There’s a significant amount of Deus Ex: Human Revolution information that I’ve been wanting to spill over the past couple of weeks, and since I’m well beyond the pesky embargoes that are a necessity of today’s press events, that’s exactly what I’m going to do in this article. There will be a handful of spoilers awaiting you, but I’ll at least try to limit the story-based spoilers to the area following this introduction. If you don’t want to know what occurs during the first 60 minutes or so of game time, you’ll want to skip over the next section entirely.
The First Hour
The initial hour of the game serves as a tutorial while also introducing players to the game world, the main characters, and the impressive technology that exists in 2027. It also sets up the overarching plot, though it does so without granting the player direct access to augmentations, inventory decisions, hacking opportunities, or significant dialogue choices. As such, you won’t get a chance to check out the game’s intricacies until after you suffer through what can only be described as a near-death experience. More on this later.
As Adam Jensen, you are an ex-SWAT officer who has been hired on as private security for the biotechnology company Sarif Industries. The circumstances surrounding Adam’s departure from SWAT aren’t exactly clear, though the game and various NPCs that you run into make it clear that it had something to do with the events that took place at the “Mexicantown Massacre”. Adam is no scientist himself, but he was romantically involved with Dr. Megan Reed, one of the most intelligent and influential scientists at the company (fun fact: Adam Jensen voice actor Elias Toufexis and Megan Reed voice actress Michelle Boack are married in real life). She’s the one who landed him the job at Sarif Industries following his departure from SWAT, and based on what can be gleaned from some of the game’s early dialogue, she may yet have some feelings for the protagonist. Either way, Megan is central to the game’s plot, and that’s how Adam finds himself involved in a global conspiracy of a grand scale.
The game opens up with an introductory cinematic featuring a mysterious group of individuals having a high-tech audio conference. Their discussion is purposely cryptic, but it’s clear that these individuals are very concerned about a gene sequence that Megan has discovered, and are willing to go to any length necessary to keep Sarif Industries from releasing it to the world. Their discussion will immediately have you running several different conspiracy theories through your head, and if you’re like me, you’ll probably restart the game a few times just to make sure you catch every little facet of it. It’s obviously impossible to decipher what it all means without additional information, but in any event, it sets the stage for what’s to come.
From there, the game jumps to Adam and Megan in her office having a video conference with David Sarif about their plans to present this discovery to a group of politicians in Washington, DC and the security detail that will be needed to ensure that everyone arrives safely. David wants you to meet up with him to go over the plans, though not before you’re given some time to do some detective work in Megan’s office. This serves as your first opportunity to procure whatever information you can from the world around you – an ebook lying on Megan’s couch gives you some very interesting background details about a “Patient X”, a digital newspaper lying on her desk introduces you to the augmentation-friendly group called L.I.M.B. (Liberty in Mind and Body), and the emails on her computer reveal that the two of you have a dog named Kubrick, that her mother Cassandra is quite worried about her, and that she’s concerned about whether or not the politicians in Washington will want to know how she acquired the first gene sample that’s part of this big discovery. Predicting the future of human evolution through past mutations stored in the database of our mitochondria? The chemicals in Patient X’s nervous system are undetectable by the human immune system? Patient X is now one or two steps ahead of the genetic curve? In the game’s very first room, you’re already able to assume that Megan was dabbling within a controversial and potentially dangerous area of research.
Following your initial discoveries, you’ll follow Megan through the hallways of Sarif Industries, where you’ll get a better idea of what the biotech company does and what sort of contracts they fulfill (many of which are for the military, as you might have expected). Long-time Deus Ex fans will catch references to Page Industries and Versalife during this walk, which concludes with your former squeeze asking you to meet her at the company’s helipad after you finish your conversation with David.
As you might have expected, things don’t go as planned, and the prominent company is attacked by three heavily-augmented mercenary types. You don’t actually get to witness much of the attack, but as you pass through the carnage that the trio has wrought upon the facility, the game takes advantage of the situation to teach you how to crouch, move objects, travel through the ventilation system, and, eventually, how to unload a few clips of your own into some of the lesser thugs that are helping to carry out the attack.
Just when you start to get the hang of things, a cinematic kicks off, and you helplessly watch as one of the near-cyborgs tosses Adam through a wall of glass. A short lopsided scuffle takes place, but the eventuality is that the three cybernetic mercenaries have Megan cornered and Adam’s world goes black as the unknown assailant fires a bullet point-blank into his broken body. From there, the game jumps into what is easily the most impressive credits sequence I’ve seen in a video game to date (though, to be fair, there isn’t a whole lot of competition in this particular department). As the development team is listed, David Sarif and a team of scientists can be heard commenting about your near-lifeless condition as images of multiple surgeries involving metal, tissue, blood, and artificial components are depicted. Adam Jensen will not be the same man when he wakes up.
Adam’s Augmented Reality
Will it actually be possible to be stripped of a majority of our humanity in the blink of an eye sixteen years from now? I don’t know, but that’s exactly what happens to our protagonist. In truth, it’s a full six months before Adam’s wounds heal enough for him to return to work, and once again it’s due to an attack on Sarif Industries. This time, one of the company’s warehouses has been besieged by a group of pro-human activists calling themselves Purity First. But enough about the story, let’s dive into Adam’s newfound augmentations and the upgrades he’s able to acquire for them.
There are 21 augmentations available to Adam following his “surgery”, and each of these has anywhere from 2-8 upgrades beneath it for a total of 69 upgrades across all augmentations. Acquiring an augmentation requires two Praxis Points (Human Revolution’s primary currency for character development), while each upgrade only requires one. Allocating two points to pick up a new augmentation immediately grants you access to the first upgrade beneath it, so you’d ultimately need to utilize 69 Praxis Points to unlock every augmentation and its associated upgrades. According to a conversation I had with lead writer Mary DeMarle, though, earning 69 Praxis Points and therefore achieving access to all augmentations and their upgrades will likely be impossible during a play-through. I’m not sure what the level cap will end up being, but you’ll earn one Praxis Point per level, and pick up additional points when you find or buy Praxis Kits.
The augmentation “skill tree” is broken out into seven different categories – cranium, torso, arm, eye, back, skin, and leg – and each category houses 2-4 different augmentations. For example, the skin augmentation category includes Dermal Armor and a Cloaking System. If you allocate two Praxis Points to Dermal Armor, you’ll receive the Damage Reduction 1 upgrade with it. From there, you can allocate three more Praxis Points to pick up Damage Reduction 2, Damage Reduction 3, and EMP Shielding. Some of these obviously have prerequisites, meaning that you’ll have to pick up the Damage Reduction upgrades in order and you’ll have to have access to Damage Reduction 2 before you can grab EMP Shielding. As another example, the arm augmentation category includes the Cybernetic Arm Prosthesis and the Aim Stabilizer. Choose to spend your points on the Cybernetic Arm Prosthesis and you’ll be able to make a selection between the Instant Take-down, Punch Through Wall, Recoil Compensation 1/2, Move/Throw Heavy Objects, and Carrying Capacity 1/2/3 upgrades.
To make use of some of these augmentations (though not all), Adam will need to expend energy. He has access to two power cells at the beginning of the game, but if you’re willing to spend some Praxis Points on the upgrades below the Sarif Series 8 Energy Converter augmentation, you can bump that amount to as many as five. When you make use of an augmentation that requires energy, a power cell will be drained and will slowly begin to recharge (of course, upgrades beneath the previously mentioned augmentation will also increase the recharge rate). Therefore, if you’re not careful, there will be times when you’re completely overwhelmed with enemies and unable to make use of your favorite augmentation-enabled attack. Limited ammunition can also be an issue with particular augmentations, such as the impressive Typhoon Explosive System that you’ve most likely seen in screenshots and gameplay trailers.
With the absence of the skill system we saw in the original Deus Ex, augmentations will serve as your sole source of character development. There are a considerable number of choices to be made within them, however, so a number of possible character builds are clearly possible. Spend your Praxis Points properly, and you could become a stealthy takedown specialist, a lethal sniper with x-ray vision, or a vending machine-hurling, damage-soaking brute.
Combat and Stealth
So now that you’ve made a decision about which augmentation route you want to take, how is it all going to play out? There are no melee weapons to speak of, but Adam is automatically proficient with any ranged weapon he acquires via rewards, scavenging, or merchants. These weapons are divided into both lethal and non-lethal types, allowing you to take either a bloodthirsty or pacifist approach to each of the game’s missions. I don’t have a firm number of total weapons in the game, but I did get a chance to use a 10mm Pistol, Machine Pistol, and Combat Rifle on the lethal side and a Stun Gun and Tranquilizer Rifle when going for a non-lethal approach.
You can also make use of some fairly spectacular takedown moves if you’re able to get within melee range of an enemy. These are executed automatically at the push of a button, with the amount of time that you hold the button down determining whether or not your takedown will be of a lethal of non-lethal variety. Performing a takedown requires the expenditure of one of Adam’s energy cells so, again, you could find yourself in a position where there are multiple guards firing at you but you’re only able to incapacitate a few of them before being forced to draw a weapon or run for cover. Trust me, this happened on more than a few occasions.
One thing I definitely want to point out is that, despite the fact that the game is still months away from release, the snap-to-cover and shooting mechanics are finely tuned and feel spot-on. Remember when Mass Effect 2 was heralded for taking the series’ shooting mechanics to the next level? Human Revolution feels just as “right” as BioWare’s sequel does, if not better, and it does so without giving away upcoming battles with a neatly laid out cover arrangement. Additionally, enemy AI has clearly been something the team has devoted a lot of time to. If you’re hurt and cowering in a corner, they’ll either toss a concussive grenade at you or simply move up to your position and flush you out. And if you knock a guard unconscious without another seeing you, but then they spot the body, they’ll go on high alert and attempt to revive their fallen brethren. This paved the way for quite a few comedic moments during my play session, as I’d tranquilize a guard and then fire another dart into his would-be savior’s neck when they rushed to his aid. Watching the second guard pass out on top of the first guard’s body never got old.
A viable and entertaining stealth component was one of the team’s goals early in the game’s development, and it shows. There are quite a few augmentations that are stealth-related (including a set of Mark & Track programs, a Wayfinder Radar System, a Wall-Penetration Imager, and a handful of Cybernetic Leg Prosthesis upgrades to allow for quieter movements and silent running), and they all have important, albeit optional, uses when carrying out a mission. Since there are multiple ways to enter a building during a mission, you can avoid combat altogether by sneaking around any guards and utilizing an entrance other than the front door. If you’re spotted while sneaking, a guard will become alerted and investigate the area where they noticed movement. Assuming you’ve maneuvered yourself behind cover to an alternate location, the guard will go back to his post after their investigation proves unfruitful. In the event that you just holed up until the guard was on top of you, a quick takedown can also be used if there are no other guards within range to notice. Just to be safe, though, the game allows you to drag any dead or unconscious guards to an area where they won’t be spotted by any ongoing patrols.
What really surprised me about the stealth approach was that it’s quite lucrative, experience-wise. During a mission to liberate a Sarif Industries warehouse from the Purity First “terrorists”, I lept up on a pile of crates and made my way up a propped-up pallet to a ladder leading to the warehouse’s roof. From there, I crawled through a small tunnel and then around a fence to reach a ventilation system that would get me into one of the building’s main rooms. As soon as I had entered the vents without being spotted, the game awarded me with a “Ghost” bonus of 500 experience points. On top of that, just crawling through a ventilation shaft will get you an “Explorer” bonus of 100 experience points and if you managed to avoid triggering an alarm, that’s worth another variable “Smooth Operator” bonus. That’s more than I would have obtained by taking out the patrolling guards, though using the stealth approach obviously means that you’re not going to be able to search the guards for any credit chips or interesting items. For example, one of the guards owned a Pocket Secretary that mentioned a weapon merchant with a shop at an abandoned gas station on 2nd Street, but the catch is that he’ll only show you the goods if you tell him “Molson sent ya.” I suppose there might be another way to learn about the merchant and convince him to sell you his goods later in the game (it was beyond the scope of the demo), and you might even be able to backtrack for some guard-killing fun after receiving the “Ghost” bonus, but it was still a relief to see that stealth was a viable choice that paid alternate dividends.
Hacking
Let me just say this: Deus Ex: Human Revolution sports the most advanced hacking minigame I’ve seen in a video game to date. In fact, it was actually somewhat difficult for me to familiarize myself with all of the mechanics in the short time I had with the game. I believe I have most of the basics down now, so I’ll do my best to explain them to you.
Before you can even begin a hacking attempt, Adam must meet the security level requirement of the keypad or computer he’s trying to hack into. The devices I approached during the demo ranged from security level 1 through security level 4, though it wouldn’t surprise me if the security levels go even higher later in the game. As far as I could tell, Adam’s hacking proficiency relies almost entirely on the Hacking: Capture augmentation that’s found within the cerebral category. Within this line, you can choose from the Capture 1/2/3/4/5, Robot Domination, Turret Domination, and Camera Domination upgrades. As long as you meet the minimum security level requirement, you will always get four hacking attempts per device (though you can save at any time in the game, so I suppose this point is moot).
When you begin a hacking attempt, you’ll see the schematic of a network with several different “nodes” linked to one another. You begin the minigame at the “IO Port” node and can then jump to any other linked node with the ultimate goal of reaching and capturing any and all “Registry” nodes within the network. Along the way, you’ll be hopping to “Directory” nodes, uni-directional and bi-directional “Bridge” nodes, “Function” nodes, and “Datastore” nodes. Each time you make a jump to a new node, there’s a chance that the network’s security will detect your presence and issue a tracing alert to lock you out. The base chance of making a jump without being detected is around 60% (based on its difficulty rating), and that number increases as you gain access to the Capture 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 upgrades below the Hacking: Capture augmentation. If a tracing alert is issued, you’ll have approximately 30 seconds to finish capturing all of the “Registry” nodes before you’re locked out of the system.
But what about those other nodes I mentioned? The “Directory” nodes are empty, and only serve as something of a landing pad for you to reach a more desirable node. The “Function” node can serve a few purposes – you can “soften” an adjacent node to reduce its difficulty rating by one point, “transfer” two points of difficulty rating between nodes, or execute a “clearance” that reduces all datastore difficulty ratings by two points. Secure a “Datastore” node and you can earn yourself credits, experience, Stop! Worms, or Nuke Viruses. I never actually had a chance to try out a Stop! Worm or Nuke Virus, but my understanding is that they can be used to more easily take nodes and slow down the speed of a tracing alert. As long as you successfully finish the hack after capturing a datastore, you’ll retain any of the items you gained from it. You’ll also earn experience – a low level hack earned me a “Script Kiddie” bonus of 25 experience points, and I suspect that number increases with the security level of the device.
Overall, hacking looks to be one of the game’s most interesting elements. It seems to be an entirely optional aspect of the game (whatever it is that you’re trying to hack can usually be bypassed in another manner), but if you’re the type of person who wants to control a security turret, watch security camera footage, or open any locked security doors you come across, you’re going to want to refine your node-jumping expertise.
Dialogue and the Social Element
It wouldn’t be an RPG without some social interaction, right? Dialogue has always been a very important aspect of the Deus Ex series, and Human Revolution is no exception. Adam pretty much just listens to what’s being said during the initial Sarif Industries walk-through with Megan, but once you return to work with a body full of augmentations, it’s important to start chatting people up for information. As you might have expected, unimportant NPCs simply issue a standard one-liner when you attempt to speak with them, but talking with a notable NPC will bring you to a zoomed-in dialogue screen.
Dialogue is split up into a hexagonal grid of four options, though sometimes only a couple of options are made available to you. Each option is nearly verbatim to what Adam will actually say, so you don’t have to worry about choosing a “mood” and then hoping that his response reflects what you were actually trying to spit out. Each option does have a label next to it, though, so you can better gauge the tone of voice Adam is going to use. For example, “Inform” will obviously get the line across in a somewhat safe manner, while “Confront” might cause the NPC to become annoyed, defensive, or even sheepish.
The tones I selected didn’t seem to have any hard-hitting effects until I confronted Zeke Sanders at the conclusion of the demo. Zeke is the leader of the Purity First group that attacks the Sarif warehouse, and when you burst into the room where he’s holed up, he puts a pistol to the head one of the female hostages. It’s only through a series of dialogue choices that you can try to get Zeke to turn himself in, let the hostage go, and/or escape from the group of SWAT members waiting outside. Defusing the situation isn’t easy, as I quickly learned by picking a selection of “Empathy” choices. All I ended up doing was getting the hostage killed, after which Zeke escaped into the night (though based on what he tells you about his employers, having him escape might be the best outcome). Maybe if I had put some Praxis Points into the Social Enhancer augmentation, things would have turned out differently.
Managing Inventory Like It’s 1996
I’ve always been a proponent of the grid inventory system primarily used in action RPGs, and it’s great to see a modern-day developer sticking with a working formula rather than going for something much more simplistic. Adam’s inventory is split into two sections – a base grid and a quest grid. I never actually found any items that slotted themselves into the latter area, but it’s obvious that the team didn’t want us running to the nearest merchant just to clear out some room for an important quest item. To help keep your inventory even more manageable, the team made the decision to limit your carrying capacity to one of each weapon. Therefore, if you find your first Machine Pistol on a dead guard, all subsequent Machine Pistols you find will only net you additional ammunition.
As you pick up items (all maneuverable, readable, and obtainable items are highlighted with a yellow outline, by the way), they are automatically arranged and sorted in your inventory, so there’s no need for any prior honing of your Tetris skills. Smaller weapons like the Stun Gun take up six grid squares, while larger weapons like the Machine Pistol take up twelve. All of the ammunition I found took up two grid squares, and consumables – painkillers, cyberboost proenergy bars, and beer, for example – take up a single grid square. I never once came close to filling up my inventory space during the demo, but if you’d like to add even more room to your inventory later in the game, you can always invest some Praxis Points into the three Carrying Capacity upgrades underneath the Cybernetic Arm Prosthesis augmentation. Each of these upgrades will add two columns of inventory space to your grid.
The Conspiracy is Nearly Upon Us
Regardless of how the entirety of Human Revolution plays out, I for one applaud Eidos Montreal for sticking to the multi-path/multi-solution approach of the original Deus Ex and for retaining the RPG mechanics that many developers have eschewed in recent years. It’s still a shooter at heart, but in an industry that continually calls for more streamlining and accessibility, Deus Ex: Human Revolution invokes a sigh of relief. The combat mechanics are solid, the augmentations are well-implemented, the stealth and hacking systems have depth, the art design is nothing short of stellar, and the game’s overarching plot appears to be chock-full of twists, turns, and surprises. In short, it’s the Deus Ex sequel we’ve all been dreaming about for over a decade.
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