Follow Genre: Action, RPG
Modes: Single Player
Released: 23 Aug., 2011
Audio: 5.1 Surround
Publisher: SquareEnix

OnLive: Deus Ex Human Revolution Review

December 19, 2011 - Oscar Langford

OLF Score

8.8

Good: Various paths through missions, many character and weapon upgrades, and muliple endings.

Bad: Unoriginal story, and frustrating, combat-heavy boss fights.

User Score

9.2

(20 votes)

Click to vote

Deus Ex: Human Revolution carries on the popular franchise, with its blend of RPG, stealth, and FPS action. The best aspect of these games is the real feeling of choice throughout and not just the standard light side/dark side choices – “Should I save this guy or kill him?” – but a large number of ways to complete each and every mission.

Feel like sneaking around and hacking into doors and computers? That’s fine. Rather go in armed to the teeth with guns blazing? That’s okay, too. You can even just sweet-talk the guard and stroll right up to the front gate. A large selection of bionic and weapon upgrades ensure you can customize your character to fit whichever of these styles you choose.

While Deus Ex: Human Revolution plays out in the first person perspective, it’s really more on an RPG, with its involved story, character upgrades, and 20+ hours of gameplay, along with side missions and extras. Many will take the traditional shooter route, collecting familiar weapons such as machine guns, sniper rifles, and shotguns. However, even those who make this choice will find a great deal more exploration than other titles in the genre, as the large stages have many paths to reach the goal. Others will choose the route of stealth, searching for hidden passageways to bypass combat and watching their radar closely to examine enemy patterns and movement.

Will you emulate Arnold Schwarzenegger or Solid Snake? The choice is yours…. Unfortunately, I simply can’t talk about the gameplay without mentioning one aspect that many have found to be strange – the boss fights. Players who take the stealth route may be puzzled by the inclusion of these very action-heavy sections that offer none of the choices found throughout the rest of the game. Thankfully, these parts are few and far between, but still mar the experience a little.

In the original Deus Ex, augmentation was a big part of life. People happily traded organic body parts with cybernetic ones, giving themselves super-human abilities in the process. Human Revolution takes place 25 years beforehand, when the concept of replacing limbs and organs was new and strange. You play the role of Adam Jenson, a security officer who unwillingly becomes half-man, half-machine after a terrorist organization attacks a conference he’s guarding, killing his girlfriend and putting a bullet in his head.

Now, after six months of recovery, he must begin tracking down this organization in a plot that takes him to various locations around the world. Unfortunately, despite some nice twists and turns throughout, I never felt the story grab me the way other RPGs have done. Many of the aspects are clichéd and overused, and nothing really stood out, bar a couple of parts from time to time.

However, the gameplay was enough of a draw to keep me adventuring on. It’s kind of a shame, as this game could have become an all-time classic if the plot was a little more interesting, especially as the Square-Enix logo at the beginning (publisher, not developer) tends to fill me with high hopes.

Deus Ex Human Revolution can be played with either mouse and keyboard combination, or the OnLive GamePad. Many will argue that one is clearly superior to the other for first-person games, but whichever you feel comfortable with should work fine. Nothing has been lost in the graphics department (which admittedly aren’t fantastic to begin with), but the frame rate has certainly taken a little dip in the transition to OnLive. For the most part, this is okay, but in fast-paced sections and boss fights you may find yourself wishing for just a bit more smoothness.

Latency is pretty minimal, but still feels a tad higher than other first-person titles such as Bioshock. OnLive also offers the Tactical Enhancement and Explosive Mission add-on packs, which bring with them extra weapons, money, equipment and a bonus mission, although you may find that the presence of increased firepower makes things a little too easy. The recently released stand alone DLC “The Missing Link” is also available and we’ll be covering that in a future review. Overall, a good port – whenever I died it was always through my own stupidity, rather than a fault of the system I was playing on.

For those who want good value for money, this is certainly a recommended title. With so many ways to progress through the game, as well as varied character and weapon upgrades, there is no shortage of things to do. I could imagine many people finishing the game more than once, just to try out different tactics along the way. There are also multiple endings, adding even more incentive to keep going after the end credits roll. Despite a decade having passed since the first Deus Ex hit shelves, games that seamlessly blend multiple genres are still fairly rare, and this is a fantastic example of what studios can create when trying something a little different from the norm.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an excellent title, and should provide hours of fun for a wide variety of gamers. Despite some out of place boss fights, it has interesting, varied gameplay and a ton of upgrades, allowing you to customize your character and weapons to the style of your choice. The story may not be the most original, but there is enough content to keep you coming back for more. OnLive has done a great job bringing the title to their service, and I hope it’s indicative of the quality of games we shall be seeing in the future.

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