I wish that the designers would have spent more time coming up with solutions to the bosses, other than just blasting them. This is one area where Epic Mickey excelled in, providing different solutions to the boss battles. In HR, the boss battles just bring the carefully crafted experience down.

Lastly, while the game gives players choices to make, I wish they had more of an effect on the world. One element from Alpha Protocol that I thought was amazing was how everything the player did in the game would factor into the story and how characters view the player. If you play stealthy, people will comment on it, or if you go Rambo all the time, some characters will not like you for it. These touches made the story more personal and gave weight to how people play the game.

In HR however, past the first mission, players will find that their choices don't mean that much in the world. It doesn't matter if you blast everyone with a heavy rifle, or sneak around undetected. Only the player's final choice will determine the ending. This seems like a wasted opportunity, considering how much the designer's want the player to follow their own path through the game. Because of these issues, I don't see myself replaying the game as often compared to Alpha Protocol.

Regardless of my comments here, I enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution and as an attempt to bring the IP back, Eidos: Montreal definitely succeeded and it's good to see a game that goes for this kind of player choice design to succeed so well,compared to games like Alpha Protocol or Bloodlines that were not reviewed positively or had technical issues. Hopefully, this will be the start of more games in the series, or in the same vein that can offer choices and personalization, while avoiding being bogged down by other issues.

Josh Bycer