Deus Ex: Human Revolution Previews

Expectations are high for Eidos Montreal’s prequel to Ion Storm’s Deus Ex, and we have another batch of previews for you to read while you wait for the August release.

Technoholik

The environments so far look impressive, with some amazing detail. The art style is carried well across the game, as everything has a sepia tone. There’s some nice lighting in the facility as well as some neat fairy light desklamps strewn about. Very cyberchique. The entire setting plays out like a futuristic noir movie. The action was decent, if not a bit static. The duck and cover system works alright, you can duck and blindfire with the right and left mouse buttons respectively. However, moment you untoggle cover, you’re still in crouch. You can press space to switch between cover. I never really got the hang of the system, which is quite fluid in Gears of War and Mass Effect 2. Here, because of the switching camera from first to third person, it feels odd. The gunplay feels standard, and you can sneak up behind someone and initiate a brutal, quick close quarters attack, which costs you energy.

Lazygamer

The most important thing to say for fans of the series is that this game feels like Deus Ex. There’s a real feeling of freedom of choice here, and it extends through the dialogue, scenarios and your approach to the game. Right from the game’s first mission proper, you’re given choices; you can opt for a long or close range weapon, lethal or non-lethal.

Like the original, it looks like a first person shooter but doesn’t explicitly play as one. When faced with enemies it’s often better to sneak past them, distract them or find a new route around them. Though you can go in guns-a-blazing, treating it like a new Call of Duty, doing so on higher difficulty settings will almost guarantee you’ll be staring at a reload screen moments later.

And Gamepeople does a quick summary of what the game should offer:

What makes Deus Ex Human Revolution so compelling is the rich world that has been created. Rather than levels of a first-person shooter, Deus Ex tends towards designs that feel like real life locations and buildings. (In fact, when I first visited the Statue of Liberty in New York, I remember feeling that I had been in the visitor centre before and eventually remembered that the building was recreated with great accuracy in one of the original Deus Ex’s missions).

Eidos are looking to deliver a compelling and convincing world in which players can immerse themselves in the conspiracy drama which unfolds and set about exploring secret locations and following leads in their own preferred style.