Tag Archives: I never asked for this

The Android's Casting Magic Missile (RPG), The Android's Deranged Killing Spree (Action)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is Great

“You’re late to the party, Pike!” Yes, I am, and I’ve no real excuse. But if you’re like me and slow when it comes to playing new games and haven’t hit this one yet, then read on.

Very recently I played through the original Deus Ex in its entirety. I went even further than that, though: I played it in full pacifist/stealth mode, avoiding encounters when I could and using darts or my prod when I couldn’t. I’m relatively certain I managed to get through the entire game without killing a soul aside from maybe a couple of bosses. It was fun. And challenging. And long. If you have never played the original Deus Ex, rest assured that it’s an incredibly long game. Worth it, though.

From there the plan was to move on to Invisible War but it decided that it wasn’t going to work on my computer. Undeterred, I decided to jump ahead to Human Revolution.

And damn, I had a blast with it. As soon as I got into it I hardly stopped playing, often going on for six or eight hour stretches. It really did hit a lot of things right on the head correctly. The atmosphere, the story, the questions it raises– oh, and of course all the little love letters to fans of the first game. Seriously, every time a radio started playing the UNATCO theme I’d stop and listen.

I was also fond of the character development of Adam Jensen and how you, as the player, get to influence this. Like Adam, you as the player are learning about using your augmentations as you go along, and like Adam, you get to see both the positive and negative effects that these can have.

Mostly positive, of course.
Mostly positive, of course.

The game also came with some neat mini-games in the way of the hacking mechanic and being able to influence people with your pheromone aug (which isn’t really a mini-game but it reminded me of Oblivion’s speech minigame, so.)

Anyways, this was a highly enjoyable game all around and I think it’s easily one of the best AAA titles to hit gaming anytime in the last handful of years. I highly recommend it for anyone who hasn’t played it yet, regardless of whether or not you’ve played the original Deus Ex– although if you haven’t played that yet, well, get to it!