Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an action RPG from Eidos Montréal that in 2011 revived the cult franchise and carried its cyberpunk vision into the near future of 2027. The player takes on the role of security chief Adam Jensen, who survives a brutal attack on the research firm Sarif Industries only thanks to extensive mechanical augmentations he never asked for. The investigation takes him from Detroit to Shanghai and beyond, confronting him with the question of who actually has the right to decide how far the enhancement of the human body should go.

The game consistently offers several ways through every situation: brute force, stealth, hacking, or persuasion in dialogues built like a minigame of reading an opponent's character. Augmentations are unlocked with praxis points and change what's even possible, from a safe landing from a great height to seeing through walls to silent movement. Levels are designed with several layers of access routes, ventilation shafts, offices overhead, and locked doors whose codes can be found in someone else's email. The game tracks whether the player kills, and offers a meaningful way to get through everything without a single casualty. It also strongly rewards exploration, since apartments, offices, and vent shafts hold not just supplies but entire side-stories the player would otherwise never learn about.

On PlayStation 3 the game runs well, if at a lower resolution and with a pronounced gold-black color filter that is both its greatest aesthetic asset and the target of jokes. Michael McCann's music is built on dark synthetic textures and ranks among the best soundtracks of its generation. Contemporary reception was very favorable, with criticism mainly aimed at the mandatory boss fights, which undercut the otherwise consistent freedom of approach. Human Revolution influenced an entire wave of so-called immersive sim games, and even today feels like an excellently designed game whose details have aged rather than its foundation.