Deus Ex: Human Revolution Hands-On Preview - Part 2

51
Dan Webb

Having explored Jensen's journey from ordinary security specialist to augmented super being in the first preview a few weeks back, today we turn our attention to the meat of the game – the first mission. We pick things up 6 months after the events told in the prologue with Jensen – having done a 360, coming back from the brink of death to become the half-cyborg super beast he is in the game's present day – waltzing through the Sarif Industries lobby.

The Sarif Industries HQ in Human Revolution effectively serves as an in-game hub; somewhere where players can prep for their upcoming mission, speak to the employees that litter the halls and even do a few side missions and reconnaissance work. For us though, it was an excuse to explore the halls and investigate how the free-roam aspects are shaping up.

The first proper mission of Human Revolution tasks you with the infiltration of one of Sarif's downtown properties, which is currently under-siege by a group of anti-augmentation zealots. The purists, under the leadership of the formerly augmented Zeke Sanders, have taken control of Sarif's Milwaukee Junction factory and it's your job to get in, grab Sarif's highly valuable and sensitive piece of technology and get out. If you're feeling particularly heroic, you can even free the hostages that Sanders has holed up in one of the factory's offices.

Before we head out to attempt to become Sarif's saving grace, we have a nose round the particularly big HQ of the corporation. The lobby of your employer is as vast and expansive as it is suave and sophisticated. In front of us sits Cindy - the receptionist who nonchalantly remarks that it seems a little early for Jensen to return to work – who acts as a valuable source of information about the in-game hub. In typical Jensen fashion, the "aug" is as amusing and dry as he is dark and mysterious. "I don't suppose we moved the helipad, did we?" he smugly remarks moments before we head up to Pritchard's office.

Upon arriving at the floppy-haired S.O.B's office, we spot a very futuristic and cool looking Tron-esque bike in the one corner and the poster for Final Fantasy XXVIII on the wall, again demonstrating the attention to detail we touched upon in the first preview. Pritchard, however, is as annoying and closed-off as he was the first time we brushed shoulders with him, but in a conversation with the character, this time we give as good as we get. "Maybe this time you'll actually save people," he comments, before we fire back with a confrontational response – which incidentally was one of two we were able to select, the other being ignore. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to break Pritchard's stride as he follows that up with a response about Megan – Jensen's ex-girlfriend that saw her demise in the prologue. Again, we press the techie in his lab and go for the confrontational response, which Pritchard seemingly sidesteps before tweaking Jensen's augmentation's settings. Dammit Pritchard, we will smite you before the game is over. Mark. My. Words.

It's here where we get a chance to see how Jensen will level up throughout your time with Human Revolution. The menu that pops-up on-screen reveals the 7 areas where Jensen will be able to upgrade: cranium, torso, eyes, back, skin, arms and legs. With no experience points to spend at present, it will be a few moments before we'll have chance to get into the nitty-gritty of spending experience points.

From there we continue to explore Sarif Industries, including the lobby, the surrounding offices, Jensen's office – where we pick up a pocket computer and some painkillers from his draw – as well heading up the lift to David Sarif's office, where Athena, Sarif's elderly but rather sweet and helpful assistant, advises us that the founder is not available at present.

The look and feel of the whole in-game hub reminds us of those futuristic havens that are plastered in neon, as depicted in films like Blade Runner – heck, even the toilets of the HQ have fancy neon ads caked on the walls – but much more clinical. Nevertheless, that's enough dilly-dallying around, it's time to head to the helipad and descend upon the events that are transpiring at the Milwaukee Junction factory. Incidentally, if you spend too long in the in-game hub in this instance, it can have unpleasant implications for the mission ahead – namely, the hostages can snuff it.

On our way to the chopper, after hitting the roof we pass various employees who've snuck out of the hustle and bustle of office life to grab a quick smoke under the neon-polluted clouds. Our pilot, Malik, seems concerned – like Cindy the receptionist – about how quickly Jensen's been rushed back into action. Like the consummate professional though, we assure her we're ready to kick some terrorist butt and slip on board.

In a pre-mission sequence aboard the chopper, in a conversation with our mission contact, we're asked how we're going to approach the situation – which determines what tools we'll be given to assist us. In this short exchange you pretty much choose your rules of engagement and what sort of range you're looking to adopt – we opted for a long distance approach with non-lethal measures. Naturally, we got a tranq rifle. It's worth mentioning that you're not bound to these though, as when it got down to it, we were killing anyone who crossed our path more often than not.

With Pritchard on comms, we're on-site and now able to select our upgrade paths. For the purposes of this hands-on, Square Enix had opted to give us enough points for 3 upgrades – which is well ahead of how many you should have at this point. Being a bit of a stealth nut we opted to select the Reflex Booster, which allowed us to takedown multiple targets in quick succession with melee attacks; the Smart Vision, which allowed us to see through walls; and the Typhoon Explosion System, which shoots projectiles in a 360 arc, causing significant damage to anyone in its reach – 8 metres is the first upgrade's reach. Yes, I do realise the Typhoon Explosion System is as close to being stealthy as Hugh Grant is to being a good actor... and yes, friendly fire is possible too – the SWAT team agents on the roof will attest to that. Sorry guys. After getting some valuable information from the remaining SWAT team that are awaiting safe retrieval of our primary objective before storming the place, we head inside.

Like the prologue, the opening mission serves to act as a tutorial for many aspects of the game, including hacking, dodging surveillance, silent takedowns and so on. So essentially, you've learnt the basics, now it's time to learn the necessary skills to be successful. Speaking of silent takedowns... THWACK! 'Achievement Unlocked' and the outer perimeter scout on his lonesome taken down in one swift move. Before we set off to make our way in, we stash the body in the shadows and pinch his gun, then circumnavigate the rest of his patrol that guard our way in. It's typical stealth for us, watching patrol routes and zipping from cover to cover when their back is turned, but of course, it's up to you how you play.

Our first room in the factory we have to traverse is a huge warehouse. Taking advantage of the ladder on the far side of the room, our Smart Vision – that allows us to see bright orange skeletons of the potential bogeys – and the height of the warehouse, we were able to get ourselves into a vantage point with where we wanted to head in sight. Using the dart rifle we take down one of the 5 or so guards that patrol its floors. The reason? A decoy. After feeling the brunt of our tranq dart and dropping to the floor in plain sight of a fellow guard, the remaining members rush to his aid. With their back turned we slip further into the complex.

Zipping into the offices that connected to the warehouse, we continued to watch patrol units, keeping an eye on their patrol route and making advancements where possible. Sometimes it was necessary to take a few of them down, be it with the gun we'd picked up from the first guard we snapped in two, a melee takedown or the tranq darts we'd got pre-mission – headshots are instant takedowns.

Exploration is just as key here though, allowing you to filter through emails – most of which are irrelevant but no less engaging – but more importantly, pick up supplies: namely nutrients to recover lost energy. At this stage we have two energy cells worth of juice, with large over-the-top acts like takedowns and a blast from the Typhoon taking up one whole cell; and much smaller acts like using the Smart Vision slowly eating away at one cell – incidentally, once deactivated, so long as you haven't used all the juice up from the bar, it'll regenerate.

A quick hack later, and while using the frankly invaluable Smart Vision, we spot a densely populated group of individuals – the hostages! All that stood between myself and a group of 6 or so individuals who were tied up and held against their will, was a group of heavily armed footmen. Could I sneak around them? Sure. Could I take them down one at a time and then make my way up to free the hostages? Sure. Did I want to do it that way? Hell no! As the footmen argued about who had taken an innocent's life in the laboratories, we sneak from cover to cover, making sure we weren't seen. When we were within touching distance of the group we sprinted from the cover towards the group and activated the Typhoon. Whoosh! One epic slow-mo cinematic with a third person view that pans around Jensen later and the entire group was down for the count. If that isn't epic, I'm not sure what is!

With free passage to the hostages, we head up the stairs and in through the front door. Upon doing so though we had inadvertently triggered the alarm. D'oh! What then took place was a scene from Benny Hill, as we desperately bounced around the office looking for a way to disarm it. Unfortunately for us – and more so for the hostages – we were out of time and as soon as the bomb started to release its harmful contaminants we bolted leaving them to a horrible death.

I've watched enough 24 to know that you can't let it bring you down. Unperturbed and unaffected by such atrocities and Sander's blatant disregard for innocent life, we soldier on. Around the next corner were a couple of guards, both isolated. As the one walked past, we ducked out of our cubbyhole to take him down. Unfortunately for us, we weren't able to move his body before the security camera picked up the distressing image. Thankfully though, after I'd taken all the guards out from the previous room, the local guards that were summoned consisted of one individual who proceeded to take a bullet between the eyes as he rounded the corner. Gotta love that Smart Vision!

We continue from there, traversing through vents – picking up 100XP for being an "Explorer" may I add – crossing through labs and heading deeper into the facility. It's there where we find our main objective, but it's not as simple as that. As we step into the server room of sorts, an augmented individual appears to be wired into one of the computers there. What's that? He has a gun... Before Jensen can react though, the individual has turned his gun of himself and proceeded to line the ceiling with part of his own temporal lobe. Nice! Why though? Well, that's part of the overriding mystery of what will make up Human Revolution's main plot. No spoilers!

As of this point, our mission was effectively complete and extraction – and getting out with the mission objective – was a necessity. After powering through the offices with an Uzi, stealth was just a buzzword that had no bearing on the events – like Splinter Cell: Conviction's final few levels, although this was our choice here. Not long after we'd started our aggressive streak we encounter Sanders with yet another hostage.

Right away we're given the option to shoot first, ask questions later or approach Zeke and attempt to reason with him. Considering what had happened with the last lot, we were looking to make amends here. As the dialogue options popped up, we attempted to empathise with his situation – after all, Jensen's demise before his augmentation was entirely down to one of these cyborg super soldiers. Continuing to probe further we try a more humble approach. Judging by the tone in Zeke's voice though, he's too clever for Jensen's mind games and realises he's being played. It's clear that humble isn't the way forward and on that note, Sanders vacates the scene with the hostage in tow.

Moments later a burst of gunfire comes from outside the door as Sanders clashes with the SWAT who had been ordered in following Jensen's successful retrieval mission. I say successful, but one group of hostages gassed, one dead hostage that was on the resulting end of that blast of gunfire and Zeke Sanders escaping isn't really that much of a successful day at the office. We did complete our primary mission I suppose. After making our way to the roof, getting an earful from Malik regarding Sarif's decisions before boarding the chopper, the mission is over... which is a shame, as we were just getting started.

Like I said in our last preview though, having access to that amount of code not only demonstrates a level of confidence about the product, but it actually does the title a lot of justice. Even after the first few hours though, we felt as if we'd hardly scratched the surface. Leafing through the abilities for instance had us giddy with excitement at the huge potential Human Revolution can unlock. If there's one thing that's abundantly clear out of all of this though, it's that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is on track to not only win back fans of the original, but to stamp its presence on this current crop of gamers. It's coming... and it's shaping up to be something truly special.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is planned to release in Square's fiscal 2012 line-up (April 2011 – March 2012).

Comments
51
  • Pretty much stoked about this game...
  • I really hope the bloom can be toned down, I hated that in the second game. Still I'm eager to see what it's like.
  • Man oh man this is going to be an expensive year....so many games coming out! So stoked, must budget!!!
  • I'm at a loss somewhat when it comes to the lack of hype for this game. The first Deus Ex was fantastic and the second was perhaps less so, but there should be hundreds of comments for this! Come on people! It sounds incredible, doesn't it? HYPE! HYPE! HYPE!
  • Looks awesome. Can't wait!
  • It does sound incredible. I like the fact that he is named Jensen, which is almost similar to my own last name. That's just an added bonus for me.
  • HYPE! HYPE! HYPE! Looks awesome, can't wait, hopefully it's released this year! :)
  • Amazon has pushed the release date to 12/31. Any idea why its been delayed?
  • @#4 Meh.. ;P No, really I looks FUCKING AMAZInG (to much hype?). I've never actually played any of the Dues games, but they way you can do things in this and the gameplay it looks unstoppable! Day one buy for me!
  • I agree with everybody that it looks great... but we can only take so much Delay for this game
  • Great hype so far guys! Cheers! :P
  • Thanks for the preview. This here is another reason my son shakes his head when he looks at how many games we have pre-ordered. This is shaping up to be a really good year for the games I like to play and this ones near the top of the list.
  • This is going to be the greatest game of the last 20 years bar none, nothing will ever come close, this is the new standard of video gaming, prepare to be amazed.
  • I so can't wait for this and #4's right, the industry needs to know how much epic games like this are appreciated. I rent more often than anything else (cus it's all I can afford!) but this, along with skyrim, will be day one's for me!
  • can't wait for this, loved the the other 2 & i know i'll love this 1.
  • I'd bum a moose to have this game now Hows that for hype:)
  • Loved the first one, second one was ok but nothing compares to the original. Hopefully they can recapture whatever made the first one so fantastic.
  • @6 Almost similar!? LMAO Anyway, really looking forward to this game even though I only ever played the first one on PS2. Looking and sounding fantastic so far, this BF3, ME3, DA2 L.A Noire & Skyrim all definite purchases. However I'm a little sceptical about a few of the recent trailers we've seen on the site. They look far beyond what we are led to believe the Box 360 is capable of graphics-wise. This and the latest Battlefield 3 trailer lead me to believe that they are showing top spec PC versions, which I do not want to see as I have an Xbox 360 not a £4000 PC...
  • Wow, I can't believe you did not even notice how nicely they follow original game in tow (not that piece of shit joke of a sequel...), with giving you an option along with items for that option just like first mission in original at Statue of Liberty island^^ Off topic, but with concern, I must say that you would be a terrible agent, so I am glad you are only attempting these kind of excercises in a virtual world^^
  • After Final Fantasy XIII and Mindjack, I'm not sure how much faith I have in Square Enix to put out a good game anymore.
  • Sounds god damn awesome cannot wait :)
  • never played any previous - but seen some gameplay footage - hope there will be a demo - but i have to say this game does look pretty awesome!!! - this year is already overflowing with games - to bad I cant say the same about my wallet. :)
  • Any word on a more solid release date? Fiscal year 2011 is a bit vague. Game looks great and seems to have a good storyline. Looking forward to it.
  • Edit:Fiscal year 2012.
  • Ok so forgive me if I'm being cynical, but I find it very hard to truly engage in the hype for this game. Don't get me wrong, I fucking love the trailer, and have badgered ALL of my friends to see it, and I've tried to soak in as much info about the game as possible (I'm in love with Blade Runneresque sci fi)with these hands-on previews, screens, and what have you, but its hard for me to trust Square Enix with this IP, just like @20 wrote. However, if there is one thing I like about this site, its the staff's non-tolerance for bullshit. If a game sucks, you guys will make sure we know it sucks. With this in mind, I don't think I've ever seen such excitement and hype for ANY game coming from the staff. This has got to be a good game then. Please be right about this game xbox360achievements.org. PLEASE!!
  • This is gonna be amazing! P.S. HYPE! HYPE! HYPE!
  • HYPE HYPE HYPE! The longer this gets delayed into the year though, the less likely I am to buy it. Please come out in June or July (wishful thinking I know, but the budget is pretty much already set for fall/winter).
  • I think the real hype was months ago, then it got delayed which pissed people off and now since there is still no release date said hype has died out. I was eagerly waiting for this game then POOF delayed all because Square is going broke because of the shit job they did on FF14, well so be it doesn't mean they need to delay a game that WILL make them money. I want Deus Ex, but I am in no hype mode because I don't know a date. Give me a date and juicy length combat video and I'll get hyped up again.
  • The Hype machine is running at full speed! Will there be a demo?
  • The hype has begun. Our senses are under attack. And it IS GLORIOUS!
  • @4 maybe there isn't many comments for this because no one has a bad thing to say about it, hence 75% of the comments aren't people arguing. Same as l.a noire. Also there's no trailer, so no one would of "jizzed" their pants and felt the need to tell everyone.
  • I only played the first one "Deus Ex Machina" on P.C. and all I can say is that it was a fantastic game with many different ways to play through it. My pc wasn't great by any means back then so the graphics were not particularly good for its time but the gameplay was bloody awesome. It's one of those games that definitly stood out and can't forget. Never played the late one(s) so I don't know about that. This new one looks amazing and I hope the gameplay will stay true to the first one. Looking foward to it no matter what. :)
  • It's my 2nd most anticipated game for 2011, so yeah I'm stoked for this. Can't wait to get into this game, the first Deus Ex was one of the best games I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing
  • hanging,hopefully not for too long though.
  • Has this really been delayed till December? Does anyone know for sure? Sadness, if it has...
  • @ 20 Im pretty sure Square Enix is only doing the cutscenes and videos for the game and thats what they do best, This games gonna destroy everything except maybe Skyrim.
  • ehh cant wait :D
  • Of course there isn't gonna be *too* much hype about this game. The previous games are too old for a lot of younger gamers to have experienced, the older games are cult hits, aaannnndddd this game is way too innovative to have mainstream success AT FIRST methinks. I mean look at something like Bioshock. Sure, it was a first person shooter (ie; guaranteed seller), but it didn't gain the popularity it deserved until enough people played it and were like, "Hey. This is the current pinnacle of modern gaming." And even if this game IS amazing, if it's not a streamlined arcade shooter that can hold the attention of the average CoD fan, it will become a sleeper hit and it's brilliance will only be appreciated by few. Mark my words. This is probably how it's gonna play out.
  • Literally one of only a handful of games that I am entirely hyped up for this year. Just need a release date now! Well, and for that day to get here of course.
  • @4 Agreed. This game (and even Invisible War) deserve so much more love. Still no confirmed release date for this game? They love to tease. Glad to see DEHR inheriting things from the previous games while still improving the package, i.e. loadout selection in the 1st mission from DE1 and enhancing various body parts (like torso, arms, etc.) from DE2. This is one of my "dream" games, the sequels you'd been hoping would see the light of day. With Skyrim announced and Crytek showing interest in Timesplitters, all that's really left is SW Battlefront 3 and a Star Ocean that isn't terrible, here's hoping.
  • I'm glad this game doesn't have too much hype. Hype comes from big name publishers going on a multi-million dollar tangent of promoting the game. A lot of times the focus in promotion is so intense the actual game play suffers for it.
  • the game does look good but with all the games coming out this year, this game doesnt seem to catch my attention as much as it did when i first saw the trailer. i am really tempted to cancel my preorder not because the game isnt good but because it doesnt seem to measure up the other games coming out.
  • april 2011 - march 2012. BOOOOOO!!!!!! i want this game now, and i want skyrim too!
  • RELEASE DATE!
  • the first release date i heard was 24-02-11, but then i got an email that the release date for holland is 26-08-2011, so after summer the game will be released. to bad.
  • looking forward to it, day one for me i think
  • I already wanted to play this game... This preview just makes me want to play it all the more! I can't wait for it!
  • think i will wait for the reviews before buying
  • I played the first episode (aah, good old times)...and I think it's the time to play the second, before this! Hype for me too :)
  • @33 I read critics about the first game and I wonder if I should buy it on PC... I know it's kind of an old game, but should I play it first before I buy Human Revolution?
  • Yes. i think they are both excellent games, i dont see why people hate the second one so much.
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