Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review

Post by Dan @ 08:49am 24/08/11 | 79 Comments

August has been a quiet month for videogame releases, but one of the year's most anticipated titles is due on shelves in Australia tomorrow. Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Human Revolution revives the acclaimed cyberpunk FPS/RPG franchise for fans that have waited over a decade for a worthy followup.

You play Adam Jensen, a security specialist, handpicked to oversee the defense of one of America’s most experimental biotechnology firms. But when a black ops team uses a plan you designed to break in and kill the scientists you were hired to protect, everything you thought you knew about your job changes.

For those that haven't already circumvented Steam's region restrictions to nab the game a day early, check out AusGamers review for our verdict.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution launches in Australia on August 25th 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

deus ex human revolution deus ex review eidos

Latest Comments

Link

Scooter
Posted 09:00am 24/8/11

The environments tread a fine line between repetitive and attention to detail as many rooms are near mirror images

That line stood out for me in the review... I hope this isn't as bad as it was in DA2...
All in all it looks good though. I look forward to trying it.

Link

rec
Posted 11:38am 24/8/11

I'm only 4 hours in, but so far I think the game's reviews have been far too positive.

- Pretty s***** engine, graphics aren't up to scratch.
- Character casting, dialogue scripting and voice acting is super average. Sometimes even plain awkward and out of place.
- The world feels static, confined and lifeless too often.
- Hopelessly s*** AI.

Link

butters
Posted 12:21pm 24/8/11

I felt the same way after 4 hours too, but it improves a lot - well in some areas, essentially it just becomes super addictive.

Link

MARLINBLADE
Posted 01:40pm 24/8/11

Good review that, easy to read and to the point... unlike the one IGN has up... wow what a head cluster f*** that thing is!! The reviewer wants to be a f*****g english teacher i reckon. Wish this one had been posted earlier to save me the trouble...

Looking forward to the PC release. Hopefully the graphics will be up a notch

Link

fpot
Posted 04:52pm 24/8/11

What system are you playing on rec?

Link

reso
Posted 05:02pm 24/8/11

Steam shows me he has been playing it on there, so PC I guess.

Link

fpot
Posted 05:07pm 24/8/11

Dirty VPN user :)

I tried to get JB to break street date today but they refused :(

Link

ravn0s
Posted 05:36pm 24/8/11

my steam preload just updated and i thought it might have been unlocking the game. it didnt :(

Link

59fifty
Posted 06:21pm 24/8/11

DAMNIT

I WANT TO PLAY NOW!

Sigh... one more day to wait.

Link

Midda
Posted 09:35pm 24/8/11

I tried to get JB to break street date today but they refused :(

That wouldn't have mattered anyway, since the game requires Steam. You'd still be waiting for it to unlock.

Link

fpot
Posted 02:04am 25/8/11

That's what I told them to try and get them to give it to me.

I would have unlocked it with overseas VPN goodness.

Link

Julez
Posted 02:20am 25/8/11

"Adam talks like Christian Bale Batman"

Great.. can't stand that blokes voice.

From that review it sorta makes me feel this is another DNF in the respect of not doing the first game justice or improving on it, not that i think dx1 could be improved.

Link

Nerfy
Posted 10:53am 26/8/11

The hell... I have a brand new harddrive, nothing on it except steam and settlers 4, spent several days preloading Deus Ex 3, and the first thing it says is that the game is enormously fragmented and should be fixed. :/ It then says that fragmentation is at 81377%...

edit: Sweet, all good, it works! Straight up I love that the menu is clearly not a weak console port, and that the difficulty levels are actually intriguing (I've always wondered why anybody would play anything but 'normal' given the options, though Thief 1 & 2 did an amazing job of expanding the story as you upped the difficulty, and denied the player the ability to kill etc, glad that the same team is working on that once more :D).

edit edit: Oh mai, GameStop opening Deus Ex boxes, removing free digital download code.

Link

Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:54am 25/8/11

"Adam talks like Christian Bale Batman"

I thought they hired Darren Lockyer for the voice?

Link

fpot
Posted 10:17am 25/8/11

From that review it sorta makes me feel this is another DNF in the respect of not doing the first game justice or improving on it, not that i think dx1 could be improved.

While it is not quite as good as the original Deus Ex (well, from what I've played of the leak anyway) it certainly does the original game justice. Comparisons with DNF are silly.

JB Hi-Fi didn't have my preorder >:(

Link

DM
Posted 10:29am 25/8/11

I don't get why Deus Ex 1 was considered so epic. I've played it a number of times and never got more than a few hours into it. Just had nothing to make me want to play it longer.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 10:30am 25/8/11

i was going to be playing this all day since it was my day off, but i was called into work :(

Link

fpot
Posted 10:33am 25/8/11

It's quite simple really DM. People who don't like Deus Ex have bad taste and suck at playing good games, and those who like Deus Ex... well :)

Nah just kidding. I can easily see why some people wouldn't like Deus Ex. You should try it again but install BioMod. It fixes a lot of broken things and streamlines a lot of the gameplay.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 10:36am 25/8/11

edit edit: Oh mai, GameStop opening Deus Ex boxes, removing free digital download code.

wtf are they even allowed to do that?

Link

eski
Posted 10:48am 25/8/11

Apparently Gamestop have now just pulled the game from their shelves completely.

What's with the gaming industry behaving like petulant d*******s these days?

Link

infi
Posted 10:55am 25/8/11

if it's so s***** why couldn't i stop playing the leaked chapter?

Link

DM
Posted 11:22am 25/8/11

I may just do that Fpot. I should try and get into it since I think this game is so awesome. As for the whole Gamestop thing as far as I have read they have been opening copies and removing Onlive code which let you have a free copy of the game using their service. Good way to trial the system. Gamestop found this unacceptable with this to say about it

We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores

So in other words "f*** you onlive, that's why". So yeah.

Link

d^
Posted 08:15pm 25/8/11

Anyone know how the F to turn off subtitles?

Link

ravn0s
Posted 08:29pm 25/8/11

you musn't have looked very hard. it's in options under audio.

Link

d^
Posted 08:49pm 25/8/11

you musn't have looked very hard. it's in options under audio.

Looked everywhere else bar audio, go me.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 10:17pm 25/8/11

played about 2 hrs so far and loving it. still on the first mission since im trying to stealth the whole thing.

Link

fpot
Posted 10:32am 26/8/11

So if I order the augmented edition of steam do I get the extra weapons and missions or just a few mp3s and a .pdf file?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/28050/?snr=1_4_4__13

It doesn't mention anything about them on the steam page.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 10:34am 26/8/11

just realised i didn't have any of the augmented edition bonus content. found out you have to go to tools in the steam client and click on augmented edition bonus content to start downloading it.

Link

fpot
Posted 10:37am 26/8/11

^ did you just answer my question kinda? Did you buy the digital augmented edition?

Link

ravn0s
Posted 11:00am 26/8/11

yer i bought it through green man gaming. it hasn't finished downloading yet, so not sure about the weapons and missions.

edit: looks like the digital version doesn't come with the weapons but you get the tracer tong mission.

http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Deus_Ex:_Human_Revolution_Preorder_Packs

last edited by ravn0s at 11:00:20 26/Aug/11

Link

fpot
Posted 11:13am 26/8/11

I literally have no option but to pirate the game.

Link

Vash
Posted 11:18am 26/8/11

i just purchased mine for $29 from intkeys.com

Link

fpot
Posted 11:24am 26/8/11

Crisis averted.

http://www.ozgameshop.com/pc-games/deus-ex-human-revolution-augmented-edition-game-pc

Comes with all the bonus content I wanted. Winner.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 07:09pm 27/8/11

loving this game. played 8 hrs and still in detroit doing side quests. it's so hard to decide what augmentations to upgrade.

Link

fpot
Posted 07:11pm 27/8/11

Did you play the leak? I was reluctant at first but releneted when someone gave me the idea that playing it would be good for getting my head around what augs to upgrade and which ones not to in my first play-through. Social and hacking I found to be very useful.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 07:19pm 27/8/11

nah i didn't play the leak. i've got the social aug and hacking to level 3. atm it looks like hacking is going to be a huge part of the game so i might put some points in the other hacking skills.

Link

fpot
Posted 07:22pm 27/8/11

I really don't see the point in boosting fortify. Once I had stealth-hack and capture fully upgraded there were no level 5 hacks that were a problem. However they might get harder as the game goes on and require that fortify is boosted.

Also there are the augs which allow you to take over turrets and robots which weren't used at all in the leak. I am assuming they will be useful. Hopefully there are lots of rooms full of enemies with a robot or turret sitting in the middle of it >:D

Link

ravn0s
Posted 07:26pm 27/8/11

yer i was mainly thinking about putting the points in stealth hack.

Link

fpot
Posted 07:35pm 27/8/11

F*** I could have this game right now if Jb didn't screw me! Waiting for my copy from ozgameshop to arrive might take till late next week or longer :(

Link

DM
Posted 07:57pm 27/8/11

F*****g loving this game. About 4 - 5 hours played and not even on mission 3 yet. Taken as many side quests as i've been able to find and gotten Hack 5 as well as stealth hack 2. Hacking seems to be a skill you can't skip since SO MANY THINGS need it. I'm avoiding that skill that gauges how your conversation is going to avoid it being reduced to a "say this now to get best result" game. I want to have to listen to dialogue and react myself.

Also 2 rather funny easter eggs i've found. In 1 of the computers (forget where) there is a spam email from a nigerian banker ready to give you 47,000,000 credits. I thought that was funny. Also in the cop shop if you sneak in and hide in 1 of the vents, you can go to the back of "detective murphy's" office and hear him talk to a buddy about an old movie where a cop gets killed and turned into a cyborg that takes place in detroit. Lols were had. Worth every penny this game.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 08:02pm 27/8/11

yer i chuckled at those. i also found the dopefish during one mission.

Link

Khel
Posted 08:11pm 27/8/11

Is your ozgameshop order already shipped fpot? Could you cancel it? Cos these guys seem to have PC augmented editions and they're in melbourne. Express post it and you should have it early next week.

http://www.dungeoncrawl.com.au/p-3400-deus-ex-human-revolution-augmented-edition-pc.aspx

Link

Nerfy
Posted 08:21pm 27/8/11

Heh the Nigerian email is at the end of level 1/2 (depending on how you measure them).

In that same first/second mission, does anybody know:
Spoiler:
if there's a way for the hostages to not die? Was that due to screwing around at Serif while being screamed at to hurry up?

Have played for a bit and it's fun, though slow, since stealthing the whole thing. That being said, the game's atmosphere is oddly depressing - I get the impression that everybody is a lying liar, with jittery bodies.

Link

Khel
Posted 08:28pm 27/8/11

I heard that its possible for the hostages to not die, but I don't really know, they died for me too. But then I spent time stuffing around at Sarif industries as well and there was a point where David Sariff got angry at me and was all like "Now because you took so long things have gotten worse!", so maybe that was the switch to change to the "hostages are dead" storyline.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 08:28pm 27/8/11

yer i think they die if you take too long. mine did.

Link

fpot
Posted 08:34pm 27/8/11

You need to GET TO DAH CHOPPA quickly otherwise the hostages die. When Sarif says "things just got a lot worse Arrrrdem" it means they are dead.

Link

fpot
Posted 09:00pm 27/8/11

And Khel it has already shipped and it was $30 cheaper :)

Link

Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:20pm 27/8/11

Mine didn't die.

Link

Nerfy
Posted 09:22pm 27/8/11

Curses, that means that I'm a monster. Everybody is all, "you're terrible, wtf happened?" and I thought that it was part of the story.

Link

DM
Posted 09:25pm 27/8/11

All my hostages survived as well as the last one. Even back when I first played the demo leak and it took me ages to reach them they still survived. How long are you guys taking?

Spoiler:
The bomb triggers when you enter the room via the door so take the vent route to avoid it going off. As for the last hostage that guy is holding, never be forceful with him. Try to reason with him and change between that and making him feel important. Like telling him he is smarter than the guy who planned on him dying and such. If you take the right conversation path he will let her go and then you let him go. Sure he'll help you later this way

Bugged out a quest though. Think I had to Spoiler:
knock out out an apartment of bad guys so that some named person could be taken into custody. I stun gunned them all and it kept saying I had to clear them out. Went to pick up the named guy's body and it instantly said I failed and then quest over
not going to reload a save 3 hours sooner to get that. Reward was meh anyway. More ammo in clip, big deal.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 09:31pm 27/8/11

dm, did you get the 2 goons in the side room? you had to either hack the terminal to get into it or get the code from one of those pocket things a goon had on his body.

Link

Nerfy
Posted 09:46pm 27/8/11

I did save the last one, pity about the others.

Link

Fish
Posted 02:08am 28/8/11

Having a blast with this game. Doing the first playthrough as cold corp thug. Strange thing about this game is that as I progress, I'm already looking forward to my next playthrough.

Btw, something that kinda s**** me off is the references to
Spoiler:
4chan

I found 2 so far, but they kinda blew immersion factor for me when I came across them...

Link

Viper119
Posted 08:26am 28/8/11

Did the mouse movement seem clunky to anyone?

Spoiler:
The hostages die if you hang around in the office too long, if you go straight through to the factory you have the chance to save them, the code to disarm the bomb is on one of the mercs - everyones alot happier if you save them!

last edited by Viper119 at 08:26:16 28/Aug/11

Link

Tim Tibbetts
Posted 09:22am 28/8/11

Enjoying it so far. I just bought it from Steam using VPN so it cost about $45 or something for the normal edition.

I find myself sneaking around a lot more and avoiding combat entirely, I've got a lot of points into hack and a few into strength and my legs so I can try and avoid combat.

I've only killed one person outside of the training level thingo at the start and that's because I had no choice. Good Game.

Link

fpot
Posted 11:46am 28/8/11

Hostage spoiler: Spoiler:
You can also just shoot one of the canisters in the gas bomb thing. It's a bit like the bombs from Die Hard: With a Vengeance - both chemicals are inert until mixed

Link

Vash
Posted 11:47am 28/8/11

theres a deal on at intkeys.com where i got mine, $25 for today only

Link

groganus
Posted 11:56am 28/8/11

My biggest issue with this game is that it feels clunky. The original Deus Ex i loved to death even though it suffers from similar crap, but i overlooked it at the time due to that current era of gaming. This one I thought they would at least smooth it out.

Sad cause the deus ex games have great stealthy fun and great storylines.

s.

Link

Nerfy
Posted 12:11pm 28/8/11

Definitely agree that some of the game tech is largely unimpressive by modern standards, and often even a detractor (random conversation stances are odd). The game overall still works, but that's dragging on it for me a bit.

Link

Vash
Posted 02:12pm 28/8/11

Im actually glad they didnt concentrate too much on the graphics, rather the content & gameplay is awesome. if they brought it up to say battlefield 3 standards we'd be stuck with another boring linear FPS

Link

ravn0s
Posted 02:39pm 28/8/11

heh got this achievement last night:

Balls
Seems you like playing with balls, eh?

got it at the basketball court.

Link

Trixxta
Posted 06:07pm 28/8/11

Well I just bought this on steam based upon the ausgamers review - downloading now. Hope it was a wise choice :) i have been starved of a good game for ages.

Link

Infidel
Posted 07:10pm 28/8/11

Im actually glad they didnt concentrate too much on the graphics, rather the content & gameplay is awesome. if they brought it up to say battlefield 3 standards we'd be stuck with another boring linear FPS

Have you heard about witcher2?

Link

Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:54pm 28/8/11

The witcher 2 was great.

Link

Midda
Posted 09:15pm 28/8/11

Yeah, designing a good game doesn't have to come at the expense of visuals. They're different people working on different parts of the game, as long as everyone's on the same page, talented and have good tools, there shouldn't have to be too many excessive compromises.

The Witcher 2 is testament to that. Looks amazing (apart from the terrible facial animation), and one of the best games I've played in years.

Link

DM
Posted 09:53pm 28/8/11

1 thing that annoys me is the seemingly limited amount of idle animations when you are talking. Jenson constantly reuses the same "folds his arms and leans on 1 foot" thing. Other than that i'm still enjoying it. S**** getting harder now.

Oh and when you Spoiler:
get to the chinese apartment where you are looking for the hacker, look at his notes on his pc and server gear. forever alone.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 08:16am 29/8/11

is there more than 2 side quests in china? i could only find the 2 you get from the prostitute.

Link

Mantorok
Posted 09:29am 29/8/11

There's more, you should bump into Faridah Malik at the Alice Garden Pods and she'll give you a side-quest. There's another with Bobby, the bar man at The Hive.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 10:34am 29/8/11

cool, i explored the hive but i guess i missed the bartender. forgot about the garden pods place. haven't been there yet.

Link

Nerfy
Posted 07:36am 30/8/11

Heh, picked up from a newspaper -

---
edit: Sweet jebus

Link

Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:43am 30/8/11

Haha, that player has issues.

Link

Mantorok
Posted 05:18pm 30/8/11

Heh, picked up from a newspaper

There's more like that around:

Link

Vash
Posted 05:20pm 30/8/11

up to final boss

*SPOILER DUNNO HOW TO TAG IT*

i added the updated bio chip so now my gui is all f***ed up, i thought something was fishy when i put that chip in, cutscene then nothing happens, i immediately thought something weird is gonna happen later since i was seeing the glitches before.
sure enough... ive only attempted 3 times and get owned by this guy.

Link

Shaexen
Posted 07:45pm 30/8/11

I turned down the difficult on all the boss fights because they are essentially retarded. "Sure you can have a full stealth character and only use non lethal weapons, oh but your gonna be f***ed when you get put against a boss out of an mmo lol have fun"

Link

DM
Posted 08:11pm 30/8/11

Only had 1 boss fight so far and yeah it is kind of heavly skewed against stealth based characters. Just have to have good luck. Anyway few things i've come to notice

- lack of melee weapons. Stun gun doesn't count IMO and is kind of s*** since it alarms the target slightly before you knock them out so if you are going for the ghost bonus it's worthless. So yeah there is no baton, no knife, no sword... at least not yet

- WTF is with all the fog INSIDE buildings? Do they have some machine that pumps mist into the rooms? Stupid idea having this

- Some augments seem like they were thrown in to pad the menu out. Being able to ace any speech by looking at a meter? Lame, it should always be based on how well you listen/gauge the character's personality. Upgrades to reduce all movement noise even when falling from large heights? Bad idea since to me it kills all immersion when playing a stealth character. See through walls? Hax! I'm not sure if i'll be able to upgrade most of what there is but I find myself avoiding a lot of things in that menu since I like my stealth games like Thief. Where you have to be aware of how much noise you make, where you are and stuff like that.

last edited by DM at 20:11:17 30/Aug/11

Link

Viper119
Posted 09:11pm 30/8/11

Yeah I noticed that with the boss fights, having quite a stealth focused character - grenades are the trick!

I haven't noticed much in-building fog?

The ability to do the take downs on anyone is quite cool, I knocked out the bouncer outside of Hive instead of getting a member card or paying him.

Highly recommend reading everything, especially computer emails in the Picus building - for loads of original Deus Ex storyline tie in.

Link

ravn0s
Posted 10:23pm 30/8/11

i believe you can take the bosses down with the stun gun.

The ability to do the take downs on anyone is quite cool, I knocked out the bouncer outside of Hive instead of getting a member card or paying him.

lol i just went through the vent at the back

Link

Confucius
Posted 07:46pm 15/11/11

Check out this awesome Deus Ex Human Revolutions by CT Computing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvEvIqxLBDc&feature=channel_video_title

www.ctcomputing.com.au

Commenting has been locked for this item.

79 Comments

Show

Features

Reviews

ASUS ROG Rapture GT6 WiFi 6 Mesh System