Also available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, OSX, and Windows Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game in which I'd always taken a passing interest, but it never piqued my interest enough to bother buying or playing it. When I saw that it had been ported to Wii U and was relatively cheap used, I picked it up for my Wii U collection. I finally decided this week to fire it up and give it a whirl given all of the good things I've heard about this game and its sequel. Some of my friends sing the praises of this game from the highest mountains that they can find. While I wasn't THAT impressed with it, it was definitely quite a good game, and I intend to pick up the sequel at some point (either when it gets cheap used or when I'm not continuously burying myself under piles of debt). In terms of story - definitely the game's strongest point - it feels almost like a cyberpunk Mass Effect. The narrative and characters aren't as deep or well developed as those of Mass Effect, but the way the story is told feels quite similar as do the choices the game has you make. For almost every enemy counter, you can choose to take a lethal or a non-lethal route. Being the bloodthirsty fiend that I am, I opted to massacre everything in sight. You can also, in most situations, choose to implement stealth or go in guns blazing. Not being a punk ass bitch, I walked right up to those MFers and shoved my arm-sword into their throats (needless to say, I died a lot, but it was a lot of fun). Graphically, the game looks a bit dated, but it's also a 2013 port of a 2011 game. It's not pushing the Wii U's graphical limits, but it looks fine, all things considered. I have two big complains with the game. The voice acting for Adam Jensen was monotone and boring af. More importantly, though, the controls are absolute garbage. That wouldn't be so bad if the game allowed for any degree of control customization whatsoever. You tap the L button to sprint; clicking the left stick crouches. You press ZL to hide behind cover; clicking the right stick aims. You press A to reload; pressing Y performs a takedown. You have to open a menu via the touchscreen or hold B to change weapons; X jumps. Just about the only thing that felt natural was using A to interact with objects, using R to throw grenades, and using ZR to fire. I know I'm nitpicking here, but the controls were so drastically different from any other similar game I've played in the past year or two that it took me a considerable amount of time to get used to them. Once I did get used to the controls, the game was great, but the controls add an unnecessarily steep learning curve in my opinion. Despite my not insignificant gripes with the controls, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is definitely a good game, and I absolutely recommend it, especially if you're a fan of Western style RPGs and/or cyberpunk settings. The Director's Cut is definitely the version to play, but as much as I love the Wii U, I'd suggest playing on 360. From what I've seen, Square's inexperience with the Wii U's hardware shows through; despite being a significantly more powerful console, the Wii U version just doesn't look quite as refined as the 360 version. The colors are a bit washed out, the smoke effects are more pronounced and less subtle, and the bloom seems a bit overdone in places. The Wii U version is absolutely a competent game, but the 360 version is probably the better version if I'm being honest. My Rating - B |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
March 2024
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