Video Game Vintage Title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a cyberpunk-themed action role-playing video game developed by Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix, which also produced the game's CGI sequences. Released in August 2011, it is the third game in the Deus Ex series, and a prequel to the original game released in 2000. An OS X version, Deus Ex: Human Revolution Ultimate Edition, was released on April 26, 2012; it includes the original game and "The Missing Link" downloadable content. A Wii U version will be released in 2013 as Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut.

The game is set in 2027, 25 years before the first game in the series, at a time when multinational corporations have grown in power beyond the control of national governments. The game follows Adam Jensen, the newly hired security manager at Sarif Industries, a growing biotechnology firm. After terrorists brutally attack Sarif's Detroit-based headquarters, the mortally wounded Jensen is forced to undergo radical life-saving surgeries that replace large areas of his body with advanced prostheses. Returning to work, he becomes embroiled in the global politics of the human enhancement movement in the search for those responsible for the attack. A central theme to the game is the rise of corporations in globalization, espionage, human survival, poverty, and the ethics of advancing humans with artificial replacements for body parts.

Human Revolution received critical acclaim upon its release, with many reviewers praising the open-ended nature of the game and the weight of social interaction on the outcome of events.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Plot

In an intro sequence, Bob Page attends a secret audio conference with his co-conspirators about Sarif Industries' recent discoveries and their own plans to control events.

As the game starts, security manager Adam Jensen and systems engineer Frank Pritchard are preparing a visit to a Washington DC congressional hearing for Sarif Industries CEO David Sarif and his team of scientists; headed by lead scientist Megan Reed, Adam's ex-girlfriend. They are to present their scientific findings which can make mechanically augmented people independent from Neuropozyne: an expensive drug that prevents augmentation rejection. Sarif HQ is suddenly attacked by unknown mercenaries. Adam tries to repel the attack, but is severely injured by the mercenary leader, while Megan and her team are apparently killed. Wounded beyond normal recovery, Adam is put through augmentation procedures with Sarif's most advanced technology. Six months later, Adam is called in from sick leave to secure sensitive technology and rescue hostages from an SI production plant, occupied by the anti-augmentation group, Purity First. Inside the facility, Adam surprises one of the gunmen trying to steal the technology�only to watch him be forced to involuntarily commit suicide by remote-controlling brain-implants. Adam then confronts the group's leader, Zeke Sanders, who can either escape, be captured or killed. After Jensen retrieves the deceased gunman�s neural chip from his old Detroit police precinct, Pritchard tracks the hacking signal to an abandoned factory in Highland Park. There, Jensen discovers the mercenaries who attacked Sarif Industries, guarding a FEMA detention camp. He confronts one of the mercenaries, Lawrence Barrett, who is defeated and tells Jensen to go to Hengsha, Shanghai before killing himself with a grenade.

Together with Sarif's chief pilot, Faridah Malik, Adam travels to Hengsha and tracks down the hacker, Arie van Bruggen�who is being hunted by Belltower Associates, the world's largest private military company, and protected by local triad leader Tong Si Hung. Van Bruggen, who can be given a weapon to survive; or left alone to die in a Belltower assault, directs Jensen to find evidence inside the Tai Yong Medical, the world�s market leader in augmentations technology. Infiltrating the facility, Jensen finds recorded proof that the Sarif researchers are still alive, and that Eliza Cassan�a famous news anchor with the Picus Network in Montreal�is somehow involved. He confronts TYM CEO Zhao Yun Ru, who is able to distract him to get away. In Montreal, Jensen confronts Cassan, who admits being the one who disabled the scientists� tracking beacons in order for them to be kidnapped, and then turns out to be an advanced AI personality. He defeats another mercenary, Yelena Fedorova, who succumbs to her injuries. Eliza directs Adam to doctor Isaias Sandoval, aide to William Taggart�the leader of the Humanity Front, a powerful anti-augmentation organization.

Back in Detroit, Sarif warns Adam of the Illuminati, a secret society bent on controlling the world�s fate. Jensen infiltrates a Humanity Front rally and discovers Sandoval�s location, by either publicly confronting or secretly robbing Taggart for information. Finding Sandoval in a Purity First safe-house, he admits his involvement in the kidnapping and gives Jensen the lead to find the researchers. He can be talked into surrendering himself to the authorities, committing suicide�or be confronted and subsequently captured or killed. Back in Sarif HQ, Jensen meets Hugh Darrow, Sarif's trusted mentor and the father of augmentation technology. Pritchard locates the tracking beacon of one of the scientists, taking Jensen back to Hengsha, where he and Malik are ambushed by Belltower: Malik can either escape or be killed. Augmented people worldwide are starting to experience painful glitches. and authorities are urging everyone to have a neural chip replacement. Jensen can either have a replacement at the local LIMB clinic, or wait. The beacon leads Jensen to the Harvesters, a Chinese gang living off stealing augmentation technology. After infiltrating their hide-out, he confronts Tong Si Hung, who has just been augmented with the now deceased scientist's arm. Tong directs Jensen to a port leased by Belltower. He instructs him to plant a bomb to create a distraction, in order to stow away on a ship heading for an unknown destination. Jensen successfully bombs the port's warehouse and hides in a stasis pod being loaded onto the ship. A few days later, Jensen awakes in another stasis pod and re-establishes contact with Pritchard in a secret research facility, the Omega Ranch, in Singapore. He finds the kidnapped SI scientists, who stage a distraction, allowing him to infiltrate the facility�s secret bunker. Here he confronts Zhao Yun Ru a second time, who tries to disable him with a killswitch�depending on whether Jensen did or did not replace his neural chip. He faces his assailant, Tyrant commander Jaron Namir, and kills him. Adam finds Megan, who tells him that she was kidnapped for her research; the key to make all humans compatible with augmentations, which she found in Jensen's DNA�and to help Hugh Darrow foil the Illuminati's plans to use the new biochips to control augmented humans.

Moments later, Darrow appears live on television and broadcasts a signal that throws augmented people worldwide on a rampage of hallucination and violence. Jensen evacuates the scientists, and commandeers an orbital flight module to reach Panchaea, Darrow�s thermo-geological plant built in the Arctic to stem the tide of global warming. He confronts Darrow, who reveals that he wants humanity to abandon the augmentation technology he himself invented, because he believes it to be dangerous. Failing or succeeding to talk Darrow into helping him, Jensen sets off to disable Panchaea's supercomputer and end the broadcast. On the way he can confront Sarif and Taggart, two of Darrow�s guests at Panchaea's unveiling. Jensen makes his way down to the facility�s sub-level and finds the Hyron project�a supercomputer using modified humans as processors. He again confronts Zhao Yun Ru, who wants to connect herself to the supercomputer and modify the signal for the Illuminati's benefit. The connection fails and, becoming a slave to the system, she attacks Jensen. After destroying the machine, which kills Zhao, Jensen walks into the system core where he is greeted by Eliza, who gives him options to alter the signal: broadcast Darrow�s recorded confession, warning the public of the dangers of augmentation technology; alter the confession according to Sarif's suggestion, directing the blame on the Humanity Front; forge the signal according to Taggart's suggestion, blaming the chaos on contaminated Neuropozyne and thereby urge the public to put restrictions on augmentation technology; or, disable the facility�s safety systems, make it implode under the sea, killing everyone�leaving the public unaware of any truth, free to make its own decisions. As Adam makes his choice, an epilogue rolls�Adam reflects his experience and fears, or hopes, for the future.

In a post-credits scene foreshadowing the events of Deus Ex, Bob Page is heard talking to Morgan Everett about using the remaining "wreckage" of the Hyron Project for something they can use in the 'Morpheus Initiative'. He then grants Megan Reed audience and they discuss her future employment and work on "the nanite virus chimera".

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Gameplay

The different "pillars of gameplay", as called by the developers, are "Combat", "Stealth", "Hacking", and "Social". Players can switch between these gameplay types whenever they please, and certain pillars may flow into others. For example, a failed hack may sound an alarm and start a fight, and social skills might lead to the player gaining access to certain areas more easily than otherwise possible (thus avoiding the need for stealth or combat).

In the series, augmentations are technological modifications to the human body that grant the user superhuman abilities. While augmentations in the first two games were based on nanotechnology, Human Revolution instead features mechanical augmentations as it precedes the first games chronologically. As players progress through the game, they can activate augmentations catering to each of the four gameplay types. These augmentations are unlocked by either earning enough experience to level up or by purchasing an item, known as a Praxis Kit, from L.I.M.B. (Liberty In Mind and Body) clinics earning the player a distributable skill point called Praxis.

Augmentations, while enhancing the player's performance in each of the gameplay types, also allow players to craft their own methods of play as they see fit. For example, players can prioritize augmentations that either improve the player character's combat prowess or his hacking abilities while neglecting the other without being unable to complete a mission objective. Weapons fire distinct ammunition types instead of depleting a unified pool (as was the case in Invisible War). They can also be upgraded like in Deus Ex via a variety of so-called "weapon mods" to improve their performance, such as reducing the time it takes to reload, increasing magazine size, adding a laser targeting device for increased accuracy, and so on.

Deviating from previous titles in the series, Human Revolution uses a regenerating health model. This change was made because the developers did not want players to get into a situation where they were unable to progress due to low health, and would be forced to "scrounge for med packs" and food. This 'scrounging' breaks the flow of the game when the player retreats to search the entire level for medical supplies. In combat, only brief exposure to enemy attacks is necessary to kill the player, so regenerative health is only a major factor between fights, not during them. The player can, however, use medical supplies (such as painkillers) and various alcoholic beverages to regenerate the character's health or boost it up to twice the normal amount. Similar to regenerative health, the game also features a new regenerative energy system, deviating from the previous title's use of items to restore energy. While players will still need to use items to boost their energy cell charge past one, the first cell or any cell partially full will gradually recharge. Despite upgrades to the energy recharge portion in the skills, ultimately only the first cell will recharge by itself when completely depleted.

Another major change seen in Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the highlighting of objects a player can interact with, explained via the in-game plot as tactical vision augmentation. This highlighting of objects can be turned off in the game options. Human Revolution is primarily a first-person game, but switches to a contextual third-person viewpoint when using the cover system, climbing ladders, activating certain augmentations, or for melee combat.

While the player character is highly capable of dispatching his enemies, the player is never forced into acts of lethal violence, except during boss fights. Therefore, the use of lethal force becomes an ethical choice for the player. In fact, players are awarded the "Pacifist" achievement/trophy only by completing the whole game without any non-player characters dying by the player's hands.