The aesthetics of this game are on point, well beyond what they should be given the effort that went into the story, controls, gameplay execution, and incidental writing.

The long and the short of it is that the creative writing team on this game forgot the "creative" part of their job description. They seem to think that unanswered questions are the same thing as mysteries, and that's not the way that works. Additionally, before you begin the game you NEED to understand a full two years of backstory between the end of DX Human Revolution, the game before this one, and this game. Instead of telling you that backstory in an interesting way, it's infodumped in a condescending voice. The conversation in which that infodump takes place is *noninteractive*, *seven minutes long*, and tremendously boring to sit through. It's like a real-world tactical briefing, only you don't get to commit murder when you're done.

Also: the controls are clanky and irritating, even when compared to the original Deus Ex from the '90s.

But, it's pretty. So you can at least get lectured and handheld while looking at pretty pictures.

The aesthetics of this game are on point, well beyond what they should be given the effort that went into the story, controls, gameplay execution, and incidental writing. The long and the short of it is that the creative writing team on this game forgot the "creative" part of their job description. They seem to think that unanswered questions are the same thing as mysteries, and that's not the way that works. Additionally, before you begin the game you NEED to understand a full two years of backstory between the end of DX Human Revolution, the game before this one, and this game. Instead of telling you that backstory in an interesting way, it's infodumped in a condescending voice. The conversation in which that infodump takes place is *noninteractive*, *seven minutes long*, and tremendously boring to sit through. It's like a real-world tactical briefing, only you don't get to commit murder when you're done. Also: the controls are clanky and irritating, even when compared to the original Deus Ex from the '90s. But, it's pretty. So you can at least get lectured and handheld while looking at pretty pictures.