Deus Ex: Human Revolution - A (gushing) Preview

My personally most anticipated shooter of 2011 (exact date of release still pending following its March 8th delay) is shaping up to be something very special indeed, despite (or perhaps because of) showing a marked resemblance to Bethesda's U.S. wasteland RPG, Fallout 3. Plot, setting and art design take major cues from sci-fi staple Blade Runner and anime series Ghost in the Shell (more on that later), but in terms of gameplay and level design, the similarities are extensive.

It is stunning however, with luscious lighting and dystopian details. A far cry from Fallout's muddy nuclear textures.

Not that that's a bad thing, Fallout was a game about choice - a very common ethic in RPGs these days thanks to Bioware but it also made its way into shooter genres as well. The attempt to give consequence to play action was streamlined by a morality system which could give players a quantified idea of their progress and visual cues through NPC interaction: if they look like they don't like you, chances are you've made some morally dubious decisions recently. Oddly, Deus Ex is lacking in that department, with no morality-meter you're left in a permanent state of ethical 'greyness', which is a pleasant change of pace.

This is not a grand tale of post-Apocalyptic adventure, or a dramatic Space Opera but a jaded man's attempt to uncover corporate conspiracy. Granted it's world-wide (and the world in this case is certainly futuristic but still believable) in scope but you're not a hero in the traditional sense. It makes sense for such a main character to remain emotionally distant and Machiavellian, without Government backing he needs to make constantly difficult decisions that would benefit him personally in his quest and as far as possible, disregard the inevitable collateral damage. And that character is Adam Jenson. As private security he's hired to protect an experimental biotechnology lab, which is subsequently attacked leaving Adam mortally wounded.

It's worth noting at this point that Human Revolution is the third Deus Ex game and a prequel to the events of the first. The original was a much loved, complex and dynamic shooter set in a world where nanomachine technology had reached extraordinary heights. As a prequel by some decades, Human Revolution's world has yet to discover/implement this technology and the preferred method of body modification is by overt mechanical attachments in much the same vein as Ghost in the Shell or I, Robot. Conveniently, the lab Adam gets riddled with holes in at the outset of the game, is one specialising in these cutting-edge prosthetic enhancements. So not only is Jenson fixed up but he's gifted with new arms (that can bust through concrete walls and sprout lethal blades), eyes and other accoutrements. This provides the fundamental aspect of the gameplay.

Expect plenty of this.

At first glance, DE:HR looks like your average FPS but Eidos Montreal have taken much the same approach to Bethesda and Bioware in that you'll spend as much time hacking terminals, engaging in conversation with NPCs and exploring environments as squeezing the trigger. You're various augmentations can and will have to be systematically upgraded, not just to better wade through hoards of super-soldiers and mechs but to better accomplish all the other tasks above. It treads a fine line between RPG and shooter, you'll need an itchy index finger and caffeine-addict reaction time just as much as a tenacious attitude to grinding and resource farming.

It's the developers' approach to choice that marks this out as more exciting an idea than usual and they displayed that most effectively with their PAX 2010 demo. Adam's objective was simple, enter a guarded area and set off a bomb. First though, you'd have to get past the gate and into the complex. The most obvious way to achieve that would be to pull out your biggest firearm and go in blasting, but you could also try to sneak past the guard using optical camouflage; hack the security robots to cause a distraction for you; attempt to sweet-talk the guard; jump the fence or find a gap. The developer went with the last option, but to do so had to move a large crate in order to access the gap, which they did by upgrading Adam's ability to lift heavy objects. Human Revolution's biggest draw for me is not just the availability of all these options, but the fact that there's no morality system preventing you from experimenting with them. Bioware games are particularly bad for this, forcing you to be consistent in play style and actively punishing players that try to tow a moral grey area but DE:HR rewards you.

If they can apply that flexibility to all their missions, keep the story engaging and mysterious and develop on Adam's initial reluctance to undergo bodily augmentation, then right now there's not much stopping Human Revolution being nigh no perfect come release day/