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.
Throughout this diary series we praised Human Revolution for a variety of great things it's done, including the almost perfect blend of its main gameplay aspects: stealth, social, hacking and combat, not to mention its stunning visual design. We also pointed out some of its most annoying features, like the convoluted Hengsha city hub or the terrible boss fights.
Now, let's take a look at how Deus Ex: Human Revolution brings together two genres that are becoming more and more connected in recent years: shooters and role playing games.
Nowadays, many shooters, whether they're first or third person, have some sort of role playing mechanics, even if it's just a leveling up one for the weapons.
We've already seen some proper hybrids of the two genres, like Mass Effect or Fallout, but most them don't strike the same great balance as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, either leaning a bit too far into the shooter category, like Mass Effect 2, or into the RPG one, like Fallout 3.
Human Revolution, at least in my eyes, takes every great feature from the shooter genre, like solid first person mechanics or the third person view when in cover, and combines them with a solid augmentation tree that allows gamers to adopt a variety of play styles while still going through the game at their own pace.
Combining these gameplay mechanics with the four core aspects mentioned above, makes Human Revolution a worthy contender for the Game of the Year award, at least until plenty of other high quality titles arrive later this year.
What do you think? Has the recently released title managed to win your affection? Leave a comment below.