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Deus Ex: Human Revolution is, for me, a game with a lot of potential, but one that does not know how to take full advantage of it. The Director's Cut received a graphical improvement, and visually the game can still look impressive, but the cutscenes were clearly left behind. Their lower quality stands out against the improved visuals and creates a noticeable contrast that breaks some of the immersion the game is trying to create. Considering the year the game was released, however, that would be far from its biggest problem.
One of the biggest problems I found is how basic the gameplay can feel. You can approach situations through stealth or go directly against the enemies, but there is not much depth in what the player can actually do. Outside of the few panels you can hack or interact with, there could have been much more variety in the way you manipulate the environment and deal with enemies without simply relying on direct combat.
This is where I started comparing Deus Ex with other games, not because they are identical, but because there were already games before and around that period doing some of these things better. Crysis is one of the clearest examples. Its stealth mechanics feel much broader and give the player more interesting ways to approach situations, while Deus Ex often feels much more limited.
During my playthrough, I also kept comparing the feeling of the gameplay to Half-Life. The two games belong to completely different universes and were made by completely different developers, but if you remove the Deus Ex aesthetic, some of its slower movement and its aiming mechanics, I was left with the feeling of playing something very close to a Source-style game. You can pick up objects, throw them around and interact with the environment in ways that reminded me of Valve's games, to the point where I initially even wondered if the game had been made using the Source engine.
That comparison is not the reason I criticise the gameplay. The gunfights themselves are not bad, but they are also nothing special. I simply could not enjoy the gameplay the game offers, especially because of how basic some of its mechanics feel. I tried doing things that I expected the game might allow, such as picking up objects and throwing them at NPCs, but during my playthrough the enemies barely reacted. You can throw an object at them and it feels like you can throw an object at them and it feels like you are throwing it against a wall: the object hits them and simply comes back.
I do not know if that is a bug or if certain objects behave differently, but heavier objects, considering the force used to throw them, should at least be capable of causing damage or knocking an NPC down. That would have been an interesting mechanic, especially because the game already gives you the ability to pick up and throw objects scattered around the map. The possibility is there, but the interaction feels wasted.
The same applies to stealth. You can spend a large part of the game simply avoiding enemies and ignoring them, but there are not enough interactions with the environment to make those situations particularly engaging. I enjoy stealth games that allow me to manipulate the environment in my favour and create advantages against enemies. Dark Messiah and Dishonored are good examples of games that do this well. Even Cyberpunk 2077, despite being a much newer game, gives the player far more ways to interact with the environment, disable cameras remotely, destabilise enemies, blind them or use electrical objects to create explosions.
And this is why I do not think Deus Ex can simply be excused because it is an older game. There are plenty of older games with more immersive and interesting mechanics. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is another example of a game that offered much more in terms of immersion, realism and gameplay mechanics.
The cinematic side of Deus Ex is also strangely limited. Apart from the cutscenes, the only moments where the game really becomes cinematic during gameplay are the takedowns. I initially did not like them because the transition felt abrupt, almost like pressing a button moved the character into a separate sequence instead of flowing naturally from the gameplay. I eventually got used to them and started enjoying them, but outside of those moments, there is very little else that gives the gameplay that same feeling.
Where the game does not disappoint me is the narrative. The story is well defined, the choices are interesting and those choices can affect missions, their outcome and the ending. This is where I can see the value of an 8. There are many games where I place a lot of weight on the narrative, and Deus Ex does not fail in that area. The story is one of the strongest reasons I kept playing, and the plot twist and final part of the game were also much better than I expected.
I would even say that Deus Ex: Human Revolution could have received an 8 from me if I were evaluating the original experience without the problems I had with this version. The Director's Cut improves the graphics, but the technical issues remain, and the micro stutters were present throughout the entire game. These are not occasional problems that can simply be ignored. They constantly interfere with the gameplay, and I experienced them even on modern and powerful hardware.
There are community patches and fixes available, but I am not going to evaluate the game based on what the community managed to fix. I evaluate the game as it is by default. These problems were never properly resolved, and while the developers could not have predicted every hardware change that would happen in the future, there are plenty of old games that still run on modern PCs without these kinds of problems. Even when issues exist, they can often be resolved without relying on community patches and unofficial fixes.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is not a bad game, but it is also far from being perfect, a masterpiece, or something I would place at a 9 or 10. It has a lot of potential, and its narrative, choices and consequences are enough to show what the game does well. The problem is that the gameplay never reaches the same level. The stealth and combat feel too basic, the interaction with the environment is more limited than it should be, and there were already games doing much more with similar mechanics.
Without the persistent technical problems, I could easily see this game as an 8. But I cannot ignore them, especially when they remain present throughout the entire experience and can become even more problematic for someone playing on different hardware. For that reason, the Director's Cut stays at a 7.
[b]Score: 7/10[/b]
(1) Trash(2) Horrible(3) Very Bad(4) Bad(5) Average
(6) Fine(7) Good(8) Very Good(9) Great(10) Masterpiece
