Rock, Paper, Shotgun Does GamesCom

The PC-loving editors over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have whipped up a multi-part overview of the games on display at last week’s GamesCom, including Dragon Age II, Torchlight II, Might & Magic Heroes VI, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Witcher 2, Guild Wars 2, Dungeon Siege III, and a handful of other RPGs. You can check out their day one report here, their day two reports here and here, and their day three report here. Some info on Eidos Montreal’s cyberpunk prequel:

They showed a new level from early on in the game- a Detroit police station, with you tasked to retrieve some hardware from the skull of a corpse in the morgue- and completed it once in a Terminator all-guns-blazing style, once smooth-talking their way past obstacles peacefully with the new conversation system, and a third time with hacking and ninja stealth.

This and Guild Wars 2 were the only games at the show that had me forgoing academic and factual note-taking for just writing (YES) and (YESSSS) in my notebook over and over.

It’s not just that Human Revolution offers multiple paths. It offers more of exactly what Deus Ex offered. The detail in the environments, the chance to talk to an idle population of civilians, the option of nosing through emails- that sense that you’re not just playing through a level but roleplaying a very cool guy in a very long black coat in a very absorbing world.

The menu was brought up at several points, too. There really is still a grid inventory. But there are so many additions, too- you now have 21 individual augmentation slots, and most seem to have their own tiny tech tree that you cherrypick your way down.

Something else that shocked me is the new hacking minigame. It’s dramatically complex- a kind of Uplink strategy battle where you first hide from and then race a server, with extra programs and viruses that can be found or bought and give you a helping hand. Similarly, the dialogue is fast paced to the point of being difficult to follow. I was expecting just about anything from Human Revolution except for it to be more demanding than the original Deus Ex. I couldn’t be happier. When was the last time you saw a great PC game being adapted to consoles and becoming more complex in the process?