Developer: Eidos Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Mac
Deus Ex Human Revolution – Director’s Cut – Review
Instead of releasing a “GOTY” edition like so many other publishers do, Square Enix decided to rework the entire game and released Deus Ex Human Revolution – Director’s Cut. The developers included the DLC into the storyline, and thus you play the right DLC at the right time. The graphics and AI were tweaked, and last but not least the boss battles are reinvented. Was this sufficient to convince to buy the game (again)?
Story
Megan Reed, a young scientist, makes a great discovery. She has found a way to integrate human and machine. This integration is not new, but until now for a successful integration the human had to take a very expensive medicine called Neuropozyne, in order to not repel the machine parts attached to the body. Of course there are people who do not want that Neuropozyne will be made useless, because they earn a great deal of money because of this medicine. These people launch an attack against the laboratory of doctor Reed, where you get a near death experience. When you wake up, your body is more machine than human.
Now it’s time to find out who did this and make them pay…
Graphics
The graphics of this game underwent a good polish but sadly, you barely notice it. The graphics look a bit outdated for a game that is released at the end of our current generation of consoles. When creating a director’s cut of the game on this scale, they should have done a better job of cleaning up the graphics. However on a positive note, the cut scenes are much more fluently then in the original game.
Sound
This game contains some great voice acting, which makes it clear they put some effort in the casting. Even three years after the original game was released it still sounds superb.
Michael McCan, the composer of the music, did his best to deliver some high quality music that fits perfectly into the game. The soundtrack of the game contains no less than 25 tracks. Which is pretty much double the amount of songs you find at the latest albums of your favorite popstars.
Gameplay
So, what is different to the director’s cut than the original game? As mentioned above, the DLC that you had to buy separately, is now integrated into the main story. This means you don’t have to worry if you’re playing the DLC too early or too late. Instead you will be playing it at the moment it was meant to be played.
Maybe the biggest change in this ‘updated’ version are the boss battles. You don’t have to stockpile ammo and grenades like a crazy lunatic anymore. In the Director’s cut you can, like you are able to throughout the whole game, use your stealth or hack abilities to defeat the bosses instead of using brute force. This might be a huge relief for a lot of gamers, because these battles could really be a pain in the *bleep*.
A newly added feature is, what was to be expected as the game was now also developed for Wii U, the addition of a second screen. For Wii U obviously it is the screen in the gamepad, but for PS3 and Xbox 360 it is respectively the PS Vita and the use of SmartGlass. In the original game you only had a radar available which displayed an enemy and the direction he was facing. Now you have a full 2D map of the environment at your disposal, on which you can even draw notes with your stylus. It wasn’t necessary to add the second screen as everything could have been done with just one single screen, but it does give you a different experience of playing the game.
Last but not least in the director’s cut there is also a documentary video where the developers give commentary about the game and its redesign.
Conclusion
Now the answer to the question posed at the beginning of this page: Is this game worth buying (again)?. To anyone who hasn’t played this game, yes, you should definitely look up this game. Deus Ex still is a great game to experience, even at the dawn of our current generation of consoles. For those who already own the original game, the purchase might not be that necessary, except if you love the incorporation of the DLC in the game itself and of course the boss battles. The huge redesign of the boss battles and the option of using a second ‘screen’ will provide you with a different gaming experience than in the original version. Sadly, they forgot to put the icing on the cake, namely the graphical section of the game. If they did this, the game would have been a hit out of the park, instead of just being a great game.
http://youtu.be/8AXvSx6Kmmg
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