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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Augmented Edition Review





Developer:      Eidos Motreal
Publisher:        Square Enix
Platforms:       PS3, Xbox 360 and PC
Rating:            ESRB M, PEGI 15


I never asked for this, but I chose to make a review. The year is 2011, it’s the time where the Deus Ex makes its way to the market and relive the theme of what it has done 11 years ago. 
After a long wait of my pre-purchased Augmented Edition here I am ready to make a review. For more than 40+ hours of gaming completion, I finally drag myself out from playing to reviewing this game. 


                                          Poor Adam in human form


Presentation


The game sets itself in 2027, about 20 years before the event of the first game Deus Ex in 2052, Human Augmentation is widely used by consumers whereas to enhance their human abilities and take them to a higher level for their basic daily needs. Although the technology isn’t as widely welcomed form that time, it’s starting to shape a new era for humanity.


You play the role of Adam Jensen, a security officer in SERIF Industries, one of the leading human augmentation companies located in the state of Detroit. The facility was attacked by an unknown group leaving Adam almost dead and took away his girlfriend. Saved by augmenting his body, he seeks revenge for what happened. Six months later your quest begins, solving mysteries by visiting places and talk to certain persons for the main and side quests. It’s pretty straight forward; the guy had a traumatic event and seeks redemption. But things will start to pick up as you complete one quest to another involving secret organization with deep and scary intentions for the world. 


                                          Adam in Augmented form


Gameplay


Here are my thoughts on the game; it has the first person shooter view, a Metal Gear Solid cover and stealth gameplay, a conversational system that impacts the outcome of player’s game direct and indirect approach. Leveling up system is vast and limited; you can’t upgrade all of your augmentations so it’s best to choose wisely on what you should upgrade to better use based on your style. There are many ways to reach an objective from run-and-gun (but that doesn’t work well for me) style to stealth mode and walking through vents. Aside from enhancing your augmentations, you can also improve your weapons by combining upgrade kits found in the area and also can be bought from a dealer. So the game has more MGS feel in combat combined with RPG elements roaming in a semi open world. And seeing those take downs and augmented abilities will leave you amazed and feel like a badass killing machine…or human for that matter.


                                          Cover system, reminds me of MGS for sure.


Graphics


It’s gorgeous, the theme of a dark future brings to life, the element of gold and black are seen in the game and artistically well made. From the looks of it, it was well made in art and fashion.  


                                          See that Orange Dart? yeah i like taking them down silently


Audio


It has a catchy sound track of mixed electronic and organic feel. A gun shot delivers a feel that you are using an advanced weapon of the future. Although some voice acting was dramatically well made others may sound funny but acceptable. 


                                          Trivia, this is when you take an alcoholic drink. :)


Overall 


Personally, this was a good pre-purchased game I had since my Dungeon Siege 3. A satisfactory for my pocket and entertainment to add the Augmented Edition is good bonus if you like to watch the development of the game and its Original Sound Tracks. Although it may not charm most of those who expect it to be a full pledged FPS game, it will surely satisfy to the gamers who plays RPG and/or stealth cover games. 


Score 9/10


Pro(s)
Amazing and lively graphics 
Vast augmentation upgrades options
Hacking is cheap fun and rewarding
A Deep back story 
MGS feel
Multiple endings
Memorable Characters


Con(s)
Going stealth mode will take you a bit longer to accomplish a mission
Limited resources for upgrades 
Frustrating boss fights at times
No game+ as you finished the game

Monday, August 1, 2011

Battlefield 3 - Alpha Trail Preview

Last week I got an invitation from EA to try the Alpha Trail version of BF3’s multiplayer map & I took privilege to give it a try and see. I had only a few minutes to spare on the game but I ended up playing it for a couple of hours. It’s that good but since that this is an early version of the game, I encountered some points to name a few in details:

  • By starting the game, it asked me to update my NVIDIA GeForce GT 240. Though I ignored the notification and still ran the game. 
  • It only has one screen resolution as “windowed” but none the less major improvements of the graphical details are much appreciated and see things better for the eyes. 
  • The classes are now segregated into four. The Assault is back but instead of carrying additional ammo, it carries a defibrillator to revive fallen allies. Secondly, the support has the ammo and uses light machine guns. The third class is the recon which is also back on duty and with the help of graphical improvements, sniping will be a lovable class for open field map area to add that it has the ability to call in artillery strikes. And finally we have the engineer. Lets face it, Battlefield won’t be complete without vehicles and a class to maintain them in battle.

The experience:


Just like the Rush mode in BC2, you start at what it seems to be a park in a city or in a subway station. Two maps has different approach in the game from fighting in an open area which are likely to be in favored for snipers or in an underground subway station which will be favorable mostly on Assault units.


The controls were top notch and to add the new things I discovered as follows:

  • You can run over small obstacles and see how you maneuver them over like a “Mirror’s Edge” game. 
  • In addition to duck from the previous game, you can now crawl down for better stealth approach and to avoid sniper detection.  
  • A successful stab in the back will execute a deathblow however, 
  • The control keys were a little hard for me to command (the duck and crawl keys were too close from each other for me) so I hope that they will allow us to customize them by the time it hits the shelf.

Combat system is pretty solid, it delivers the feel from BC2 but a lot better with improved controls and the new graphics Engine. As a personal tip, the game will be best played on a higher resolution screen weather its HDTV or HD monitor (I’m using HPs 21” HD Monitor) and a considerable stronger CPU (My current specs are Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, Intel Core 2 Quad 2.5 GHz, 4 gig of RAM, NVDA GeForce GT 240 of 1 gig graphics memory and a 1 TB hard drive).

So is it an MW3 killer?

Possible, but by playing both previous games it’s actually goes down to whatever the consumer feels like playing; they are two FPS game but has a different style of gameplay. COD is known to their fast phased interface while BF talks about semi realistic and team based approach.

Conclusion:

Currently, the alpha trial version is about showing us the idea of its online multiplayer, and I’m happy to report that I had fun and will play more of it.