• Game: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Developer: Eidos Montreal
• ESRB: M
• Genre: Action, Stealth, Shooter, RPG
• Players: 1



• What's Hot: Questions of transhumanism; impactful roleplaying decisions; gameplay defined by style



• What's Not: Boss fights

Review by: Justin Amirkhani

In Latin, deus ex machina translates to “God from the machine” or less literally “The god that we make”. Deus Ex: Human Revolution explores the root of its name to a most poignant end, asking the player to define exactly which god we’ve made. With one side of the game’s fiction supporting controlled evolution through cybernetic augmentations that enhance the very definition of humanity, and the other side vehemently against the technology, willing to fight and die to protect human purity.

Whether you make men into gods with science, or gods out of man with ideology, there’s enough content to test your beliefs either way through the course of Human Revolution. It’s a question that echoes throughout every aspect of the game and will divide players into camps, regardless of what agenda they carry walking into the game.

It’s not often I find a game that makes me question my beliefs, never mind one that does it so well. Going into the game I was sure that human augmentation and the science behind it was a logical step towards progressing humanity to its next stage. It was only when the game’s dystopian cities painted a full portrait, showing the desperation and wrest of power the whole process causes that I reconsidered.

There’s an unsettling power and responsibility with creating an übermensch, which as über-augmented Adam Jensen, players have plenty of opportunity to explore. What makes the character of Adam interesting and sympathetic to both sides is that he’s not a god made by choice, but one of necessity. With his life in jeopardy he was given a second chance through the power of augmentation, but at the same time saddled with a debt of responsibility owed to those who saved him.

It’s a conflicted character to play, but a great one for a roleplaying game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution. There are times where the vocal performance by Elias Toufexis can come across a little dry, with a little too much inspiration taken from Keanu Reeves, but it comes together to provide a stable slate for players to project themselves. He’s not quite Gordon Freeman, but he gets the job done While providing players an opportunity to introspect on the nature of humanity is unique, it’s not likely the first thing you’ll notice about the game. In fact, it probably won’t be the most fun thing either.

The game’s art style is a bold post-future of gold and black. It’s a mélange of sharp angles and clean cut lines spread across a backdrop of shadow. It’s the golden accents that really make the whole thing stick so well, feeling like even the game’s darkest places are seen through a richly tinted filter adding consistency and a foreign element to the world. They may have put the AUG in augment a little too literally, but it works fantastically at giving the game a visual style unlike anything else releasing this year.