Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Well, I thought, when I come up against the first enemy it'll probably be an easy one to break me in and to give me a chance to get used to the controls.

After all, I'm only playing on the medium difficulty "give me a challenge" as it is called.  It's a challenge, alright!  I didn't come up against the first enemy, I came up against the first three enemies and was killed several times.

The view from a Detroit lift - in the future.

After I'd eventually overcome the situation I noticed there was an exploding canister I could have shot at to make things easier, but the fighting continued to be a tough.

What about the plot.  Well, his girlfriend is dead - or is she - I still don't know so I can't spoil it - but there is clearly a mystery to be solved there, and heroic deeds to be done.  The serious corporate / political stuff is reasonably intriguing, too, but it's the gameplay, and becoming a bionic man, that are the real draw.

The stealth stuff is well done.  About as realistic as in any game.  The only small problem is that if enemies see one of their friends dead they will get excited but if you then move the body when they're not looking they will start to relax after a while and go back to normality.  The game has to work, though, so this is not too unreasonable.

One thing that's best is that you can save any time - even when there are hostile enemies around.

I shouldn't be writing about trivialities like that, though.  This game is bigger than that.

The game is a world in itself in which the player becomes immersed.  Augmenting Adam Jensen and upgrading those augmentation is both an interesting way to keep the game fresh and a means to an end within the game.  When playing the Human Revolution, continuing to play is just the obvious thing to do.

One final, curious observation about the DE: HR is that it is one of few games that could be called an FPS - there is plenty of that kind of thing - or could be called an RPG because there is interaction with NPC's which effect the outcome and character progression  - but probably could not be called an Action Adventure game because Adam Jensen has no moves.  He cannot kick or punch or block.  You press O when you're told to and sit back and watch Adam - without fail - take out the bad guy.  Okay, so Borderlands is similar - but it's mostly shooting and there is at least a basic melee attack which the player has to execute.

Please excuse me.  I have to hide behind something and shoot someone.