Just something to note: this review is a lot heavier on text than images, so if you don't like that, leave.
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Two days ago, Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out in Australia. I haven't actually played that much of the original, so buying the Augmented edition seemed a little weird for me. Still, I figured that it couldn't be all bad, so why not? Five hours of gameplay later, I feel that all the extra expense for the special edition was wholly justified.
And I haven't even used any of my AE/preorder bonuses.
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I don't usually judge a game by its graphics, because I don't know what to look for in terms of graphical horsepower vs. framerate. I didn't even look at the default graphics settings on my computer. Similarly, sound quality and the way it sounds are non-topics in my reviews. What I can say, though, is that the game looks pretty good and the OST is good enough to come on a disc. I'll leave it there. I also won't touch the story, since this is just a 'first impressions' and the professional reviewers all touch on the same things about it anyway.
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As a first-person shooter with cover-based and stealth elements, Human Revolution is pretty good. I don't know a lot about cover-based shooting, with my only previous experience with it being two and a half hours of Hydrophobia, and while it's not as deep as that, the cover system still works pretty well. And if you don't like being in cover, well, you'd better get used to it, since running and gunning works about as well as it did in the first game, albeit for different reasons.
As for the standard shooting, it's the sort of thing Yahtzee would probably hate: regenerating health (that can be temporarily extended with items and is still visible on a health meter anyway), iron-sight aiming (which could well have just been left out) and the aforementioned cover system. And the stealth? It's pretty difficult to get through undetected, even with a 'Soliton' radar (with a few upgrades), and bullets are scarce so use 'em wisely.
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Now for the RPG part. There's quite a lot of exploration and ways into buildings, which all give you different amounts of experience. Every 5000 points you earn, you'll be given an upgrade item for one of your augmentations, although some take two such items to unlock. In a way, it's more like a 'unified' level-up system, and it's a lot easier to get your head around than the system from the original Deus Ex. Dialogue trees also seem more like a 'traditional' WRPG, but that's not what strikes me about it.
One thing I've already noticed: my actions actually do have 'proper' consequences. About the first thing I noticed was that a newspaper commented on how a whole lot of hostages were rescued from a manufacturing plant I'd shot up earlier. It also said that the leader, who I let go, was still on the loose. A while later, for a major mission, he contacted me and gave me some passcodes for the base I was about to break into. That was the point where I thought the game went from 'good' to 'awesome'. so here's my final recommendation so far:
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If you don't like elements from modern FPS games, get them over with as fast as possible, because the rest is worth it. If you're bad at stealth games, then shooting can work if you do it right; just don't try to be Rambo and Robocop's unwed child. If you don't really get WRPGs, this is a pretty good 'entrance' RPG. Hell, I don't get WRPGs and this, I feel, is getting me ready for Skyrim. (Nothing against DXHR!) And if you don't like games where some elements don't involve just killing... I pity you. I really do.
~~~~~~
Two days ago, Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out in Australia. I haven't actually played that much of the original, so buying the Augmented edition seemed a little weird for me. Still, I figured that it couldn't be all bad, so why not? Five hours of gameplay later, I feel that all the extra expense for the special edition was wholly justified.
And I haven't even used any of my AE/preorder bonuses.
~~~~~~
I don't usually judge a game by its graphics, because I don't know what to look for in terms of graphical horsepower vs. framerate. I didn't even look at the default graphics settings on my computer. Similarly, sound quality and the way it sounds are non-topics in my reviews. What I can say, though, is that the game looks pretty good and the OST is good enough to come on a disc. I'll leave it there. I also won't touch the story, since this is just a 'first impressions' and the professional reviewers all touch on the same things about it anyway.
~~~~~~
As a first-person shooter with cover-based and stealth elements, Human Revolution is pretty good. I don't know a lot about cover-based shooting, with my only previous experience with it being two and a half hours of Hydrophobia, and while it's not as deep as that, the cover system still works pretty well. And if you don't like being in cover, well, you'd better get used to it, since running and gunning works about as well as it did in the first game, albeit for different reasons.
As for the standard shooting, it's the sort of thing Yahtzee would probably hate: regenerating health (that can be temporarily extended with items and is still visible on a health meter anyway), iron-sight aiming (which could well have just been left out) and the aforementioned cover system. And the stealth? It's pretty difficult to get through undetected, even with a 'Soliton' radar (with a few upgrades), and bullets are scarce so use 'em wisely.
~~~~~~
Now for the RPG part. There's quite a lot of exploration and ways into buildings, which all give you different amounts of experience. Every 5000 points you earn, you'll be given an upgrade item for one of your augmentations, although some take two such items to unlock. In a way, it's more like a 'unified' level-up system, and it's a lot easier to get your head around than the system from the original Deus Ex. Dialogue trees also seem more like a 'traditional' WRPG, but that's not what strikes me about it.
One thing I've already noticed: my actions actually do have 'proper' consequences. About the first thing I noticed was that a newspaper commented on how a whole lot of hostages were rescued from a manufacturing plant I'd shot up earlier. It also said that the leader, who I let go, was still on the loose. A while later, for a major mission, he contacted me and gave me some passcodes for the base I was about to break into. That was the point where I thought the game went from 'good' to 'awesome'. so here's my final recommendation so far:
~~~
If you don't like elements from modern FPS games, get them over with as fast as possible, because the rest is worth it. If you're bad at stealth games, then shooting can work if you do it right; just don't try to be Rambo and Robocop's unwed child. If you don't really get WRPGs, this is a pretty good 'entrance' RPG. Hell, I don't get WRPGs and this, I feel, is getting me ready for Skyrim. (Nothing against DXHR!) And if you don't like games where some elements don't involve just killing... I pity you. I really do.