I finished up Deus Ex: Human Revolution this weekend and walked away completely and utterly satisfied.

The original Deus Ex was handled by a team that really had a strong grasp on what they were doing. They seamlessly weaved true role-playing elements into the tapestry of a first-person shooter and then wrapped it up with an intelligent and engaging story in what was one of the first of its' kind to mesmerizing effect. Sure, it had its' faults (the incredibly inconsistent AI and the really weak optimization come to mind immediately), but for the time and for what they were trying to do, they succeeded marvelously by many accounts.

I never played Invisible War, so I'll refrain from commenting, though I hear it's a mixed bag.

Human Revolution upholds the very high standards of the original, in some ways surpassing them outright. It tells the story of a special agent who is forced to undergo radical reconstructive surgery (known in-game as "augmentation") to save his life after a terrorist attack on the company he is employed by leaves him horribly disfigured. In doing so, it explores the themes of human evolution and the eventual fate of humanity in a way that I honestly found cold and sobering. To say anything more would be venturing well into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say, it follows the Deus Ex tradition of presenting a story that goes far beyond what is simply told onscreen, a facet of the narrative that spills over into almost every little detail hidden throughout the game. The world in Human Revolution feels completely realized, and the conflicts that occur are not simply of a human vs human kind, but ideology vs ideology as well. One of those rare games that makes you really feel the gravity of your actions.

The gameplay feels completely refined from the original while maintaining the same sense of spirit and subtle emphasis on stealth. You're given so many choices for how you want to go about completing any given objective, from going in guns blazing, to hacking your way through every computer system, to going in Solid Snake style and sneaking your way through. If you master the game's conversation system, you can even persuade and manipulate your way through tight situations like a silver tongued devil (doing so is more rewarding than it sounds, though stealth and hacking were always my main way in). While it seems like the game promotes a stealthy approach to every situation, it'll reward you with bonus points for doing anything with finesse. Hacking a computer terminal without the security alarm going off will net you added experience points at the end of it, as will scoring a headshot on a hapless guard from 50 yards. The simple act of exploring hidden ways through any particular area will yield the same result. More than anything, this game is about exploration in the broadest sense of the word.

As I said before, the game subtly encourages stealth in several ways. I played it this way, and speaking frankly, this is what I wish Metal Gear Solid 4 played like. Crawling through vents, somersaulting from cover to cover, evading cameras, guards and motorized robot security drones (all of which will seriously mess you up if you're caught. That's another thing, this game gets pretty tough) elicited a strong, unshakable feeling of tension that lasted for a majority of the game.

The soundtrack is an absolute gem. Composed by Michael McCann, if offers a largely synth driven, minimalist soundscape in the same style of the original game, with many subtle nods to it in the composition. I'm not good at writing about music, so here's a few links to some of my favorites:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Icarus
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - UNATCO Theme
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Jenson's Apartment
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Everybody Lies

To conclude, I feel like I'm tripping over myself to talk about this game. Human Revolution didn't just exceed my expectations, it beat the living shit out of them.

PS: Those who played and beat the original Deus Ex will wanna stick around after the credits are finished rolling (don't skip them!) for some extra bit of storyline and one of the most hair-raising easter eggs imaginable!

Thanks for the post. Eventually, I want to play this game. Truth be told, I need to play the original DE first!

This game wasn't on my radar until I started reading the glowing reviews, but now I'm quite interested in it.  I hope to check it out this week at a friend's house and if I like what I play, I'll add it to the "buy when it goes on sale" list.

- I've been playing this game recently as well, and although I can tell it's really really good, I find I have hardly any emotional investment in the game whatsoever. I dislike how ugly and plastic the character models look (NO facial animation whatsoever) and although I've seen people defend this by saying its intentional, I have a hard time believing that.

- Jensen's gravely voice is ridiculous, and the character itself is totally unlikeable.

- Are there no colors in the future but yellow?

- I've never played the original, so I can't tell if this game is ripping off Mass Effect or the other way around, albeit with a much better character building system.

That said, as a game, in pure terms of gameplay, it's very entertaining. I like how upgrades actually MATTER in this game and significantly improve your performance in most cases, even opening up routes in the game that weren't previously accessable.
As many reviews have pointed out though, it needs boss battles like a drowning man needs water (trying to be a bit too much like MGS, maybe?), and I'm currently stuck at a real pain in the ass boss, which is severely diminishing my enjoyment of the game.

I thought so too until I visited his apartment for the first time and took in every minute detail. The state his apartment is in, and the things scattered around it tell far more of Jensen's personal life and past than any amount of exposition regarding him in the game (which isn't much, I'll admit) ever does. Examining everything there really nailed him home for me.

Which boss fight are you on? There are incredibly cheap ways of dealing with each one.

You mean the apartment he is moved into shortly after he wakes up from his augmentation?
How much could that possibly tell about his past!?
The place is a mess because he only just moved in!

Come to think of it, pretty much every single apartment I broke into looked like it was only recently moved into. WAY too many cardboard boxes in this game.

I'm at the second boss now, and I haven't tried extensively yet, but I have been told that the Typhoon augmentation deals with bosses pretty easily. I'll give it another try tonight, but I'm more in a Monster Hunter mood lately.

The painkiller bottles scattered around tell me that his augmentation and subsequent adaption to it was not a happy process at all. One can also deduce that he was disgusted with his new form from several emails throughout the game and also by the smashed mirror in his apartment. The blueprints and schematics littering his walls as well as the clockwork gears tell me that he's been tinkering with mechanics as a way to adapt to his new body (I can't imagine he'd be nearly as dexterous with his augs as he was with human hands, at least at first).

Nothing too huge, but little details like that go a long way towards filling in some of the blanks surrounding the character. Walking into his apartment the first time and soaking it all in was very powerful for me.

Checked it out the other day, and definitely liked what I played.  The only thing about it I didn't like is that the "context sensitive" zone is way too small and clearly designed for PC gamers.  With an analog stick, I don't want to have to look at everything just to get the button prompt to pop up.  It should pop up once I'm in proximity.  I'll probably pick it up when it hits $30.