We can rebuild him ... we have the technology

Just finished a play through of Deus Ex Human Revolution (DXHR)

I got this one last year but after a short look, I decided to shelve it until I did the PC upgrade planned for the Halloween week. My ageing dinosaur wasn't really up to the job of running a game as detailed as this.

Glad I waited, the DXHR experience was well worth the wait. Gamers expect different things nowadays from our A List titles. We look for story, gorgeous graphics and the ability to do exactly what we want in the game. That's pretty rare, even in new games. We also look for voice acting to replace the text only stuff we had before dvd's came along to hold all the data.

In short (okok it's me), we're looking for an immersive experience where we escape into another world. Whether that be fantasy, Earth fiction or other world fiction.

DXHR is what I'd call Earth fiction, based in the near future where augmentation technology is becoming part of everyday life. That's where amputees get their limbs back by technology providing artificial replacements. You are launched into a world with conspiracy, prejudice and urban decay utterly rife. You feel as if the rule of law is being set aside in favour of companies operating above that law ignoring the corrupt governments that get in their way.

And they pull it off very successfully too. I've happily been jumping into the DXHR world over the past few evenings, finishing it off tonight. I'll try and avoid spoilers.

The game engine plays a lot like a normal First Person Shooter with role play aspects built in. You steadily build up your character over the course of the game, adding more and more bionic capabilities to your character. Those include a radar, eyes that see through walls, hacking (big part of the game), limbs, lungs, everything.

Stealth is a massive aspect to the game. The ideal way to play through is to take down one or two bad guys at a time. The game is set up so that if you try to take on 3-4 armed men at the same time by storming in all guns blazing, you die fast. That difficulty just adds to the immersion. The cover system is very well realised. And you have a valid choice between lethal and non-lethal. My 3rd play through will go for the "Pacifist" achievement now I'm practiced in the stealthiness. (Want to play with the big guns in the next run)

It starts to blur the line between Game & Virtual Realm in a way that MMOs can't touch and games like Mass Effect are only just getting close to. It's far in advance of the older FPS's.

I'm kinda in danger of going too geeky here so I'll try and avoid getting too deep into techy nerd-dom. Suffice to say this game is about as close to letting the gamer do precisely what they want when it comes to dynamic combat situations.

However ... there's a catch. For all the stuff it lets you do while in combat, it's still severely limited while in story mode. A criticism of a lot of FPS style games is that they are on rails and this game is no exception. Outside of side quests, you're driven down a specific path with not much chance for straying. That said, it's a very good story. If it were a book, I'd give it a good few reads.

Right - I can no longer ignore the dinner bell coming from the microwave.

DXHR - Pro's : immersive, extensive, excellent story and great stealth combat system. Looks great too.
Con's : it's on rails. And that's about all I can think of.

PS Note I didn't include "free of bugs" in my list of what gamers look for. Sadly, we still buy games from companies that have terrible records with keeping their games bug free. I've just added DICE (Battlefield 3) to my Do Not Buy list, which also includes Bethesda. Too many bugs in their previous games for me to consider buying Skyrim.