For those of you that haven't already dived into this immersive cyberpunk series, this is a great place to start. And those that enjoyed the first two games will be captivated by the up to date graphics and familiar gameplay. Set in 2027 (25 years before the first game) you play Adam Jensen, the head of security for Sarif Industries, an up and coming Detroit-based augmentation corporation. The world is undergoing a revolution. On one side there are those opposed to augmentations, believing that augments are being used only for power and the doctors are "playing God". On the other hand, those that stand for augments say that they help the disabled, enhance the lives of everyone, and will further evolve the human race. Adam's girlfriend is the head research scientist for Sarif Industries and a group of mercenaries attack Sarif Industries in the prologue mission, leading to a main storyline filled with sadness, grief, anger, resentment, and regret as Jensen searches for who attacked and why.
There are many augmentations to choose from at the start of the game. How you level up your augments is by gaining enough experience to get a Praxis point which is what is used to level them up, find the few Praxis kits located throughout the game, or buy a Praxis kit at the nearest LIMB clinic. With your hard-earned points, you can choose to distribute them in various areas such as stealth, hacking, and combat.
The gameplay is a mixture of combat and stealth. You have the will to choose which approach you wish to go with but the game somewhat favors one approach over the other many times in the game. If you go with combat, you don't want to go in guns blazing as that will get you killed but at the same time you have to fight every boss and are not given a stealth option. I find this limiting in a game where I thought you could choose one path and play that way throughout the whole game.
The narrative and storyline is amazing, making you feel the emotions that you see in the non-playable characters and giving the sense you really are in this not so distant future. The drawback I found was that no matter what was going on, Jensen had the same monotone and gravelly voice no matter if the NPC's were angry or depressed.
Presentation: 9.5/10- An amazing world and setting accompanied by fantastic cyberpunk music.
Graphics: 8.5/10- Beautiful futuristic scenery with few glitches and rendering problems.
Sound: 9.5/10- The wonderful background music displays the emotions and sense of this world in an amazing way along with great voice acting from the NPC's.
Gameplay: 8.5/10- The choice of combat or stealth makes room for many different types of players despite the certain points where one seems to have an advantage over the other.
Storyline: 10/10- A magnificent story filled with emotions of all kinds draws you into the world, bringing you close to the characters and making every choice matter.
Overall: 9.25/10- Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a marvelous game filled with twist, turns, and emotions that will have you wanting more from the first mission all the way to the final boss. Definitely worth replaying to find every secret and finish every side quest.