Game Discussion of the Week: Deus Ex Human Revolution

Added and stickied.

That is such a petty small thing compared to the big picture here. It's a terrific game.

I don't dislike it, but having played the first one, it feels somewhat lacking in comparison.

The good things: the action is good, the stealth mechanics are ok, there is enough exploration/sidequests available.

The bad things: the goddamn yellow filter they used gives me headaches (I'm not even joking), it just looks like someone pissed over the screen - well, the graphics in general look subpar for their time, though the same could be said about the original game; the EXP system feels all kinds of unbalanced; the decisions made through the game don't affect much of it (except in a few instances); the hub areas feel cramped; the level design is bad, in my opinion; the bosses are badly implemented (the first one especially is just a "tank" kind of enemy and doesn't fit a stealth kind of game). Also, the entire last section is terrible.

My main problem with it is the level design. The first game gave you a very open situation and let you improvise how to approach it (to mention a similar modern example, think of MGS V: TPP); in Human Revolution, it seems the developers thought "hey, in this series, the player needs multiple ways to approach every situation, so let's implement them!" - instead of feeling improvisational, it just seems like you have multiple railroaded paths: you clearly see a hackeable door, a vent right on top of it and a breakable wall by its side, so you know that those are your obvious three choices of how to approach the problem. Most terribly, the game gives you EXP points for taking each alternative, so what I usually ended up doing (and probably most players) was to just take them all: hack the door, break the wall, then crawl through the vents.

When I finished the first game, I immediatelly wanted to play it again to try different things; when I finished Human Revolution, I had practically taken every route in every level and my character was a specialist in everything. The developers of the original weren't afraid of locking things that you would only see on a second playthrough (if you took different decisions and upgrades), while Human Revolution absolutely wanted you to do and see everything the first time. It felt too limited in that regard.

Also, I hated the story and its characters. For all that, I'm giving this game a 3 - it's not bad, but I could never bring myself to replay it, as everything felt just average.

The director's cut is on my list for some time this year, but no sure when

Invisible Wars had some serious issues though in almost every other aspect.

Never said it was better. I just prefer the way it handled body manipulation.

My brother likes stealth games and he said these games are boring. I believe him, but I still bought the one for the PS4. It was like 5 bucks at some flash sale, and I thought why not. I haven't play it yet, but apparently is on 4K with HDR. So at least it should look pretty. I'm not into stealth myself, so this was one of those impulsive purchases that was a waste. Maybe I'll give it a try just to not say I wasted the 5 dollars.