Rating: 7/10

My favorite moment in Deus Ex: Human Revolution was when I entered a room looking for an important character in a side quest, only to find him on the floor, dead. Turns out I had accidentally hit him with my wall-piercing laser rifle while melting down enemies in the room next door. There was no npc immunity to save him, there was no “mission failed” - I simply accepted the situation and moved on with the game.

Human Revolution is full of moments like this, where seemingly innocuous actions made during gameplay can have surprising consequences down the line. The game favors the observant: guards reveal useful info in their dialogue, emails will point you to hidden caches of items, and conversations can both open and lock doors at the drop of a hat. All these little things keep you on your toes and fully engaged throughout the playthrough.

The gameplay is open-end in classic stealth game fashion. I never found myself forced into any particular playstyle, and the suite of augments you can unlock different styles of play that are fun to try out. I did find myself backtracking often to unlock irrelevant doors, knock out remaining enemies, and crawl through redundant vents purely for the exp, which dulled the moment-to-moment experience. There were also more than a few bugs (hello infinite laser ammo), but nothing game-breaking.

The story is quite strong (although it teeters at the edge of ridicule near the end), but it’s the characters that really carry the narrative. Most of them, even the side characters, feel fleshed out and have interesting interactions with Jensen, which is further supported by the excellent voice acting - the VA for David Sarif in particular nails the tone of a narcissistic CEO. In contrast, the villains left a lot to be desired, but they don’t hold back the story too much.

The graphics hold up decently well considering the age of the game, and the general cyberpunk ambience of the game shines through well. As a warning, cutscenes and tutorials were not rerendered for higher resolutions, and will look terrible on most monitors. The audio is average, and the music is excellent (although it doesn’t get much time to shine).

Rating: 7/10 My favorite moment in Deus Ex: Human Revolution was when I entered a room looking for an important character in a side quest, only to find him on the floor, dead. Turns out I had accidentally hit him with my wall-piercing laser rifle while melting down enemies in the room next door. There was no npc immunity to save him, there was no “mission failed” - I simply accepted the situation and moved on with the game. Human Revolution is full of moments like this, where seemingly innocuous actions made during gameplay can have surprising consequences down the line. The game favors the observant: guards reveal useful info in their dialogue, emails will point you to hidden caches of items, and conversations can both open and lock doors at the drop of a hat. All these little things keep you on your toes and fully engaged throughout the playthrough. The gameplay is open-end in classic stealth game fashion. I never found myself forced into any particular playstyle, and the suite of augments you can unlock different styles of play that are fun to try out. I did find myself backtracking often to unlock irrelevant doors, knock out remaining enemies, and crawl through redundant vents purely for the exp, which dulled the moment-to-moment experience. There were also more than a few bugs (hello infinite laser ammo), but nothing game-breaking. The story is quite strong (although it teeters at the edge of ridicule near the end), but it’s the characters that really carry the narrative. Most of them, even the side characters, feel fleshed out and have interesting interactions with Jensen, which is further supported by the excellent voice acting - the VA for David Sarif in particular nails the tone of a narcissistic CEO. In contrast, the villains left a lot to be desired, but they don’t hold back the story too much. The graphics hold up decently well considering the age of the game, and the general cyberpunk ambience of the game shines through well. As a warning, cutscenes and tutorials were not rerendered for higher resolutions, and will look terrible on most monitors. The audio is average, and the music is excellent (although it doesn’t get much time to shine).