Boy oh boy are you going to enjoy this one. Whether you've played the original Deus Ex game or not, this game is worth checking out. If you haven't played the original, fear notHuman Revolution isn't so much a sequel as it is a stand-alone story. But for those of you who have played the original, you can expect to see a homage or two pop up. And expect this new game to have the same feel as the original, which is widely considered to be the original first-person masterpiece.
The story is a bit of an ethical quandary, if you will: the world is beginning to augment its people (if you can afford it), giving human beings (with money) the freedom to replace their arms with machines, fix their eyesight, connect to computers, etc. etc. Even cloak. That's right, I gave my boy cloaking power because why the heck not.
So anywho, the opening finds you protecting a scientist who's about to announce a technological breakthrough. But before that can happen, someone breaks into the laboratory and causes a very violent mess. It's a nice little intro to gameplay and when the game cuts to six months later, your character has been augmented a great deal just to survive. His ex-girlfriend? Not so lucky. Sad, sad, sad.
That's where the game starts. From there, you'll be performing missions for your boss, Mr. Sarif, trying to figure out who's behind the recent attacks on his company. In addition, there are a number of side quests (just like in any good first-person shooter, eh?) that let you tackle a variety of ethical issues.
One issue you're going to have to deal with is whether you want to play the game by sneaking around or by going in guns blazing. I, personally, hate sneaking games. The only time I made a point of sneaking around for an extended period of time was when I was infiltrating the police stationI assumed killing police officers might be a no-no. The developers clearly went out of their way to ensure that all of your decisions have an effect on the game's outcome, so it's important to keep that in mind.
So I stocked up on guns. And bullets. And whenever I had a chance to fight enemies head-on, I did it. The game's cover system is fantastic, letting you hide behind things (and temporarily turning it into a third-person shooter) while you shoot wildly at some pretty smart enemies who rarely sit and wait to die.
An excellent, beautiful game, and difficult to boot. I couldn't resist exploring the streets, talking to everyone I could, breaking into every place I could hack into. The story is there. The details are there. Is there anything ground-breaking going on? Not especially, and when you reach a frustrating moment you may find yourself cursing a number of people you love. But overall this game definitely does the original proud.