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This game's soundtrack is hauntingly sublime in the most exquisite way. Adam Jensen's apartment is amazing. Pretty tight nit narrative, even the fate of Adam and Megan's dog is mentioned later on.

The versatility of this game is staggering at times. It certainly doesn't posses the same "hollowness" that plagued L.A. Noire and many other "AAA" titles this year. I suppose that only four hours in, I'm shocked at that sensitivity Eidos Montreal took in making this feel actualized in it's potential, and not just a degrading thoroughfare of ideas poorly put together.

Guess the bosses are the only conundrum of sorts.
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After completing the title, I didn't feel as if the ending/last portion truthfully upheld the quality that was furthered by the prior levels. Specifically upon the second return to Heng Sha, something dislodges itself from the game's overall motions, and things just start to fall apart. The remaining side quests are boorish, and a sense of finality is all but absent. The final boss fight really stands out to me as being tedious, and lackluster, even on the highest difficulty level all but a smidgeon of difficulty remained. The Cyber Zombies, whilst making perfect sense from a narrative standpoint, don't fit into the game at all. The idea that one man, Darrow in this instance through petty anger literally altered a huge segment of the world into mindless automatons of violence through a signal was fascinating, but poorly implemented. Also a lack of confrontation between Sariff and the Human Front was sorrily missed at the end of the game.

Regarding the actual mechanics of the game first, several things stood out. The necessity of ADS mechanics being nearly absent in this instance was utterly refreshing, which is wonderful considering how terrible and inaccurate the ADS mechanics are. The boss fights are a complete and total mess, even if they are meant to convey direct confrontation without remorse, for an expert team of augmented mercenaries, they certainly didn't fight like it. I believe that the actual arenas that are constructed around the boss fights pose the greatest problem, if this was F.E.A.R or another title that makes specific use of environment and varying levels of geometry to allow persistent and dynamic fighting, I'm sure the boss battles would become much more varied and expressive, but essentially it's a slug fest, without any possible stealth attacks or duping. It's quite a shame. The take-downs present an interesting dilemma that already feels fully fleshed out by the discourse that's been built in this thread. Adding to it, I don't believe that the take-downs remain emblematic of any core problems with the title, they are interesting to watch the first two or three times, and soon after become tedious. As an exploration of Jensen's character, perhaps it has some resonance, but more or less it seems like a layer of flash added to assist and build upon the player's repertoire of power fantasy abilities. As a stealth mechanic, the reflex booster augmentation combined with the take-down makes so many situations much more plausible.

Still, I can't think of a title that I have enjoyed this much in a great deal of time. For all of it's apparent faults, Deus Ex: HR does some rather magnificent things, and as I was explaining before, the sheer verticality and horizontal navigation, as well as the means given to you to explore it to it's fullest doesn't feel detrimental to me. The actual augmentations were done in a surprisingly varied and purposeful manner, in which no player could acquire every single augmentation, but rather had to adjust accordingly to the game's scenarios in their own manner. This versatility in development is an immensely appealing aspect of the immersive sim that at least feels rendered and actualized, but not fully fleshed out. Much more could've been done to convey the actual transhumanism at point within Jensen, I would've deeply appreciated if that with each increasing augmentation, such as Dermal Armor, Jensen's model would've changed to convey it. I think Dracko hypothesized on this this matter prior to my own thoughts about it, but visually stating the loss of humanity would've been amazing in this game. As to whether or not a non-lethal run betrays the actual narrative or character of Jensen, is a rather interesting topical point in it of itself.

Owing more to Blade Runner and Robocop aesthetically and tonally isn't such an abhorrent transgression in this instance, in fact if one definable attribute exists regarding Deus Ex: HR, it's that it's art style, design, and atmosphere fully envelop a cyberpunk melancholy. Whether or not Jensen reacts to his scenario as an augmented Anton Chigurh, or as a peaceful Solid Snake is beyond the scope and impact of Deus Ex's combined aural and visual flair and excess. It's probably the first time I ever stopped and looked at what was around me and said "wow". The gunplay is surprisingly chunky and meaty, and as for the stealth component, I never once found a situation that didn't have at least two to three various paths to take to completely avoid a fire fight. Whilst not all paths and points are readily accessible or visible, it felt as if the for the first time in a long time, the developer's imbued some form of confidence and competence upon the player, which is a rare feat in of itself.

Overall it's the first game I've felt any true connectivity with in a long time, and think that it currently stands a sort of watershed of opposition in terms of the current market. More could've been done to exercise that, but as it stands it was a readily impressive title.

Oh and the FMV after the credits, a wonderful love letter to Deus Ex. Even made me smile.