Finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution and really enjoyed it

I finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution and thought it was all it should have been. I played the original Deus Ex many years ago and liked it quite a bit (though remember little of it now), so had high hopes for this one, and wasn’t disappointed.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a first person action game with RPG elements (as you gain experience, you get to upgrade your augmentations to help you jump higher or hack security systems better, etc.). The game is sometimes a shooter and often a stealth game, because there are some situations where going in guns blazing doesn’t help or may not even be possible. You make good use of cover and can employ a variety of lethal or non-lethal weapons. The game is quite a challenge, because your character doesn’t start out as a badass and can die very quickly.

There are a number of frustrating situations, but in the end, there are solutions for all of them. The biggest problem with the game is inventory management. There isn’t enough space to store all your guns and ammo, yet you need to carry all of them, because ammo is scarce in many levels, so you’ll need to switch guns a lot. Towards the end, ammo is more plentiful, but you want to keep all the cool guns you’ve acquired and upgraded. There are a couple of unique guns: a laser rifle and plasma rifle, so when you see them, get them even if you have to drop something less powerful. The laser rifle makes the final boss fight trivial.

The game is interesting because it is really a morality story. It has a number of factions arguing for or against human augmentation (and eventually really trying to stop it), and you’ll hear compelling arguments from all sides. At the end, you will need to make a choice as to how the future development of augmentation goes (or not), which is nifty. Overall, the game is very well written and thought provoking. Certainly not a “happily ever after” game.