Deux Ex - Human Revolution

I am very pleased to welcome a guest blogger posting for this review. Step forward the wonderful Mr Ian 'Ratius' Riordan with his steamy opinions on Deus Ex : Human Revolutions - Winstons

I am loathe to use phrases like “my generation” and “defining classics” since I’m frankly not that old (Maggie came to power, Sony released the Walkman and 3 Mile Island caused a scare).

However, when reviewing computer gaming history I think it’s fair to say people of my age do recall certain events or games that give us an almost collective consciousness. The first time you inserted that cartridge into your SNES to play Street Fighter, rather then paying 50p in some grotty arcade that your parents didn’t approve of. If you were lucky enough, the first time you got your Amiga 500 (an actual computer?!) with, wait for it, 500kb of RAM. Installing Doom for the first time from an old floppy your friend lent you and wondering if it’s as good as everyone made out. The first time you rolled that silly looking Dwarf in Warcraft for an MMO.

And in the midst of all that a little game was released in 2000 called Deus Ex.

Simply put, Deus Ex at one point, was my favourite game of all time (yes Warcraft did usurp it as did the original Operation Flashpoint) but it still ranks in my top 5. It took two genres, FPS and RPG and combined them with a futuristic world where you didn’t simply follow the corridors around until you met a boss or battle weird looking elves in a clichéd Tolkein-esque environment. Its plot was so involving and incredibly well thought out, the ability to complete each level two or three different ways (how did you deal with those Bots in Vandenberg; go toe to toe with them, stealth around or send them against each other?) and the character development choices and engine were second to none for its time. Some of my favourite gaming memories lie within this game, from playing it back in 2000 right up to last year.

I've come to fix your hole

As a result, when someone somewhere linked up a teaser trailer to Deus Ex 3 I had two conflicting emotions run through my chest: fear and hope. Fear that they would simply butcher another sequel and finally kill off the franchise and hope that they would emulate the original and return to its roots.

I’m happy to say hope triumphed. Deus Ex 3 was released in 2011 as a successor prequel to Deus Ex.

It takes place some years before the DX1 setting, dealing with the beginning of widespread human augmentation and how the games different factions and main character deal with this. It is a little slow in my opinion and there is one fairly glaring omission towards the end but overall it holds up solidly enough. I’m not going to give an in depth plot summary, since I never agree with reviews that spend the first page detailing a plot that in abstraction makes little sense and can spoil elements of the game. If you like the series as much as me playing through it and experiencing it first hand will be a reward in itself.

Charming flat. Good south facing view and plenty of Neon

So let’s start with the basics: GFX, sound and engine.

The graphics in DX3 are very good. They aren’t the best out there but they most certainly get the job done. Where it excels is in some of the lighting and bloom effects, each city feels real, there are glowing neon signs, soft sun beams across floors and dark alleys with lit windows (check out the vista from your apartment window, really excellent). Draw distance on some levels is great, it really gives an epic feel to the levels.

DX1s music was genuinely iconic. Anyone who played it will still remember the intro music and certain key levels. DX3 plays a nice homage to it in this sense. I don’t think its as good overall but it certainly keeps the mood and fits with the overall games tone. I don’t think there are as many tracks as the original however. The sound effects again are solid, cant say they are spectacular but they do invigorate certain levels (Detroit/Hengsha). You can hear police sirens in the distance, people chatting and your footsteps on those ladder rungs.

The engine is decent, its definitely slick and moves well. However, I did notice several clipping issues from around walls and boxes etc. A clear ironsite on an enemy head does not always hit. It isn’t a major deal but it’s a flaw and one which shouldn’t be in a big production game. The switch to 3^rd person view on ladders is quite annoying too I felt and unnecessary. Having said that they are minor flaws, overall it’s a good engine allowing you to navigate through vents, up ladders, under walls, jump well and pick up and throw certain objects around. I cant recall ever getting stuck or having a polygon fall away from a wall or noclip into a box. Thats a bonus in today's bug ridden game releases.

Mrs Robinson, you're trying to seduce me, aren't you?

Level design was always going to be an important factor in DX3 since the series predicated itself on the hack/stealth/attack formula. If level design was poor then this triad would inevitably fail. DX3s levels are well designed but there are not enough of them. You essentially have only 4 city locations (and one end level) and one of those – Montreal is too short. I was very disappointed to find around two thirds of the way in you get sent back to both Detroit and Hengsha again. Nothing has changed since your last visit and only two new map areas open up (Detroit conference center and Hengsha port). For me this was the games biggest flaw.

The original had at least 8 distinct and varied areas/locations. Whilst the DX3 maps are bigger and much more detailed one cant help but feel cheated. Even though DX3s maps are large there isn’t a huge amount to do in them. Interactivity is somewhat lacking, even in basic apartment rooms, you can turn on the TV/hack the computer or run the tap. That’s about it. Medical clinics are similar, as are warehouse and facility rooms. Whilst the detail in each is incredible, I think a better balance should have been struck, more levels and locations with less detail would not have detracted from the game, since once you have seen one apartment or server room you have seen them all.

In addition some of the areas within levels do feel a touch contrived, almost blatantly highlighting the fact that there’s a vent to the next room, a computer to hack the security terminal, a roof to climb onto or a supply of ammo for a firefight. It certainly isn’t present in all levels, some more then others but I couldn’t help notice it.

Was the original the same? Probably but it felt less contrived.

Having said all that as mentioned before some of the levels and scenes are really beautiful and you will remember them a long time (the elevator in Sarif HQ, the Hengsha port facility and the final level reception vista).

As mentioned the gameplay triad of hack/stealth/attack returns from the series and I have to say it is thoroughly enjoyable. There is a new close combat kill move, where a 3rd person camera kicks in and you can take down one or multiple enemies with some fairly funky hand to hand moves (either lethal or non lethal). It really adds a nice new gameplay element, hand to hand in DX1 was more about smashing a mouse button as hard as you could whilst equipping a lead pipe. Even with your non upgraded HUD you can see enemies on the mini map, their orientation and their movement direction. It really allows you to plan your stealth moves and path well. Most levels have great cover elements to use and abuse and I never felt trapped or overly frustrated. Having said that its a hard game, I died a lot but the ability to try another tactic keeps things fresh. The hacking element is very nicely done too, it feels semi realistic, is well balanced and simply works (I still have nightmares about Fallout 3s debacle). Combat is fun if unoriginal in its execution. All in all the 3 tactics work well together and there is at least one full replay of the game waiting on completion because of it. Again a nice addition considering some of the one time play "hits" of late.

So is it as good as DX1 taking into account the difference in release years?

No, in my opinion. It is still a fantastic game but I feel that in a way it’s a re-skinned and updated DX1. Detroit feels like New York, Hengsha feels like Hong Kong, Tai Yong medical feels like Versalife. The plot isn’t as strong as the first and your main character isn’t actually very likeable. He’s cold and unattached, quite sarcastic and only once does he betray any real emotion or feeling. I did not really feel for him or the secondary characters at all, whereas in the first you built relationships and feeling.

If you haven’t played the first then definitely pick up DX3, you’ll really enjoy it, its still a great game. Then go get a copy of DX1, get the GFX upgrade pack and experience a truly generation defining classic.

Ian has asked me to provide a suitable animal to sum up his feelings of the game - Winstons 

Deus Ex : Human Revolution scores -  Happy Hippo

World In Conflict

Hello. This review is about a computer game called World in Conflict. You play it on your PC. You make men shoot other men. When all the other men fall over, you win.

Those opening lines are about as exciting and innovative as the game itself, and sum up nicely almost everything you need to know. There is nothing particularly wrong with World In Conflict. The individual parts of it are all competently done, but yet when you put it all together, it has a sort of low-key, depressing tedium to it, like spending an afternoon with your aunt, or seeing a dog being sick at the side of the road. This game has been done a thousand times before and is really no different from any ancient old RTS fogey, from Red Alert onwards. And even then, you had amusingly over-the-top FMV sequences of Stalin strangling his subordinates or getting poisoned by his sexy female head of secret police - whereas here you have boringly self-important intro speeches by Alec Baldwin.

The pretty colours and loud noises decieve you into thinking this game has substance beyond that of a dead pigeon

So I can't really be arsed to review this game in any proper context. I feel vaguely insulted that I played it in the first place. I'm not going to say that my time here on Earth is as valuable as that of Jesus – that's for you to decide - but you all know exactly the sort of game it is, and the most damning thing I can say about it is that you can figure out everything there is to really know by just looking at the screenshots. It does nothing particularly new or exciting. The explosions are nice. The sound is good. You can call down a confusingly large amount of off-screen artillery and airstrikes – and that is about it really.

The lovely graphics and smooth animations serve to distract the brain and fool the senses

Instead, I shall pedantically and cynical de-construct the flaws in the military reasoning that underpins the game's plot and development, which will not only be exciting and interesting for you to read, but, and I'm sure you'll all agree, is also an excellent chat-up strategy. Feel free to use it as a conversation piece next time you are trying to woo someone.

(I would warn about SPOILERS BELOW, but really, the plot is so poor that I am in fact doing you a favour and saving you from having to discover the disappointing reality of it on your own. No need to thank me. That's my job. In essence, I am dying for your sins, so touching on my earlier theme, again, you can perhaps see the similarities between myself and Jesus.)

1. The Russians invade Seattle

What the fuck? What sort of fucking military retard came up with this idea? Who the fuck wants to invade Seattle? Were they Frasier fans and wanted the Space Needle as a souvenir? (The observant pedants among you may point out to me that Frasier wasn't actually IN Seattle in 1989, he was propping up a bar in Boston with Norm and the others, but you probably didn't notice that, so you should be ashamed at your own lack of knowledge of 1980s seminal American sitcoms. Are you ashamed? Good. Then I'll continue.) At the very beginning of the game, before you have to think about it too hard, this is kind of cool. Russians invade America! POW POW POW! That's badass and exciting. No fucking around – right in there with tanks rolling off the docks and helicopters popping out of containers and shooting up shit! But then you realise you are not 11 years old anymore and can understand that this is an awful idea.

Seattle is in the middle of fucking nowhere. It has no military value whatsoever. The Russians seem to have no plan at all beyond WE NEED TO FUCKING INVADE SOMEWHERE AT ONCE. It's not even on the proper fucking coast, you have to go miles up a huge, convoluted bay to even get to it. You learn a little later on that they have decided to push for some sort of research facility, almost as an afterthought - “Well jeez Petr, we took Seattle, what do we do now?” and want to find out its secrets, but Jesus, you wouldn't launch a massive cross ocean invasion to do that – you'd drop a bunch of Spetsnaz on it, with all balaclavas and knives and shit.

Then a little while later, you realise that the Russians are already fighting in Western Europe and that “America's Army” is over there, and that's why Seattle can't be defended properly. So, America would just send ALL of its army over to Europe? Of course. How silly of me not to realise this. That is almost as dumb as Russia's idea of invading whatever the fuck is closest to them.

Something's going on . . . some troops are . . . The Russians nearly . . . I'm sorry, I just don't fucking care

2. The military chain of command makes no fucking sense

Your boss throughout the whole game is a fucking Colonel, who seems to be in charge of everyone and everything. I don't really know the difference between a Major and a Colonel or whatever without looking on wikipedia, but I do know that Colonels are not in charge of whole fucking armies. Actually, wait a minute – in the name of good investigative journalism, I will check – and in fact, wikipedia tells me the typical modern Colonel is in charge of a brigade, around 3000 to 5000 bodies. What the fuck did people do before wikipedia? I have no idea. For all I know, humanity was ignorant for 2000 years, then spent 5 years using Microsoft Encarta, before finally evolving into using wikipedia to solve all of its problems. Either way, a Colonel is not in charge of everything in an army. Someone needs to tell him this and calm him down a bit.

Then as we go down the chain of command, things make even less sense. Captain Bannon (who is an amusingly cowardly character and well voice acted) seems to be in charge of all the tanks. ALL THE TANKS. All of them. A captain. Now what I do know is that a captain is generally in charge of a company, which can be around 100-300 men, or the equivalent bunch of tanks and stuff, if he's the armoured type. I also know that a Captain often reports upwards to a Major, of which there are none in the game – he does not take over all the fucking tanks he wants!

Then even more oddly, your character is a type of junior officer, a lieutenant! Yet YOU seem to be in charge of whatever the fucking Colonel thinks you should be in charge off – huge squads, helicopters, tanks, airdrops, laser guided bombs, napalm strikes, the guns of a battleship, and at one fucking point a godddamn NUCLEAR MISSLE.

The only explanation to all this is that America was REALLY SERIOUS about sending its army over to Europe, and that you three are the only officers left in the entire continental United States.

I see the flashes and explosions here, and feel nothing but pity as one would when seeing a disabled man chewing on a grey sock

3. No one is using nuclear weapons

This is frankly unbelievable. If the T80s started rolling over the Berlin wall at any time in the 1980s, it is pretty reasonable to assume that at some point, big red buttons would probably have been pushed and a whole lot of shit was going to end up mushroom-shaped. It already came as close as possible to happening in the real world as it could have without actually occuring, and that was without any direct conflict between the US and the Soviets (although not in the same time period as the game, read up on the Cuban Missile Crisis, history fans, and be prepared to shit your pants. I'm sure you are vaguely aware of it being a dangerous incident, but until recently I had no idea just how dangerous - at times only a phonecall away from certain nuclear destruction, it really is quite frightening).

In fact this statement of mine is not entirely true – you do get to drop a smaller, tactical nuclear weapon, in order to wipe out a large number of Soviet forces on US soil – but apparently, this is ok, the games narration informs me, by essentially saying “the Russians won't mind, because we are using it inside our own country.” Yes, of course. They wouldn't mind at all, even though they have shown the ruthlessness needed to invade both Europe and America at the same time. How nice of them to play by Queensbury rules. 

More explosions. Colour too. The hopelessnes of man's endeavours fills me with ennui and a cold, dead heart

     4. The infantry squads consist of only four men

Sometimes it's four. Sometimes it seems to be five. Either way, it's fucking retarded. You will rarely command more than 15 individual soldiers.

     5. The units are fucking tiny

So you are forced to make a choice between either being zoomed in to see the animations and accurately direct and click on them, or zoomed out so you can actually understand what the hell is going on in the battle, which way is north, and where all your other units are, and why people are shouting at you and telling you to go somewhere else. 

     6. All reinforcements are delivered by airdrop

Including tanks, using cute little parachutes. Fucks sake.

     7. The Americans don't notice a fucking army of Russians crossing the Atlantic.

Despite satellites and AIRPLANES and RADAR being present, and active, and used, in 1989, this whole issue is swept under the carpet by an emotionally wrought Baldwin informing us voiceover style that “Our navy was supposed to protect us while our army was fighting in Europe. It failed.” I am no military expert, but I know the invasion of Normandy in 1944 was the most difficult military operation of all time, with planning, logistics and secrecy up the wazoo, and this across only a tiny stretch of the Channel. To instead cross the frickin' Atlantic ocean, in a suspiciously huge fleet of civilian cargo ships, undetected, with enough manpower to invade a sizeable section of America, DURING WARTIME, is incomprehensible.

'Hi, this is the US Western Coastguard. I notice you have a lot of ships out there Mr Cargo-ship captain. What are you guys up to?'

'Um....we're not invading. If that's what you're worried about.'

'That's cool. Where are you going?'

'Umm. Seattle. We hear it has excellent tourist facilities. And also, needs cargo.'

'That's great. You go right ahead. I'll make sure not to inspect any of your ships as they approach the coast.'

I could go on. On and on. On and on and on, filling up page after page with constant depressingly bland substance from the game, like a blog version of a Michael McIntyre show. But you can probably already tell by my world-weary tone that I would rather lick my own armpits than continue pointing holes in this flawed piece of tedium. There's no challenge to it and it benefits nobody, like brutally lambasting the uneducated working classes for their pointless lives. It's just too easy a target. So I will end here, with a sense of dissapointment and frustrated melancholy that fills me with pity for the human race.

World in Conflict scores – bored sloth