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. Originally released in August 2011 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 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 by Feral Interactive; it includes the original game and The Missing Link downloadable content. An improved version of the game for PC and consoles, including a Wii U version, was released on October 22, 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 and defeats one of the mercenaries, Lawrence Barrett, who 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. She tries to disable his augmentations, which succeeds only if the player has chosen to have Jensen's neural chip replaced. 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" in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, 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 earning enough experience points to gain a Praxis Kit, which functions as a skill point. Praxis Kits can also be bought at L.I.M.B. (Liberty In Mind and Body) clinics or be found throughout the game.

Augmentations, while enhancing the player's performance in each of the gameplay types, 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 others and still be able 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 be upgraded like in Deus Ex via a variety "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 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. In the Director's Cut however, the option was added to also take out bosses non-lethally.

Reception
Deus Ex: Human Revolution has received widespread critical acclaim. Reviewers who had access to the game in February 2011 praised the open-ended experience of the game, similar to the first Deus Ex, the importance of conversations in the missions, and also the depth of the storyline. PC Gamer UK gave the game a score of 94 and the Editor's Choice, describing it as a game that "puts almost everything else in the genre to shame." Official Xbox Magazine UK gave the game a 10/10. Official PlayStation Magazine UK gave it an 8/10, citing frustrations in ammo quantities, load times, and boss fights. Common criticisms included the game's inclusion of boss fights, which removed the element of player-choice and flexibility in combat. IGN gave the game 9.0, praising the nonlinearity of the main story quests and the side quests, saying, "Each of them has several layers, several angles to be explored or not, several perspectives to be considered and several possible outcomes." IGN also praised the freeform nature of the game, stating that they, "never felt punished for playstyle", and that there was room for both stealth and 'all guns blazing', and that every path always had advantages and disadvantages, but ultimately, all led to success. PC Gamer UK rated Deus Ex: Human Revolution "action game of the year" for 2011.

Many reviews criticized the game's endings system and boss fights. Specifically, for a game that promotes stealth and non-lethality, many reviewers found the boss fights incongruous, where Jensen is essentially forced into lethal firefights. The British Daily Mirror newspaper wrote "the boss battles feel out of place", PSM3 considered the game "Rich, atmospheric and open-ended, but let down by twitchy AI and out-of place boss fights". GameSpot said "Poor boss fights remove the element of choice", and finally Game Informer mentioned "horribly repetitious arena fights against super-powered foes that can usually drop Jensen before he even knows what hit him." Square Enix had outsourced the development of the boss fights to GRIP Entertainment.

Criticisms in regards to the boss fights were taken into account in the development of the DLC The Missing Link, which were developed in-house by Eidos Montreal, rather than being outsourced to GRIP Entertainment. Eidos Montreal production co-ordinator Marc-Andre Dufort stated: "You can actually not kill the boss. You can do a non-lethal takedown on him. And you can kill him from afar. You can even kill him without him seeing you. It's more of a bigger challenge than a standard boss fight like we have in many games." The improved boss gained positive criticism from IGN's Keza MacDonald, who suggested that The Missing Link "rights the wrongs done to us by Human Revolution's boss battles, ending with a brilliant boss encounter that lets you put all of your skills and cunning to use. It's a tantalising glimpse at how good these fights could have been in the main story, if we hadn't been forced into face-to-face confrontations that felt totally antithetical to the rest of the game." Another review from IGN brought forward the freezing that many gamers experienced on multiple platforms that plagued gameplay often.

The game has sold 2.18 million copies across all platforms as of September 30, 2011, 800,000 of which were sold in North America and 1.38 million in Europe.