TL;DR: Metal Gear meets The Matrix in a Y2K-envisioned future where the big biotech companies are selling cyborg augmentations to the masses. Decent action-stealth gameplay with cover shooting. Good with flaws, so I can't give it a general recommend. Try it out if you like Metal Gear or just the aesthetic.
I'll first say the coolest thing about Deus Ex to me is the aesthetic and setting. As mentioned above, this is the type of idealized future we thought we had coming in the 90's and the 2000's. Amber holographic curved computer monitors. Lots of melodious beeps and boops with a HUD that's an actual overlay on someone's vision like augmented reality. Feminine AI voices saying "Access granted" and people in ridiculous futuristic fashion choices like neck ruffles and skintight bodysuits. Hacking being trumpeted as one of the most impressive jobs, all served with tons of technobabble and a soundtrack full of frutiger-aeroish corporate synths and drum and bass. If you grew in the 90's and 2000's, you'll realize this as something that was tried in some cartoons, animes (like Evangelion), and older video games, but Deus Ex: Human Revolution executes it pretty well.
Companies in the America of Deus Ex are at the forefront of producing technology that changes the world and promises human flourishing, yet there's tons of hobos in the streets, crime, and lots of disastrous geopolitical events occurring (you can read about them in game on e-books and holographic newspapers!). This is a pretty accurate depiction of what modern America is heading towards, but we're missing out on the widely available cool cyborg stuff at the time of writing this review. The MC is head of security at one of these big biotech companies, and you'll get roped into a convoluted string of events which will change the fate of the world. I'll leave that vague.
The story has its good moments. At its best, you'll be at a turning point, trying to persuade other characters to do something important to the fate of the world, and it will feel tense and very cool. At it's worst, you realize these conversations do nothing to influence the overall ending or trajectory of the story in any significant way. It's quite a mixed bag. There's stuff they really do right like the persuasion system, but they they miss a lay-up like persuading or not persuading someone are two different doors to the same ending or plot line. It's an antithesis of games that claim to have choices that matter.
Additional praise and attention must be given to the voice acting. The MC, Adam Jensen, is so cool. He never loses his cool. He is the very definition of cool. Other than the MC, a large chunk of the voice acting cast is surprisingly just the same cast as the PBS show Arthur for some reason? This was a massive flashbang to me. Freaking Mr. Ratburn is talking about how augmentation technology is necessary for human evolution, and Arthur's dad is arguing against him, saying that biotech companies are corrupt and greedy, trying to make people dependent upon them. Later you'll randomly see Francine's voice actor in the street screaming at the police. It made me laugh my ass off. Please play this game if you watched Arthur on PBS; it's so worth it.
For a long-winded list of complaints about this game, hbomberguy actually made a really good video about this on YouTube that I mostly agree with but, mine are that this game gets long in the tooth; you are infiltrating grey factories and warehouses the entire game with very few mechanics introduced past the first couple areas. It got old and boring 20 hours in and I had to push myself to finish the game. Levelling up and progression is where playstyles start to diverge, and this is my next complaint. You get choice paralysis on what you should upgrade because there's so many choices with very little information to judge what is a good choice for you at any given moment. Lastly, I'll mention the ending. The ending is not a result of the all of the choices you made leading up to it -- it's just a choice of which button do you press. Then you see an abstract cutscene and it's over like that. For how much work was put into this game, it feels like the ending was an afterthought.
Not everyone will like this game, and I was tempted to put it down due to it getting boring later on, but Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a generally well-done action stealth game with gunplay that feels much better than metal gear games, gives you several ways to solve any problem, and has a super cool cyborg hacker vibe. Not for everyone, but as stated above, try it out if you like Metal Gear, or even Cyberpunk 2077.
