Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC) Review

This prequel to the original the Deus Ex (which itself was an overrated game, sorry) is a Jekyll and Hyde. It is the first 50-50 game I've reviewed (by the end of this review). For every good thing in DE:HR (pronounced "Durr!") there comes a boring thing. It makes it so that I can review this via a list.

DURR! -- The List Review!

1) Every good voice actor speaks through a stiff face.

2) Every interesting bit of text about our future comes with a ho-hum bit of text about office life.

3) (Almost) Every well-written bit of dialogue is stuffed in an awkward-sounding conversation.

4) Every interesting city (there are two cities), is surrounded by (and has many) offices and office buildings.

5) Every fun mini-hacking game is accompanied by boring drawers and lockers, any of which may contain a level-up "Praxis" that makes you want to grind-open all the lockers and drawers.

6) Every unimaginative, stupid annoying boss fight is made less horrible by being short.

7) Every interesting NPC isn't standing too far from another NPC who has a twin who says the same things and with the same gesticulations.

8) Every cool-looking animation or gun comes with the repetitiveness of the no-longer-cool-looking animation and the gun that doesn't sound or look cool when it fires. And sometimes the sniper rifle sticks through the ground, and the tranquilizer gun's butt likes to stick through your jacket.

9) Although the upgrades for your protagonist and weapons feel more dramatic this Deus ex, there are still pretty useless ones.

[The swimming skill isn't in this game. Probably because there is no swimming.]

10) And, best and worstly, the game's challenging hard mode (which is the mode you should play it on) is accompanied by the good ole' PC save-almost-whenever-you-want system. In this game, the uber save system takes away almost all the tension and makes the experience very pausy (I could not find a quicksave button). Why should I worry about what I do next when I can just save?

And no, not even saving rarely (or never) will make the challenge fun, as you'll end up having to put up with the auto-saves being far back in time, making all your patient stealthery a grind of an experience as you die and have to do it all over again. And yes, stealth is the real way to play this game. I can tell because Durr! rewards you much more XP for more stealth, plus the shooting isn't fun.

The non-stealth way to play the game isn't fun because, like most cover-based shooters, in order to win, all you have to do is stay behind cover, keeping enemies away with a good short-range weapon, and wait for your health to slowly recharge and for your enemies to die.

11) The music sets the mood.

★★★☆☆