Deus Ex Human Revolution – The real reason for all the 9s and 10s
X360 doesn’t understand why Deus Ex: Human Revolution got such high scores, but is trying to.
I played and reviewed Deus Ex: Human Revolution well before the game’s release date – so well before the review embargo lifted – and I have to say I was surprised when reviews started coming through from other sources to see so many 9 and 10 scores for it. I gave it a 7.
So I had a good read through several of these ultra positive reviews and it seems to me that they all overlook, ignore or deny important facts about the game. For a start, let’s tackle those one by one…
(By the way, I’m not naming names or using direct quotes because this isn’t about mud slinging)
And one more thing – for the record, I played it on the hardest difficulty.
CHOICE
One of the main reasons for all the high praise was the level of choice offered by the game. While I’d agree that it’s fun to explore and that there are several different ways to approach each situation, I often found unreasonable, illogical limits put on my freedom of choice and certainly found it less generous with freedom of choice than the original Deus Ex. I saw one review that acknowledged this, describing the gameplay of Ion Storm’s 2000 classic as a “flow-chart”. That’s a nice way of putting it.
Back in 2002 I wrote a long, detailed, complex, branching walkthrough of Deus Ex for a PS2 magazine, so I really know just how much choice you had in that game, even on the PS2 version, which was a little more limited than the PC original. Believe me, Human Revolution doesn’t come close in this department. Surely, over a decade later, it should at least be a match.
VOICE-ACTING
I’ve seen the voice acting referred to as both expert and impeccable. It’s just not. It’s about average overall, but Elias Toufexis’ performance as Adam Jensen is particularly flat and boring.
STEALTH
Most reviews repeat the game’s own assertion that its mechanics and design favour stealth. This also just isn’t true and was one of my main criticisms of the game. Thanks to some clumsy mechanics and inconsistent AI, stealth is actually haphazard and risky, whereas thanks to the same crappy AI, open combat is more predictable and so ultimately much easier.
I’ve seen it argued that you need to focus on combat augmentations if you want to take a more violent approach. No you don’t. You just need to take advantage of the way the enemies willingly line up to be killed by you (one review specifically said they didn’t do that). You need to be smart enough to dig in somewhere where you can’t be surrounded, but that’s not exactly tactical depth and certainly doesn’t require combat augs.
It’s also been said that the game’s stealth mechanics stand up to scrutiny. I wouldn’t call shifting across the gap between one piece of cover and another in front of a guard just 20 yards away and noting that he was completely oblivious to it ‘scrutiny’, but it was enough to prove that stealth is a bit of a joke in this game.
AI
I’ve touched on this already because it’s a massive problem that compromises everything Deus Ex: Human Revolution tries to do, but it’s getting its own heading too. I’ve seen the AI described as intelligent, plausible and solid. It is not. It’s some of the dumbest AI I’ve ever seen. It just obviously is. What more can I say?
POLISH
I think some reviewers maybe think that saying a game is polished is the same as saying it’s shiny. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is shiny, but it’s not polished. There are many bugs, glitches, inconsistencies and rough edges.
So what do I think the real reason is for all the 9s and 10s? Well, one factor that can’t be ignored is that Deus Ex is the type of game that allows different players to have different experiences and I am willing to accept that I might have been a little unlucky in the particular experience I got out of it. But that’s still a flaw in the game and still doesn’t explain 9s and 10s. Here’s my theory as to what does…
Games journalists are hardcore gamers who’ve grown up with games and have had to put up with being told again and again that they’re hobby is childish and immature. So when a game comes along that even hints at genuine maturity and sophistication, some reviewers get carried away. The rush of excitement at finding a title that’s actually trying to help gaming grow up a bit is so great that critical assessment of the product as a whole gets sidelined. It seems to me that some write-ups of Deus Ex: Human Revolution review its capacity to make a gamer feel like an adult for a change, and little else.
There’s some exemplary storytelling in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, no doubt about that, and it does tackle some serious themes in a clever way. Eidos Montreal deserves credit for this. But as a vehicle for narrative it has some pretty serious flaws. One review argued that I’d be missing out if I ‘allowed’ issues with the game to impinge upon the narrative. But I didn’t allow them to, Eidos Montreal did. And for that, the studio deserves criticism. And not fawning, gushing praise.
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It couldn’t possibly be people having differing opinions to you.
To an extent, it could. But showing a total disregard for, or even denial of, obvious flaws doesn’t seem like a mere difference of opinion to me.
In the first mission you’re given a choice of weapons: a pistol or a machine gun. I chose the machine gun, thinking that it would mean I could play the level from an all-out action point of view. It may have, if I hadn’t been given just the EIGHT bullets.
Seriously, who takes just eight bullets into battle with them? For a machine gun?!
Once I’d run out of bullets (after the first kill) I was then forced into a stealth approach (sneaking around and using the takedown to kill guards) and then using the meagre number of bullets they dropped (incidently pistol bullets, not for my machine gun) when I got spotted.
In this way, Deus Ex does favour stealth. I was forced to play carefully in this and other early missions because ammunition is so scarce. Later on, when you have enough cash to buy loads of ammo, you are able to throw caution to the wind and play the game from a combative point of view.
Taken purely as a shooter, Deus Ex is just plain awful and many of the reasons why are highlighted above: poor AI and non-existent tactics for example.
Deus Ex Human Revolution gives the illusion of player choice but not the actual reality of it. There are small variations on play style, but nowhere near the level that the original game – or even its sequel – did.
I disagree that the story is interesting or has worth – relatively it does, I suppose – but compared even to the wider world of cyberpunk literature it’s devirative, boring and predictable. Forget comparing it to real books with real characters and narrative.
There’s a good game trying to get out here, but too many mistakes and compromises have been made with mechanics and design that it should never be considered a nine out of ten.
Alright… chill out.
You journalists are so nitpicky. Try playing a game without being critical as hell; its much more enjoyable.
But it’s our job, as critics, to be critical.
I don’t get your point. Reviewing is a subjective activity, not a science. I realize journalists are supposed to be as objective as possible, but in the end it all boils down to one thing: Did you enjoy the game or not?
I firmly believe that every review score dished out starts at a baseline determined by the reviewers expectations and genre preferences and is then influenced by his experiences playing the game. Good experiences bring the score up, bad ones bring it down. The expectations are as subjective as hell, the experiences not as much but are still subjective. Once done playing, the culmination of experiences and expectations are juggled together with the reviewers possible bad hair-day or recent raise at work and then you get a score.
There’s no science involved, no set pieces.
Understanding that makes this article superfluous.
Great opinion piece. The truth always hurts, particularly when it comes to gamers who are usually blindly loyal to a particular system and game series/style/genre. One thing’s for sure – forget all these over hyped dumbed down hybrid sequels trying to appeal to the masses and get The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim if you want one of the best gaming experiences you’ll ever have.
Sergio, a good review is about more than whether or not the reviewer enjoyed the game. The point of a review is to help the reader make a decision about whether they should buy it. It’s true that no one can be entirely objective and that very different reviews can be equally valid, but a reviewer should be evaluating the game as a product, not just reporting on their own experience with it and personal feelings about it.
If there are obvious problems and flaws in a game then they should be reported in a review of it, and taken into account when scoring, otherwise the review becomes an exercise in persuasion on the part o the reviewer (“This is why you should enjoy it as much or as little as I did”) as opposed to an excercise in evaluation (“These are the points you should consider when deciding whether or not you should buy this”).
Well, I found, at least in my playthrough, that the game didn’t behave like you said: crossing a gap between two pieces of cover, made the guards to spot me, even with the SWAT roll (tapping A), they activate alarms as soon as they know something is wrong.
Cover mechanics are flawless and so is the crouch system (no noise) and takedowns (which are brutal and perfectly balanced by the use of batteries, even having lethal or non-lethal with non-lethal being more silent) and enemies have big cones of vision (100°) and react to sounds, so stealth is perfect (even if the AI is not, it’s decent though). I played my stealth play without the cloak augmentation until later in the game because I really didn’t need it, as if it was a Metal Gear Solid, only using my wits and tactics I cleaned every room knocking every guard out without being spotted, and It required to make the enemy to separate so I could hunt them, and then hide their bodies and moving extremely carefully in order to avoid being spotted (I had to reload a lot since the enemy would spot me if they saw me, hear me, or see a dead body). So I say that, the AI is not in the “trained soldier” level, but it’s decent (“regular dude” level).
I saw some flaws with the AI: stopping the search (for me), after little time and putting themselves at risk while in combat. So in combat they take cover, flank and operate in squads (better than most shooters), but they put themselves too much at risk, as if they had a dead-wish. Cover again works perfectly for this, with destructible materials being bad cover and enemies shooting suppressive fire at me while another one tries to flank me discretely. Guns work fine and is good that a few bullets kill you.
All augmentations are useful in a way or other and boss fights,, even if they remove the playstyle choice (stealth, combat, hacking and social) they offer greater depth than the average combat: the 1st boss Barrett can be beaten with no shots on Normal and a few shots on Deus Ex: one must throw him gas tanks to stun him and explosive barrels while he is stuned. And the sheer amount of weapons gives plenty of options. Other bosses have as well different tactics.
PROS:
- Near perfect gameplay and controls (once axis Y and X sensitivity is adjusted).
- In-depth and perfect stealth (one can even be different types of infiltrator: ghost, assassin, hunter).
- Rewarding and awesome combat (a little bit of extra ammo would be welcome though).
- Social engineering is a blast.
- Emergent gameplay and tactics (you can kill a boss with a copying machine, put a vending machine to block an entrance or alarm panel, etc…).
- Enormous replay value (in great part due to that emergent gameplay)
CONS:
- Although gameplay choice is enormous, story choice is very limited, as you stated above.
- AI could be better in combat (but is generally smart compared to other games, Metal Gear Solid included).
- World hubs should have time: day and night flowing dynamically; and be visitable at will.
- Framerate issues on world hubs (my biggest problem with the game and one I hope will be fixed with a patch).
- Lack of NEW GAME + option (we all want to fool around with full augmentations, or at least those with which we finished the game).
>>> This game would benefit of an XBOX 360 patch to fix a lot of flaws, but I would give it a 9/10. There is the “Experience Factor”: judging the experience as a whole, no other game this generation comes close.
HATERS GONNA HATE ;p
Maybe you played the more flawed review version or maybe you are one of those guy that think no popular game deserves the glorious input from their godly thumbs.
Nick Jones: combat does have tactics: combining cover and the last known position aug you can mess with the enemy in different ways, mine templates give you options and the submachinegun just suck (bullets and dick): the revolver makes bullets last because of it’s high power (I have more than 100 revolver bullets and more than 200 handgun bullets in my inventory) and more so the 10mm Handgun: just remember to be accurate with headshots and loot bodies. Combat could be better but is on the level of some other shooters (if you DON’T USE THE SMG and are reserved with your ammo). This game favors semi-automatic weapons as full automatic weapons tend to be less efficient.
I don’t hate it and my godly thumbs have played and enjoyed games way more popular than Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It’s only scraped just over a million global sales so far, which isn’t that big a success in this day and age.
i believe that you had such a difficult time with the game because… you played on the hardest diffculty… playing on the “normal difficulty” the stealth system is impecable… try again… hater… Deus Ex: Human Revelution!!! – FTW
Thought it was poop to be honest
Wah wah wah.
CRY SOME MOAR LITTLE BABY!!
Also, I was trolling.
I salute your persistence and willpower, Mr.Mackenzie, to deal with these mouth-breathing idiots who populate your comments thread. Whenever I feel like taking a dump on game reviewers for being the paid-for sycophants for publishers that they -mostly- are, I remember that delusional and rabid fanboys are the real reason why the hamster wheel keeps spinning over and over and over again.
If DX:HR had been a game from a no-name studio from East-Europe or Asia, it’s scoring would have been much more consistent.
Just finished playing the game (It’s likely no one will read this comment). I did a search for “Deus Ex poor AI” and this was one of the reviews I found.
I have to agree that a score of 7 is what this game deserves. A 7 allows plenty of room for the reviewer to have had fun with the game, which MacKenzie did, “there is a decent, sometimes even excellent, interactive sci-fiadventure here”(from his review rating the game 7.5), but shows places where the game could have been better. I believe the shortcomings pointed out were spot-on.
I also agree with a 7. A score of 7 is still above average, a far cry from a bad game. This tossing around of high scores is typical from the “Reward” generation. I don’t know if they truly like these games that much or if they aren’t able to use a 10 point scale properly. If 10 is the absolute best something can get, nothing should get a 10. If a 9 is just below a 10, very very few games of only the highest quality standards should receive this score. Most games should fall between 3 and 8.
Yup, 7 is pretty good still and quite accurate for this title. I don’t like the game much. If I were to score this game based on my personal tastes/opinion, I would rate it a 4. I can see how other people would find it enjoyable though.
Just finished playing the game (and the DLC) for the 5th time.
I am a huge Deus Ex fan and I can even cope with DX: IW (and it takes some effort, believe me). I am also a huge game collector and worked with various game websites / mags in the past decade.
From a DX fan perspective, the game deserves a 9/10 because of the setting and story it creates, which adds to the general structure of what the original game had created. You can spot lots of connections as “roots” of the events to come and shape the world of DX:1. From this sense, the game is great and really deserves the praise. Only the endings were a bit “meh” but then, so were the endings of DX:1.
From a normal gamer perspective, a 7 may seem just due to the various problems the game has as the OP had stated. However, from this perspective, almost all the games that come out should be placed in between 1 to 8 max.
I believe DX:HR exceeds the quality and fun of games like AC III or Hitman: Absolution (and I am a die hard fan of those series as well) and in a world where each and every mag / website acknowledged a just rating system, it would be fair to give DX:HR a 7. However, within today’s gaming press, DX:HR having the same review points with AC III or Absolution would be unjust as it deserves more, which may explain the high ratings it had.
Just my opinion
Cheers.