Deus Ex Human Revolution (PC-HD) Gameplay Aspects, Strategy Tactics, Review below

Deus Ex Human Revolution is a First Person Shooter ( 'third person view' when hiding in cover) Role Playing Game for the thinking man (or woman).

It is similar to the original (old) Deus Ex games. In modern terms it could be compared to the 'Fallout New Vegas' genre of games.

You play as Adam Jensen, Head of Security at Sarif Industries, an Augmentation Technology company. A terrorist attack occurs at Sarif and your former girlfriend is also killed. During the attack you suffer horrific injuries, but your Boss gives you a multi-million dollar state of the art augmented body. (The problem being not everyone is happy about human body augmentation, hence the attack on your company.)

Your main aim is to wonder around the City of Detroit (initially) to find out more about your attackers and to complete various differing side missions. More clues and progression in the game leads you to other parts of the world. (n.b.try to complete side missions first as sometimes you cannot go back after completeing the main mission segments).

There are several methods to complete the objectives, direct confrontation and brutal violence, or a more sneaky, hack into computers and knock people out/ stun them method. Usually if you are trying to find a person/ data, you can walk in via the front door or, sneak into / around through some rather huge man-sized venting, or get into the building via the fire escape and hacking the door. There are also occasions where you can persuade your target to give up/ give information etc. (There are even Persuasion Augmentations available.) So there is something to suit all styles of play.

I have found that the game usually rewards the more sneaky method. Hacking things tends to get you more XP, taking the venting route can get you 'traveller' XP. Killing people only gets you 10 XP Vs non-fatal hand to hand take downs (knock outs) which net you 50 XP. The more XP you get the more Praxis kits you obtain to unlock augmentations. Praxis kits can also be found and bought but these are limited in number.

There are many augmentations you can unlock in the game, from stealth augments that: track your enemies, give information on your noise production, allow you to see through walls, walk run silently, jump to and land from great heights.

There are also more practical augmentations. These include better hacking anti-detection, dermal armour, quicker battery recharge for those quick successive take downs or other augmentations that use battery power i.e. invisibility, more strength to carry more items, lift heavier objects or compensate for recoil on those big heavy guns.

If I could recommend a worthwhile Augmentation; it would be Hacking Stealth, as this augmentation lowers your risk of detection upon hacking and capturing nodes, and hacking terminals can net you a lot of XP. Hacking can: turn turrets/ security cameras/ robots off/ rogue, can open vaults, opens doors, or allows you access to important information. (Check out my Hacking Info-Tutorial for more information.)

You also get a great choice of weapons in the game, from pistols and stun guns to mini-guns, sniper rifles and rocket launchers. The weapons themselves can also be upgraded with explosive ammo, capacity, reload speed, targeting upgrades etc. (n.b. Some weapons are limited in their upgrades.)

At major points in the game you also get Boss fights where you can fight tough Military Standard augmented baddies.

Some of the choices you make in the game can also give you differing outcomes or scenarios, so you may have to play the game a few times just to see them.

The issues I have had with this game are that at the start, as a weak character, you tend to have to do a lot of sneaking as you can be easily killed. This can become tedious when you first start out as you are not familiar with the controls or detection capabilities of your enemies.

You are also supplied with a multi-million dollar state of the art augmented body and some weapons from your boss, but you have to buy ammo from dodgy back street dealers? You have to explore the maps to find some dealers / and side missions as these are triggered by talking to the 'right people'.

If you want to unlock more of your augmentations, you have to play a more stealth type of game as this earns you much more XP. Stunning or knocking out an enemy gives you much more XP than a straight kill, and if you remain undetected during a mission you can earn a 'Ghost 500 XP' bonus.

The Battery Charge System recharges your battery after cloaking and use of Takedowns. You can increase the speed of recharge and the capacity of the battery. The problem is the recharge system does not affect the charge of the extra capacity. You have to eat food to charge the spare capacity up. Silly and annoying.

Overall I can recommend this game, especially if you liked the current Fallout type games or the old Deus Ex games. One not to be missed: 9/10.