I'm in the bottom floor of a warehouse. According to my radar there is only one tango on the top floor. I count five on the bottom floor. I have a bigger problem at hand. There are two heavy machine gunners and a robot. I prepare myself accordingly. I equip my crossbow and take aim at the first tango up top. He gets an arrow to the chest. Tango down. I see two targets away from the herd. I run up to them and impale them with my arm blades. I pull the blades out from their guts and swiftly send the blades into their spines for insurance. That's three down.
The computer I need to get access to is being guarded by one tango. I shoot two well placed rounds into the target with my silenced pistol. Four down. I access the computer. Shit, level 4 security. I spend a quick minute to hack the security hub. I breach the computer and activate the turret and robot to terminate enemy targets. Fireworks. I sit and watch as the carnage ensues. I have an evil grin on my face as the remaining tango's were neutralized. Pritchard? Mission accomplished. Where's my exit? My name is Jon Ortiz, but for tonight you can call me Adam Jensen. This is my story
And end scene. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is really a hell of an experience. I could gush about this damn game for hours. I love everything about it. Sure, the boss battles were a bit unbalanced and the AI is stupid, but I don't care about that. The good certainly outweighs the bad here. Deus Ex has this beautiful neo-noir setting straight out of a Jonathan Lethem novel. Then they wrap it in this sharply written story wrought with conspiracy and political intrigue. It's the video game equivalent of Blade Runner. Am I overselling it? Maybe, but that doesn't change that Eidos Montreal has restored my faith for in-game story telling. While the fiction in Deus Ex can be ham-fisted at times, it's executed brilliantly.
The Devil Is In The Details
I have played Deus Ex: HR twice. You have to play the game more than once to see all the things it has to offer. There are multiple ways to complete sidequests, diaries that flesh out the story behind trans-humanism, and computers that contain mini stories that give life to the Detroit of 2027. The game also has three very distinct endings, which is even more reason to come back for more. The first thing that grabbed me in this game was its story. From start to finish you will want to know everything about this world.
The game manages to throw a lot at you at once and the web of secrets becomes larger and larger as the game progresses, so naturally you want to know more. You become a detective without even realizing it. You feel compelled to scour every corner of every level to learn more. You essentially become Adam Jensen. Whether it was by design or not, the story is captivating enough to make you feel this way. The flow and pace of the story is really well-directed, much the way a good movie is. Good direction is usually accompanied by solid writing, which is something this game has in spades. Some of the stilted voice acting hampers the dialogue, but you will still appreciate it.
I really appreciate the amount of detail Eidos Montreal put into the game. I love when a game has a story behind a story. I discussed this on my Bioshock post to great length, but I will reiterate here for good measure: READ EVERYTHING. Deus Ex: HR does a great job of giving the player context to the madness that they see on their journey. You will get a history lesson on the developer of augmentations, the controversy behind human augmentation, and how augmentations has saved millions of lives. We also learn how augmentations spawned an entirely new industry and helped a city ascend to greatness again. The rabbit hole is endless, and that's a beautiful thing.
*POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT AHEAD.*--This next section will mention no names at all, but I may refer to specific themes that the game touches upon. I may also give some vague details on certain arcs within the game. If you get concerned about any of that, please stop reading. I won't be the dick that ruined a great game for you, otherwise read on.
"More Human Than Human"
What if we could be more than what we are? What if we could cure blindness, deafness, or even neurological disorders? What if we could change the very course of humanity and become demigods? What if? These are the questions that present themselves in Deus Ex: HR. The game challenges players in a way that I have not seen before. It literally puts you in uncomfortable positions to get a response. It's almost as if to ask "How does this make you feel?" The story brings into question corporate tyranny, self-righteousness, one bad for the "greater good", god complexes, greed, selfishness, murder, deceit, love, hate, and regret.
The game has this uncanny ability to feel like a sandbox title, but not actually a sandbox game. What I mean by that is that the game will hold your hand to an extent, and then it will push you over the edge. It will leave you in a moral grey area. What is right and what is wrong? Unlike most dialogue trees in games where they tend to say "this garners one result and this another", Deus Ex: HR says "you have the freedom of choice, whether it's right or wrong is entirely up to you" This is how deep the story gets in this game. You will start to question your decisions. Should I just tow the company line and be a good foot soldier? Or should I dig deeper and find out what's really going on?
The fact that your decisions could affect millions in a seemingly real and tangible way is scary. You have to understand that the game takes place in the near future (2027). They focus on massive pharmaceutical and technology corporations whose only concern is to appease shareholders, which is true even today. We are also making advances in the medical field with prosthetics and stem cell research (although that's much more controversial). When you place the story of Deus Ex:HR into a plausible context like that, that's when you're like "what?"
These companies will go to any length to protect their assets, but when does Adam Jensen draw the line? Better yet, when do you draw the line for him? When you're floating in moral and ethical ambiguity the decision could become tougher, thus the need for information. The best part is realizing that you made the wrong decision. Well, something you feel in your own way was a wrong decision. Can you deal the consequences of your actions or will you just reload your save like a wuss? Live with the consequences my friend, the game demands it.
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Do Sex is undoubtedly an intelligent game, and the kind of ground it covers is astutely aware of the movements society is making towards another level of humanity. I mean, I'm not saying we'll all have augmented body parts in the next 17 years, but there'll come a time when that becomes a part of our lives, and we'll look back fondly on Deus Ex and smile. Like the fossils we are :P
Perhaps you can answer this question: when you complete the game, and go for another playthrough, does anything carry over from the first play? I'm going to play through it again, but if things don't carry over I'd like to tackle it on PC next time around.
That's actually the perfect way to describe the game "intelligent". That's really what I like about the game, the way it creates a scenario that could happen. Perhaps not to the extreme they present but some form of human augmentation is inevitable.
To answer your question...no. Nothing carries over unfortunately, although that would be fantastic. I encourage you to play it on PC, that's something I'm considering doing myself.