Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Fun or Shun?

Welcome to a new GamerSushi feature, gents. In Fun or Shun, we set our sights on an upcoming release that we are on the fence about, and make final declarations of our allegiance (or lack thereof) to the title. In the first edition of this endeavor, we thought we’d tackle Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the long anticipated follow-up to a legendary series.

Each of us have fallen off the fence about this title in recent weeks. See where we’ve landed below.

Eddy’s Take:

deus ex human revoltion fun or shun

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of those games that I have a hard time wrapping my head around. The initial trailer for it last year really captured my imagination, but more so for its story and its grandeur than its prospect of a game that I’d actually want to play.

I’ve never played any of the Deus Ex games, but I’ve heard marvelous things, and from looking around – they screenshot damn well, even years after the fact. This photogenic quality is something the new game seems to share – i love the game’s color, its backdrop world and it manages to evoke that cyberpunk feel that most games only dream to brush up against. However, something tells me that the fun and the appeal could stop there.

Do I really have much to base this on? Not entirely. I’ve only seen a handful of gameplay videos, and in motion the game seemed to lose some of its edge, some of that intangible appealing quality that first endeared me to it when I saw the original screen grabs and trailers. I don’t know if it’s that I don’t have that same nostalgic connection that everybody else does, or if I’m simply being too cynical from having seen one too many shooters. The stealth portions look hit or miss, and the shooting pales in comparison to something like the recent demonstrations of Bioshock: Infinite, a game packed to the gills with out-of-this-world powers and finger-twitching gunplay.

The other side to this coin is that Square-Enix happens to be the publisher here. I don’t mean to be a troll, and I know that Square is not exactly developing it, but just that name these days doesn’t give me much hope for the product that is attached to it. On top of that, I wonder if a prequel is really something that will satiate fans and bring in new ones the way they hope. Prequels tend to be a fairly droll affair, with Halo: Reach being the exception.

So, while it might not win me any new friends here in the Sushi-land, I’m going to have to give this game a big fat “Shun”… for now. I’m willing to be surprised.

Verdict: Shun

Mitch’s Take:

deus ex human revoltion fun or shun

While we have a few differing opinions on this game, I do understand where you’re coming from. Human Revolution has had a smattering of excellent trailers and some good looking screenshots to boot. On the other hand, the gameplay stuff we’ve seen has been pretty formulaic, mainly focusing on choosing one of a few ways to interact with a given mission (shooting, stealth or some other means) instead of how you can blend them together.

That said I’ve never played a Deus Ex game before, so I can’t really judge how this game is going to play out just through trailers. I know that this isn’t the developer of the original game (although it was published by Eidos), but any developer worth their salt would try their damndest to deliver a tried and true Deus Ex experience. While it probably won’t be on the mythical level that the first game is, I’m sure it will be worth a try.

We have had some evidence that the developers are listening to fan feedback and making sure that Human Revolutions at least attempts to live up to its colossal expectations. Back when the first gameplay walkthrough was released, the game highlighted objects you could interact with in a very obvious “press this button” shade of gold. People were a little ticked off by that, saying that the game was being built for “console tards”. While this overreaction is typical of the glorious PC master race and is probably more hyperbole than anything else, Eidos Montreal still took this into account and made it so that the objective highlighting could be turned off if the player wished. That really impressed me; there are not a lot of studios out there that would listen to fan feedback during development.

Deus Ex also seems to be dealing with a lot of mature themes and is functioning like any good sci-fi property: examining the madness of current society through a fictional lens. A recently released live-action trailer chronicled the rise of human augmentation and the drugs necessary to keep human bodies from rejecting the parts and how the big pharmaceutical companies gouged people to the point where they were living on the street. It was all very chilling and hit a little too close to home for me. Whether or not the actual game will build on these themes instead of letting them languish remains to be seen, but it does give me hope.

As a final point, and to sort of touch on something you brought up, Eddy, I don’t see how Square having an involvement in this should color your perceptions. I’ll agree that Square is on a steady decline in quality, but they were involved in publishing Just Cause 2 and that turned out awesome. Just because Square is publishing a game doesn’t mean they also get to dictate everything that goes into it. I mean, I haven’t seen a single androgynous character with too many belts yet, have you?

As I mentioned above, I’m coming into this series very much in the dark so I don’t have the mindset that most Deus Ex faithful might have. While I do have some concerns about the gameplay, I haven’t been keeping as up to date of the press releases of this game and things might have changed since I last saw anything. Part of my big personal endeavor this year is to not over-indulge on official media, so I’m going into Deus Ex blind. I think that this game is going to be “Fun”.

Verdict: Fun

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And there you have it, folks. One Fun and one Shun. Where do you guys fall when it comes to your anticipation of Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Do you think it’s going to be worth grabbing or would you rather skip it? Go!

Written by

I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

10 thoughts on “Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Fun or Shun?”

  1. I loved the first one (which I played on both PC and PS2) and I really can’t wait for this. The story is very interesting, the art is eye-grabbing and, according to 1Up who I feel are covering this game very well, the gameplay and controls are solid. However I DO fear how stealth mechanics will play out. Vents are not the ONLY option out there y’know!
    Verdict: Fun

  2. Played the first game and I loved it, but am still on the fence about this one. Reviews will tell, but it’s not on my list of must buy games, not with all the other blockbusters out there.

  3. I too am on the fence about this one. I bought the original Deus Ex during the recent Steam sale for just $2.50, couldn’t resist after all the amazing things I’ve heard about the game. But unfortunately, like so many other games I buy, it’s currently sitting in my games list unplayed. Whether or not I buy Human Revolution will depend on how I feel about the original, as well as what sort of reviews it gets. I haven’t seen any of the games trailers or gameplay videos, so for that reason right now, if I had to pick one I’d have to say “Shun” for now, but I’m definitely willing to be convinced otherwise.

  4. Wait! Neither of you played at least Deus Ex? Since I’m playing the first game and loving it, I am very hyped about Human Revolution. It seems very true to the original game, in most respects.

  5. I kept myself from watching most of the Deus Ex 3 trailers and whatnot, although I did read some articles that talked about key features in the game. The ability to toggle the flashing indicators is intriguing, and I’m probably going to turn them off, just so I can explore more.

    I wasn’t a Deus Ex fan when I first heard about DX3, and I had barely even heard about it, but about a month ago, during that Steam Summer Sale, I got the original Deus Ex for just $2.50, and I’ve been loving the game. It’s seriously revolutionized a lot of my ideas about Action RPGs. I became a fan within a few hours of DX1, so I’m really hoping that DX3 delivers.

    DX1 balanced all facets of gameplay well, from stealth to guns blazing, hacking to exploration. I think that it’s a deceptively simple formula for DX3 to follow: Make it so that you need to use stealth (in DX1, you NEED to use stealth, though it’s nothing as advanced as Metal Gear or Thief; just simply avoiding enemies and going between suitable shadow or cover) but that you can win in combat when you have the advantage. Also, give the player multiple entries into the mission area, and multiple routes to conquer an objective. It all comes down to how powerful the player is against enemies, and how many routes with different methods of infiltration they can exploit. I’m confident that the folks behind DX3 understand this principle.

    I’m more optimistic than you guys I suppose, but having played DX1, I understand that combining Action and RPG and Decisions is simpler than it sounds. I mean, DX1 didn’t have special spells, only had generic guns, had a very simple stealth mechanic, and locking and hacking was straightforward, but each encounter was exhilarating because the player used each facet of gameplay as second-nature, and each mission had multiple routes, most of which required exploration, and I love exploration.

    I’m going with a confident “Fun”.

  6. I’ve been pretty excited about this game since the first trailer, and that doesn’t happen to me much, that trailer just hooked me in.

    Every now and then, I’ll look around the internet a little for some more news, and the gameplay trailers that were released in the last month look pretty good in my opinion.

    I bought the original Deus Ex during the Steam summer sale, and so far I’m quite enjoying it. The shooting mechanics haven’t aged very well, and it does take a little while for the game to speed up from it’s very slow start. Overall, I do really like the game, and that makes me look forward to this game even more.

    Definitely going for “Fun”

  7. First, I’ve made my love for Deus Ex very clear on this website. Even though the 2nd game was completely garbage in comparison to it’s older brother. I replayed DX1 just a few months ago in preparation of DX3, which I have pre-ordered through steam.

    Secondly, The first game had the same “glowing” aspect on every useable object in the game. When you’d approach a box for example, A white box that pulsated and read “BOX” was there, so I don’t understand why any real DX fan would complain about that.

    On Mitch:

    “As a final point, and to sort of touch on something you brought up, Eddy, I don’t see how Square having an involvement in this should color your perceptions…
    …I mean, I haven’t seen a single androgynous character with too many belts yet, have you?”

    What I noticed in the trailers is what looks to be the antagonist, who appears to be MGS2’s Big Boss. Obviously, a VERY JRPG look. Sure, the first game had some boss fights, but they were always against other humans with augs, not some 8 foot unbelievably strong guy in a bomb suit.

    Finally, to defend the trailers which demonstrate the possible approaches rather than a blend: I think this was just to show the fans of DX1 that there are STILL OPTIONS. Go grab the demo of DX1, and you can play it many times, either stealthily, aggressive, or a blend, and they’ll each render different dialogue options and even different rewards. I could record multiple demos of me playing through it to show you each one, but showing them all blended together wouldn’t do the awesomeness justice.

    I really believe in these guys, and I can’t wait to have my pants blown off. If this game is a failure, I will eat my keyboard.

  8. 1. You guys NEED to do another podcast episode. Love it. We NEED a new episode.

    2. Stop what you are doing. Turn off all distractions. Play the original Deus Ex. Sh*t Bricks.

    3. Thank you for mentioning Deus Ex 3, I thought people had forgotten it all together and was starting to worry.

    4. I apprecaite both of you coming into this without the taint of indoctrination. It gives a less biased opinion then my own, which is that it will be awesome. This is a game I seriously hope will be great. I have already pre-ordered it.

    I think Eddy is correct about the story, setting, and visuals being stellar but the game-play possibly being less than stellar. Part of the magic of the first is that it was revolutionary in terms of story, visitable locations, and game-play which create some rather large shoes to fill. I don’t know that it can.

    That being said, I agree more with Mitch. Based on having watched a lot of the footage released of DEHR, it appears as if it’s going to build on the original game-play mechanics of Deus Ex which to this day are great. I can pick up Deus Ex and play it right now and still love the hell out of it, meaning that even if they just copy the original in terms of game-play but have a new story and graphics, it will still kick ass. This gives me hope. Long story short, I believe this game could fall short, but I hope with every fiber of my being and I believe with every fiber of my being, that it will not.

    Verdict: FUN!

  9. All i have to say is BOOM! http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/29/deus-ex-human-revolution-review-scores-94-and-an-editors-choice-award-in-pc-gamer/

    This is great news for me because i trust PC Gamer. Not as much as i did before because of the Crysis 2 and DA2 score but even those games were still “good” and they at least are able to get what is good and not so good about the game in the actual reviews.

    I pre-ordered this on Monday and i have to go with FUN!

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