If I was a cyborg, I’d probably want to kill guys, pick things up that I couldn’t before, and beat down evildoers with my ultra sonic machine gun arms. But if I was smart about it, I’d consider the alternatives: A) Use my newfound cunning wittiness to outsmart those who hinder my progress. B) Use my x-ray vision and cloaking capabilities to sneak around corners. C) Use my cybernetic hacking implants to bend technology to do my personal bidding.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution lets me do all of the above, provided that I allocate the proper cybernetic augmentations when needed. In our E3 demonstration today, lead writer and narrative designer Mary DeMarle emphasized that Deus Ex allows players to tackle situations by utilizing one or more “pillars” of gameplay: combat, stealth, social, and hacking. Clearly, as in the original Deus Ex, choice is the buzzword.
The demonstration picked up somewhere around the halfway point of the game and showed off a little bit of each of the major cruxes. Stealth, x-ray vision, and the aptly named punch a hole in the wall were shown off, but of particular interest was the multi-takedown ability. This ability granted the player an opportunity to take out two enemies, body slamming one into the other. Of course, there’s a large list of augmentations to allocate and utilize, but player choice is of course of the major selling point of Deus Ex.
Often, there seemed to be four or five different ways to clear a checkpoint or sneak into a restricted area. The last and worst options always seemed to be combat, be it via sniper rifle, a futuristic pistol variant, or an area of effect skill that renders the hero as an immortal claymore mine. One always has the option to roll into an area, guns ‘o blazin’. It’ll be interesting to see how the game plays out if the player fashions Adam Jensen into a pure Robocop-ish tank that lacks basic computer and social skills.
The demo took place inside a city underneath Shanghai called Pangu. It looked and felt like an interesting place rich with backstory and lore, but it came together like a collection of rooms, hallways, and ladders. Navigation was simple enough, but peaking around corners and cover was initially rather awkward-feeling. I’ve got a sense that the scheme will feel a bit more intuitive over time, but the manner in which the camera switched from first to third person perspective during cover sequences or melee takedowns left an air of disjointedness about the room.
There are certainly many ways to play, but the impact of choice and consequence isn’t something that can be relayed in a short demonstration. I was more curious on how the game felt. Essentially, Deus Ex: Human Revolution looks like a first-person perspective RPG should look: competent. Visually, the game is less than impressive both stylistically and in terms of sheer power. With such a strong legacy to live up to, it’s surprising that Eidos didn’t shoot a wad to make Deus Ex one of the more visually appealing RPGs of the year. I’m still not convinced that it is going to be great, but a sneaking suspicion tells me that this is going to be a slow burn. Nonetheless, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is as ambitious of an RPG as we’ve seen in a while.