After weeks of bitching about not having my laptop, I finally got it back last week, and immediately started on Human Revolution.

Great stuff. I'm glad they kept the giant environments, and I think the color scheme was really well done.

Some people have complained about not having to choose your augs (Deus Ex 1 had "canisters," in which you would choose one of two mutually exclusive augmentations), but it really didn't bother me too much. More augmentations is always an interesting thing, but there were enough augmentations, with a ton of upgrade slots, to keep me occupied.

I loved the invisibility aug- to be honest, I almost never used it in DX1- it was so easy to avoid people. But here, that little burst of invisibility so you could rush around a corner, or zap someone into unconsciousness, was great.

Also liked Smart Vision- it looked very cool, and it was much easier to get this time around.

I really, really liked this game- took me 31 hours to beat it. However, I feel like a terrible person because I can only think about the few small ways it could have been better:

First- having Jensen be constantly tied to Serif Industries. It wasn't that bad, but it got a little tiring still having Pritchard in my ear on the last level. It's like the guy just sits in his office all day and talks to me. DX1 had Alex Jacobson, Paul Denton, Tracer Tong, Morgan Everett... a lot of different people acting as "mission control" for various parts of the game. In Human Revolution, it's always Sarif calling you "son" and Pritchard being snarky.

Second- the boss battles. It's been mentioned before, so I won't belabor it, but- barring the last one- they were just so... UN Deus Ex! I spend the whole game sneaking around, tranquilizing people, and suddenly I'm locked into a small room with someone who can't be tranq'd, can't be knocked out, the stun gun just momentarily freezes him, and has like a zillion health.

Then there was electric-floor girl, which was insanely difficult. All I had was a hastily-grabbed battle rifle and a jumping aug, and I just bunny-hopped across the electrified floor, pounding painkillers and dying. A lot. Third guy wasn't much better.

The thing that really pissed me off was, who WERE these people? Yes, they attacked Serif in the beginning of the game, but they get NO character development. Who are they? Why do they work for the bad guys? Why are they so determined to kill you? A good villain/boss fight should have some buildup. These guys had nothing.

The final boss battle was interesting. Definitely a bit horrifying, although I think they could have turned the creepiness factor up even more. Instead of making it about timing and "video-gamey," maybe have the drones in isolated rooms you have to shut down, hacking in while you hear them alternately speak robotically and in agonized horror, etc. As it was, I'm not sure why shooting the drones made a pane of glass shatter, but whatever.


Oh, and the map system was a bit hard to read.


But other than that! Awesome. (Icarus Landing System was extremely cool, I want one)