14 DAY TRIAL // Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released last week by publisher Square Enix and developer Eidos Montreal as a prequel to the massively successful and influential Deus Ex, and its sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, launched at the beginning of the 2000s.
I've already confessed my love for the game's beautiful, golden-themed world, but now it's time to take off the rose-tinted glasses and talk about the level design in Human Revolution, and how it's not always easy to comprehend.
There are two major city hubs in the new Deus Ex, Detroit and Hengsha (Shanghai), each serving as a perfect example of good and bad level design.
You start off in Detroit, which is quite big but relatively easy to navigate, with one main path between its northern and southern areas, a trickier maze of vents and side alleys, not to mention a lower sewer level that connects a few major buildings.
This pretty simple design, combined with the decent waypoint system, makes getting around the city quite easy.
When you reach Hengsha, however, it's probably for the best if you print out a map because you'll be forced to check out the in-game one a lot during your Chinese adventures.
Here, there's no actual main path, largely because Hengha is a more vertical city than Detroit, with lots of different levels connected by regular stairs, fire escapes or just boxes stacked on top of each other. What's more, it's split into two distinct areas, which make getting around even more difficult.
The waypoint system is still there, but most of the times you'll find that your destination is on a completely different level, meaning you need to start hunting for stairs and exploring every little nook and cranny until you actually find a way to your goal.
I needed to find the LIMB clinic in Hengsha at one point and it took me a good twenty minutes until realizing that I needed to go into the opposite side of the city's Lower area, in order to get to a lower level, and then follow the waypoint on my screen.
This overly complicated design, especially when compared with Detroit, really puts a downer on the whole exploration in Deus Ex, least in Hengsha.