Games I like: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

IN A NOT SO DISTANT FUTURE ... EVERYTHING IS TOTALLY FUCKED.

Yeah, yeah. We've seen it before. In 2027, humans are able to upgrade themselves with mechanical augmentations. Multinational corporations are more powerful than governments. Science is flourishing like never before. Something, somewhere, has to go wrong.

And this here guy's here to fix it.

Scientists, of course, have dubious morals. On the flipside, the people who claim to be on the side of justice blow stuff up. Adam Jensen, head of security for the biotech firm Sarif Industries, experiences both things firsthand when he is caught in the crosshairs of a brutal terrorist attack on the company's HQ. His wounds would have killed him, had not Jensen's employer put him back together. He wakes up from surgery to find large parts of his body replaced by cutting-edge prostheses. More machine than man, Jensen is now a supersoldier, a living weapon ... and as he sets off to track down the people behind the assault on his corporation, he picks up on the trail of something much bigger. Something that encompasses the entire world.


So, I totally suck at Deus Ex: HR. Turns out I'm terrible at aiming and get motion sickness if I play FPS for too long. I set the difficulty to the very lowest and still get seen by the AI all the time, meaning that neither shooting nor stealth are viable options for me. I read walkthroughs before every boss fight, go through frequent cycles of save-die-reload, and am just generally a disgrace to anybody who calls themselves a "gamer".

BUT DANG, THAT STORY. DANG, THAT WORLD.

DANG, ADAM SHIRTLESS

It's a great, gorgeous sci-fi that's just unrealistic enough to seem believable with that extra touch of awesome. I love exploring the various settings, especially reading e-books and learning about what happens to the world over the next fifteen years. The creators have crafted the future meticulously, including everything from periodically updating newspapers to posters for Final Fantasy XXVII. From what I've heard, DE:HR also skillfully foreshadows the events of the original Deus Ex. Oh, and for those of you who didn't read my post for the letter E, I've got something else to add: AW YUSS CYBORGS

I tell myself I am playing for the story and not the gameplay, which, as I mentioned, I am spectacularly bad at. However, I'm eternally grateful to Deus Ex: HR, as its existence is what indirectly introduced me to the cyberpunk genre. A while back, I bought a magazine called Roots, which was a collection of articles about the cultural, uh, roots of this game (it mentioned the novels of William Gibson as a major influence, and I'm currently hard at work reading everything by him). The whole thing was actually just a fancy promotion stunt from Square Enix, but Roots remains, to date, the best magazine I've ever read. It had articles about bionics, transhumanism, conspiracies, mega-corps ... genuinely interesting stuff! Well, if you're me. Still lamenting that there will probably never be another issue.

As I mentioned, in the most basic of terms there are two playing strategies: shoot 'em all or stealth. I was having doubts about whether or not to buy this, since I'm not comfortable with violence and the trailer has Jensen cracking necks and stabbing people through the gut with his awesome arm sword things. But as it turned out, the game itself doesn't actually encourage violence - you can get an achievement if you beat the whole game with nobody dying by your hand, even indirectly (except the bosses, which are reputed to be really shitty and incongruous - I can vouch for this; stuck on one now). I get kind of headachy if I do a lot of shooting, so I prefer to stick to the shadows and knock people out instead. But besides all of that, one of the (in my opinion) best parts about the game are the verbal interactions with various characters. There's a social interaction augmentation that makes these "fights" a lot easier, but it's still fun to convince them and get them to do things your way with just your words. Badassery without a single fist.

Of course, one of the best things about a good game is poking fun at all of its shortcomings, so here: have a peek at The Flaws:

nevermind me 

thank god for stupid AI

I leave you with a trailer. A lot of the scenes from it aren't actually in the game, and some people are shitting themselves because the in-game graphics (although they look pretty damn good to me :|) aren't cutting-edge, but I think a game and its promotions are a holistic experience where all the parts can be enjoyed separately while contributing to the overall experience. What I can say is that my overall experience with Deus Ex is pretty damn good.