Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut

It still amazes me that this game was made at all.
The announcement of Deus Ex 3 (as its working title was for a long time, before being officially named Human Revolution) was met with scorn and apathy by jaded players who'd already been burned once by the underwhelming sequel that was Deus Ex: Invisible War. Trailers and promo images were met with a cool reaction at first -- until the game finally came out, and it became abundantly clear that Eidos Montreal understood, to a T, what the designers of the previous game did not; a cyberpunk story centered around abundant (and alternate) gameplay solutions, mixed with deep lore and a freedom to play your character the way you want.
In many ways, Human Revolution (presented here as the "Director's Cut", removing an overbearing yellow filter from the game and integrating all of the game's DLC) is a pseudo-remake of the original game from 2000, all the way from replicating certain character dynamics like lead Adam Jensen's friendship with his tech support, Frank Pritchard, to set pieces that seem to have been inspired by unused ideas drawn up for the original game (the discovery of Dutch hacker Arie Van Bruggen and the escape from the Alice Garden Pods evokes an unused idea to rescue prisoners on a sampan boat in the Wan Chai Waterways).
There's a lot to be said about the gameplay and character dynamics that have been covered so well in other reviews. This includes the attention to making the various cities you visit feel like real, lived-in places with plenty of entertaining characters to meet and do quests for; the various augmentations that dramatically change the way you approach missions; the moral dilemmas you often encounter, which range from whether or not to save an "enemy" engineer trapped in a room flooding with gas, seeing how augmentation tech affects industries as comparatively "low-key" as prostitution, euthanizing a "drone" found in the lowest level of a prison complex, or convincing an anti-aug detective to get the upgrades after he's mortally wounded during an investigation; and even comparatively-minor things like evoking the original game's reactivity, via giving the player unique dialogue or special scenarios for doing missions/tasks before they're asked to.
Human Revolution still stands as one of the giants of the "immersive sim" genre, not necessarily by excelling in one key area, but doing so many areas either competently or very well that the overall experience is heightened by the end result. Even elements as minor as the hacking minigame, traversing through airvents or drinking consumable items (like beer or whiskey) have gameplay effects, ranging from health boosts to secret cutscenes, that lift the whole package into something much greater than its parts -- which was exactly what the original game did so well.
Just about every interaction in the game is a joy to listen to. Jensen (voiced expertly by Elias Toufexis) is a world-weary security specialist who's forcibly augmented against his will (shades of Robocop), and has the personality and sarcasm to match, and he's balanced out by a cast of amusing characters, including his boss, David Sarif, pilot Faridah Malik, hacker Pritchard and a boatload of informants and connections -- some of which you might not even meet during your first run through the game. Actions have consequences, and even something as simple as rooting around your office before a hostage rescue mission can have dire results down the line.
(It also helps that the soundtrack, made by Michael McCann, delivers some of the best cyberpunk-style tunes delivered in any game in recent years.)
But is this better than Deus Ex (2000)? No... but it stands at a very close second place. Human Revolution, even to the acknowledgement of its developers, drags the most in the middle-third of the game, where you get sent through three areas (Montreal, Detroit and Hengsha ), where a couple of tense and exciting encounters are buoyed by retreads of hub levels with not much new of note to see or do. Compare this to the original game's visit to New York and Paris, which had more demonstrable gameplay effects and key story beats being pushed frequently. The Missing Link DLC (integrated here into the original game) also suffers from waylaying the plot for a couple hours so that we can perform a jailbreak and sets up story beats for the next game (Mankind Divided), at the cost of making the experience a slog for players annoyed at losing most of their skillpoints and playing the first half of the DLC more-or-less sneaking around the place to avoid direct engagement.
Still, the end experience is one that any fan of RPGs or immersive sims should try at least once in their lives. The way it martials so many elements into a package that exceeds the sum of its parts (no pun intended) is still a milestone for the franchise, and of the modern Deus Ex games, I'd argue that this is the only one that comes the closest to replicating the spirit and feel of the original in a modern way.
Highly recommended.

💬 “Daedalus, Icarus, Seraphim, Helios, and Janus”
🚀 Overview
> Original <
👍 Merits
👎 Flaws
✔️ Captivating story & characters
✔️ Outstanding level design
✔️ Solid mechanics allowing various tactical options
✔️ Aesthetic, painstaking environments
✔️ Superb OST
❌ Mediocre FPS mechanics
❌ Pedestrian boss fights
❌ Laughable facial attributes
> Director’s Cut <
👍 Merits
👎 Flaws
✔️ New game + mode
✔️ Overhauled boss battles
✔️ Extra content
✔️ All DLCs included
❌ Terrible PC port
🚪 Introduction
Had he heeded his father's warning, Icarus could've escaped the fate of drowning in his own demise. After all, it's human nature. Give it a pair of Seraph's wings, and it will be eager to fly beyond its limits, ignoring any regulations that decelerate its odyssey to the sun. Technological advancement without morals guiding its progress sets us on a route with obliteration as its inevitable end. Deus Ex: Human Revolution shares Janus's definition of duality in its mythology. A being with two heads gazing in opposite directions.
One head represents the technological revolution, while the other depicts social norms, where the body exhibits the society that contain both antithetical notions. Can anything but chaos come out of such a figure? Another interpretation can be that one head looks westward to the past while the other sees eastward to the future. The body connects two endpoints—alpha and omega—of the spectrum: an 18th-century conspiring organization with a 21th-century flourishing in human augmentations. Two expositions yet one outcome; the body is torn apart.
🎮 Single-player
💠 Making Enemies
Set 25 years before the original Deus Ex, you control Adam Jensen—former SWAT personnel—who works as chief of physical security for Sarif Industries, one of the leading companies in biotechnological innovations. A day before announcing a revolutionary discovery to the congress, it went under attack by a group of heavily augmented mercs whose mission was to terminate the group of scientists responsible for the big event. Adam's security measures failed to stop the massacre, and he's left for dead after being brutally injured while trying to save Megan Reed—his girlfriend and the head of the research team. Thanks to Sarif Industries, his life is saved by receiving the best augmentations money can ever buy. It's a thrilling sci-fi story of honoring love and unraveling conspiracy that never fails to maintain a high excitement level.
💠 Adam 2.0
Now, it's a whole new experience; Adam is far more superior than ever, with capabilities way beyond the perfect human. His implants fall under two categories: mental and physical. Each has its branches that are upgradable via Praxis Kits, mostly earned by the game's XP. Cerebral upgrades are related to hacking abilities, social skills, perception, and radar range. On the other hand, physical enhancement targets speed, strength, durability, aim stability, special abilities, etc.
💠 All Ways Lead to Rome
DXHR is primarily a stealth-focused cover-based FPS with integrated RPG elements in a semi-open world that packs a ton of fascinating details, side quests, and areas waiting for exploration. It offers a lot of merits, but the most valued selling point has to be gameplay flexibility. Mainly, there are two methods: stealth or direct encounter. Either approach, you can use lethal or non-lethal techniques; however, being a pacifist doesn't match well with open confrontations. Its brilliant level design offers a labyrinth of ways to complete a mission. You can access a specific area by persuading someone to let you in, infiltrating it through hide-and-seek, or using hidden passages. Also, you can prioritize your main and side missions as you see fit.
💠 The Smell of Hypocrisy
Of course, you can go for the good-old killing spree; however, it wouldn't be the wisest of decisions, as the game's shooting mechanics don't stand up well enough to be an action-focused FPS. Additionally, enemies are much harder to deal with due to scarce ammo, especially on higher difficulties. It feels like the game pushes you to play the spy, which I consider a strike against the "freedom of choice" point. Also, boss battles lack the privilege of choice, as a firefight-lethal style is the only way.
💠 Intellectual Action
Hacking plays a crucial role in the game. With it, you can access terminals for info, open locked doors, disable cameras, or turn bots against your enemies. The process of persuasion or procuring intel is a matter of analyzing your adversary's character and accordingly triggering the correct response to maintain the persuasion level; it's an elegant conversation mechanic supported by solid writing. The voice performances are good, but I find Adam's voice to be as if he smokes 500 cigarettes on a daily basis. Also, his death voice is pretty f*ckin hilarious; judge for yourselves.
💠 Director’s Cut Features
New game + mode where all unlocked augmentations will carry over
Integrating The Missing Link DLC into the storyline
Inclusion of 4 in-game items DLCs
Reworked boss battles allowing players to complete them stealthily
A "Making Of" video
Eidos Montreal's commentary
Free two energy cells regeneration on all but the hardest difficulty
🛠️ Technical
💠 Cities of Golden Lights
A conspicuous synthesis of the Italian renaissance with a bleak near-future aesthetic tinted by amber lighting; it's the golden atmosphere of DXHR. The touch of the roman culture is quite palpable in the characters' fashion and the ambient music. It's an exquisite piece of art, especially the artful soundtrack that combines shreds of ancient roman chanting with futuristic rhythms. It contributes to the relationship between the past and the future the game demonstrates in its lore. From a graphical quality direction, it's a 7/10 good, but the overall facial attributes are very dated.
💠 Director’s Cut Features
Removal of the yellow filter
A f*cking, laggy PC port
👨‍🔧 Fixes
💠 Performance Issues on Windows 10
1. Navigate to DXHRDC.exe -> Properties -> Compatibility tab:
Change the compatibility mode to Windows 7
Activate the "Disable fullscreen optimizations" checkmark
2. Open Nvidia's control panel -> Manage 3D settings -> Program settings -> Add -> Choose DXHRDC.exe
Enable Vsync and triple buffering after disabling them in the game's menu
Set the max frame rates to 58 frames
⚖️ Verdict
It fellow the closest to perfection but didn't withstand the vehement rays of the 太阳; after all, nothing is 100% perfect. With minor flaws, it's a masterpiece that deserves all the praise achieved. The director's cut delivers remarkable changes to the game, but its poor performance on PC is a cheapass insult by Nixxes Studio to the PC Master Race.
💯 Score
🅰️spects
Aspect
Multiplier
Score
Single-player
40%
10
Technical (Original)
60%
7
Technical (Director’s Cut)
0%
4
🅾️verall
9

fps goes from 100 to 0 very quick

One of the most relaxing games ever made. The semi open world is perfect for immersion without over stimulation. This game has aged very well in my opinion, especially the soundtrack.

A legendary game, with amazing futuristic artstyle and spot on electronic music that captures the whole cyberpunk environment. To solve a problem you are given many possible solutions, limited only by your own creativity, even though going stealthy and non-lethal seems to be the most rewarding way. Ive never seen so much freedom to explore, experiment and do things my own way like in this game. We need more games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
10/10

can they add deus sex

I Never Asked for This...