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Gamers have gone bananas for Nintendo's 3DS, but can this port of Retro Studios' 2010 Wii game make the jump to your portable?

PREVIEWS The Last of Us Preview
With Naughty Dog releasing a new IP in just a few short weeks, we got hands-on one more time. But don't worry: This is a spoiler-free preview.

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Release Dates

NEW RELEASES GRiD 2
Release date: 05/28/13

Fuse
Release date: 05/28/13

Remember Me
Release date: 06/04/13

The Last of Us
Release date: 06/14/13

DAILY MANIFESTO

Deus Ex: Human Revolution First Look

Posted on Monday, February 21 @ 12:55:33 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

Megan keeps trying to tell me something. She's started three separate times and been interrupted in three different ways. As we make our way through the human-augmentation lab other researchers approach Megan to ask her questions, provide updates on projects, or enter requests for a new cappuccino machine for the break room. You just know something bad is about to happen.

This is how Deus Ex: Human Revolution opens. Even if you've managed to avoid all of the pre-release marketing material, you can feel that they're coming for Megan. She's discovered something to make augmentation available to the masses, "unlocking the potential hidden in the human DNA." Unfortunately, I never get a chance to learn how she did it, or even what "it" is.

Players take the perspective of private security officer Adam Jensen in all of this. Megan walks me part of the way to David Sarif's office, expressing nervousness about presenting her findings to the government. While I'm speaking with the head of Sarif Industries, an environmental issue sets off alarms. Sarif directs Jensen, me, down stairs to check it out.

Now that I have control over Jensen, I can take in Human Revolution's gorgeous graphics. I'm not talking in terms of sheer polygons, although it has plenty of those. If anything, Human Revolution looks so good because of the liveliness in the environment, the NPCs interacting with each other, their surroundings, and you. Human Revolution's baroque visual style also marks the first time I've benefited from the art history background I got in school.

Adam Jensen doesn't have his augmentations yet, so the introduction sequence focuses on teaching the player the first person shooter controls and the third-person cover system. Scripted events help drive what little narrative there is to understand at the very beginning of the game.

Of course, environmental issues aren't really to blame for the chaos. Terrorists have broken in, killed scientists, and set fire to what seems like the entire building. I progress from room to room, staying in cover, picking off enemies, and trying to track down Megan and her kidnappers. At one point, a burly man throws a scientist and guns down another with a robotic limb. In another part of the building, a woman uses two machine guns to mow down innocents before disappearing right before my eyes.

A cutscene interrupts my control over the situation. In third person, I see Jensen thrown against a wall. Despite his bloodied limbs and loose intestines, he still attempts to pull his pistol against his augmented attacker. Megan throws a bucket of acid on him but it's too late. As the three augmented terrorists drag Megan away, the credits start to roll.

As the names of Eidos Montreal's staff flashed by, Adam's augmentations are implanted to save his life. As Adam shouts out, seemingly in protest, I wondered how the next two hours would play out. What would come next? How would Adam face his coworkers or Sarif after his implants had been installed? How would things play out for Sarif Industries after the attack?

Look out on Thursday for GR's preview of the full 3-hour demo we got last week.

Related Games: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Comments

Odbarc
Joined: Apr 2007

Posted: Feb 22nd, 2011 at 4:11 am
Angry calm emo white man in black clothing protagonist in a shooter with raspy voice.
I don't know where the initials F P S come into frame with a title like that.

But then again, Deus Ex 1 was wicked awesome fun with stealth, brute or hack possibilities for every level making more than the first level fun, playable, fun and interesting.

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