There are a couple of things that one must say about Deus Ex: Human Revolution up front to assuage the fears of the faithful.

"It is true to Deus Ex."

"It feels like a PC game."

So there you go: both of those things are true. I've spent the past week playing the pants off of the game (I'm past the 20 hour mark of the PC version and it feels like I'm about halfway through the final act). As I near the end of Adam Jensen's big adventure, I thought I'd get a bit more specific about a few of my favorite things in the game. Let's get into it, shall we?

Coldly Gorgeous; Gorgeously Gold

While looking at screenshots and trailers for Human Revolution, the most noticeable thing about the art direction wasn't the art itself, it was the color scheme—gold on black on gold, with a side of gold. It was hard not to worry that it might be too monochrome.

Fortunately, that is not the case. The color merges seamlessly with Jonathan Jacques-Bellêtete's art design to create something distinctive and beautiful, with a silent, cold grace that feels at once noirish and futuristic. In a terrific interview over at Gamasutra, Jacques-Bellêtete (who, incidentally, is a well-tattooed gentleman) articulates how hard he and his team worked to make the art of DXHR stand out:

The style is very homogenous in the game; it's not a very photorealistic game. It's a stylized game because I truly believe that, if you have a proper stylistic visual language, that actually makes the world more credible — not photorealistic, but credible — because everything fits within the same visual language.

If you have a head that looks super photorealistic but then the texture behind it is not, to me there's a discontinuity there. But if everything fits within the same stylistic language, it feels more credible. Anyway, that's one of my theories.

The monochrome style really does call to mind Metal Gear, particularly MGS4 (the story's themes are very similar, too). But that's a good thing in my book—particularly seeing as how for all its strengths, the original Deus Ex was an ugly, ugly game. The game's style also recalls Minority Report, which, so much the better.

More than anything, there is a sense of place and purpose to the art in DXHR, scads of cool details and environmental storytelling—the clockworking tools in Adam's apartment, or the stack of air conditioners filling an alleyway in China (screenshot is at the left). You see something like that, and you wonder: why are the air conditioners there? Who stacked them like that, and why? Are they broken, were they taking up space? It's this sort of understated detail that makes the environments in DXHR stand out.

The Stealth Mechanics Are the Real Deal

Just as in the original Deus Ex, it's possible to play Human Revolution guns blazing, wasting everyone in sight; to turn Adam Jensen into a whirlwind of flying lead, arm-swords and rockets. But as far as I'm concerned, it's a stealth game through and through. And the stealth in DXHR is exceptionally well-done. Enemies are smart and alert, and even the simplest environments have a huge number of branching pathways.

It's not as forgiving as the other more predatory games I wrote about last week. But for the truly hardcore, know these two things:

1) Sound is a factor, and patrolling enemies can hear you.

2) You can drag unconscious bodies and hide them. And you'll have to, if you don't want to get caught.

Many of the game's most memorable moments involve walking deep into a complex before being ambushed and having to sneak or fight your way out. Part of that is because…

The Hybrid First/Third-Person Perspective is Fantastic

While playing DXHR, I was reminded (in a good way) of Rainbow Six: Vegas. I'm not certain whether that was the first game to use a hybrid first/third-person cover mechanic, but it was the first one I played, and it just worked. The moment I started playing, I thought "Ah-ha! Here it is! The first truly good cover mechanic I've ever encountered!"

The cover in DXHR works much the same as R6:V—press the right mouse button (or left trigger) and the camera pulls out to a third-person view of Adam crouching behind cover. It works well, and the transition is seamless and never disorienting. Furthermore, it neatly solves one of the difficulties of first-person stealth—namely, how to look around corners.

Classic PC stealth games like Thief and the first Deus Ex had a dedicated "lean" button, but the third-person perspective offers a cleaner, more enjoyable method. Using the spacebar (or A button) to roll between cover and holding it to corner works seamlessly as well, recalling the enjoyable cover-hopping in Splinter Cell: Conviction (whose creative director Maxime Béland was also CD on Rainbow Six: Vegas).

Non-sticky cover is another vital part of the equation—there's nothing worse than seeing a guard turn and begin to walk your way and being unable to quickly navigate into a new hiding spot. But in DXHR, cover is smooth and fun to use, and allows the game to hybridize first-person roleplaying exploration with third-person cover combat and stealth. And it feels really, really good.

The Hacking Minigame is Way Fun

Human Revolution's hacking minigame is fun, tense, exciting… it's all of the things that a minigame like this should be. By the time I hit the final third of BioShock, I was so sick of that pipe-dream puzzle, I dreaded every new camera and turret. But after hour upon hour of playing, I have yet to tire of DXHR's hacking. The whole thing is based on quick risk-reward action and quickly burning countdown timers; it's over in a few seconds, so it never overstays its welcome. It also works best with a mouse and keyboard, which is neat, and it's just fun, simple as that.

So, So Many Emails

I think this gets at the heart of what it actually means to say that the game "feels like Deus Ex." Maybe it's just me, but I frickin' love reading emails in games. It's the weirdest thing. I get so many emails in life, emails on emails… this fabled "inbox zero" thing that I hear my friends talk about sounds like some sort of unattainable state of grace. And yet all told, I've probably spent the better part of an hour in DXHR reading emails.

There are so many kinds of missives on hand—company-wide notes that give some insight into the corporate culture, personal messages that give insight into the motives of the various characters in the game; nods to past Deus Ex games, and vital information like passcodes, item locations, and network logins. And of course, gag Nigerian email scams.

But it's not so much the content of the emails as their volume—it speaks to the level of care and work that went into Deus Ex: Human Revolution and they're an excellent nod to one of the more charming characteristics of the first game.

It All Comes Together

There's more to say about the game; it does have a few shortcomings, and I need to take more time replaying it to get a sense of just how far the nonlinearity can go. But each of the positive qualities I've talked about here comes together in a satisfying harmony; Human Revolution is, quite simply, a very good game. You find yourself sneaking through a burnished, golden office parlor. You silently take down a guard and drag him into a storage closet. Afterward, you'll hack into a computer and read through a number of emails, one of which gives you the passcode for the armory located on the building's upper floors.

It's Deus Ex. It feels true to its PC gaming roots. And it's damn fun to play.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is already getting great reviews, though it doesn't release until tomorrow. And now a Deus Ex clothing line has been announced for what promises to be a blockbuster game.

The clothes, created by online fashion retailer Musterbrand, are what we've all decided can only be described as "pretty snazzy looking". We've got a sneak peek at a variety shirts, pants, and Adam Jensen's trenchcoat. The nice thing about all the clothing, including the trenchcoat, is that they're clothes you can wear on a regular basis, not just once a year at a con.

In fact, what we've seen of the line is on the classier side of nerd-pride, as the logos on the shirts are subtle, while still making direct reference to the world of Deus Ex. To those unfamiliar with the game, you'll look like a regular, nicely dressed dude or lady. For those in the know, you'll be making hard-to-catch references to various companies that can be found throughout the game.

Our own Kirk Hamilton has gotten a chance to play the game, and was pleasantly surprised by one of the choices made for the clothing line: "Rather than Adam's employer Serif Industries, they went with the Chinese private security force Bell Tower. That's actually sort of cool, since it's a more obscure reference, and a rad company name to boot."

In a piece that Kirk and Kotaku guest writer Leigh Alexander wrote, leading up to the release of Human Revolution, Leigh points out that everyone in Deus Ex seems to be sporting a trenchcoat. Once this clothing line launches, you can too. And everyone will think you're snazzy.

Images via Ripten.com

Images via Ripten.com

Images via Ripten.com

Images via Ripten.com

Images via Ripten.com

Images via Ripten.com

Images via Ripten.com

In the year 2000, Ion Storm unleashed the perfect marriage of futuristic shooter and skill-based role-playing in Deus Ex, a game so unique that even its own sequel couldn't replicate its success. Can any follow-up possibly do it justice?

Deus Ex: Invisible War took the award-winning formula established in the first game and dumbed it down to the point where even Mass Effect 2 fans could play it. Players that reveled in the complicated skill advancement of the original were offended. Game reviewers were disappointed. It felt like the end of the Deus Ex series. Judging by the review scores rolling in for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, we're lucky that wasn't the case.

You can read a chart, so you can tell the game is good, but why is it good? For that we turn to the assembled (as in brought together, not manufactured from parts) video game reviewers.

Gaming Age
Deus Ex is one of those franchise titles that's never had a great showing on consoles. The PS2 port of the original wasn't very good, and the Xbox port of the sequel was equally disappointing for me. Thankfully Human Revolution, the third game in the series coming from Eidos Montreal, doesn't follow suit. In fact, it's a pretty damn good prequel to the Deus Ex world in general, and an exceptionally well made game to boot. Like most, I was a bit hesitant to think that anyone could capture what I enjoyed about the original Deus Ex nearly a decade after its release. The sequel in '03 certainly couldn't do it, and if Duke Nukem Forever showed us anything, it's that maybe some old franchises are better left dead. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked Deus Ex: Human Revolution though, and I think a lot of gamers will be as well.

Eurogamer
Sometimes, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is just the best Deus Ex tribute act ever. You can still save the world by crouching behind desks and hacking into people's email if you want, but it doesn't judge you if you want to do something else for a bit. In fact, it rewards you. It gives you an XP bonus for not being seen, but it also gives you an XP bonus for brutally incapacitating two guards on patrol with the same takedown. There is no wrong kind of progress, there's just success. It would be nice if more of the games that wished they were Deus Ex treated us like that.

Joystiq
While the Mass Effect series sheds its stats and inventories in favor of forging an intelligent, emotionally driven shooter, Deus Ex: Human Revolution examines and embraces the structure of Ion Storm's 11-year-old classic, Deus Ex: Didn't Have a Subtitle. Environments don't exist to funnel you through perfectly scripted events — they're complicated, multi-tiered stacks of obvious and hidden pathways. And Adam Jensen, a stoic security manager who returns from dramatic near-death as a grumpy cyborg, can warp himself biologically to accommodate those routes. There is perhaps no greater proof that this is a role-playing game, however, than the ability to conclude just about every conversation by punching your quest giver into an unconscious rag doll.

IGN
Human Revolution takes cues from futuristic cyberpunk fiction, but it finds an identity in the past. The color palate eschews the blues of more pedestrian depictions of the future for a look that borrows from European painters like Titian and Rembrandt. There are visual references to the Italian Renaissance everywhere - from architecture, to fashion and body armor, and to the ornate construction of augments themselves. These artificial limbs don't look manufactured; they seem wrought by blacksmiths and artisans, crafted like the clockwork machina of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. There's so much care and consideration obvious in Human Revolution's look and style and execution that it's easy to forgive some of the game's genuinely uglier spots – see many of its less important NPCs and their botox faces, and a spotty framerate here and there, for example.

Edge Magazine
Even Bethesda's RPGs, with their malleable skillsets and open worlds, rarely allow players such dominion over the environment – even if, with Human Revolution, that dominion is often prescribed in the convenient design of ventilation systems. But it's the way that your larger decisions trickle down through these low-level choices that makes the game remarkable and unique for each player. A decision to help a victim of extortion means that we end up spending half a day experimenting with different non-lethal methods to neutralise pockets of security without alerting the entire Heng Sha police force, just so we can break into a few lockups without harassment and find funds for the side-mission. Our multi-stage solution involving the split-second juggling of tranquilliser darts, dual-takedowns and invisibility is obscenely cool, a heist sequence of such fluidity and audaciousness that it would look the part in a Chris Nolan film, although we suspect he might have got the action in the can in a smaller number of takes.

Destructoid
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, like its augmented hero, is a step above its mundane peers. With its flowing, open approach to mission structure, thoroughly engrossing story and gorgeous visuals, this is the kind of game that all others should strive to be. While there are some elements that don't feel quite as developed as they should have been, and augmentation is more Hobson's choice than true choice, Human Revolution provides a level of quality that only the most adamant cynic could fail to be impressed by. More importantly, it is everything a fan of Deus Ex could want in a game, and it effortlessly embraces the arduous task of living up to the legacy, standing next to its 2000 predecessor and holding its head up in pride. This game is truly deserving of the name Deus Ex. In fact, there's no other name it could have had.

Make that Dues Ex themed guns and accessories, eight in all.

There's the Machina, the Diamondback, the Purity Fist, the Widowmaker, the Short Circuit, the Company Man, the Nanobalaclava, and Deus Specs.

Simply pre-order Deus Ex: Human Revolution here, and get these TF2. More info and imagines in the link below.

Team Fortress 2 Manno Technology [Team Fortress]