Last night (actually it was very early this morning) I finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and overall I thought it was a lot of fun.  

Three things that stood out after a night’s rest:

1. The music

The music is FANTASTIC. Seriously the soundtrack from the opening logos to the very end cinematic are spot on awesome.

2.  Options

The availability of optional ways to complete objectives was admirable. Minus the boss fights, I always had at least one non-lethal option available and often time two or three.

3. The conversation battles

These were great, as long as you don’t use the silly pheromones which felt broken.  I enjoyed how the dialog felt natural and debate would swing back and forth with the camera following.   Someone needs to make a game that mixes this conversation system with LA Noir’s facial animation.

 

Of course there were also a few things that continued to annoy me after a night’s sleep.

1.  Boss Fights

While I did not think the boss fights were as hard or terrible as others did, I do agree they (at least the first three) could have been completely excised from the game without any harm to the narrative.   The most annoying part of these fights was how they played out completely counter to the non-lethal approach I was taking throughout the rest of the game.

2.  Poor stat tracking and notifications

Thinking about the non-lethal approach, for some reason I did not get the pacifist achievement.  While I ultimately don’t care about achievements, as far as I’m concerned I was a non-lethal ghost, it’s frustrating that I not only lost the achievement, but have no clue why.    I made concentrated effort to use non-lethal attacks.  My main attack was the melee take down, only resorting to tranqs or stuns when I was backed into a corner; all of those should have kept humans alive.  _shrug_

If the game had better stat tracking and alerts I could have watched for when I failed.

3.  The ending(s).

*warning possible spoilers*

 

I was hoping that the endings would reflect in some fashion my choices throughout the game. Instead I’m literally presented 4 “press me for ending cinematic of your choice” buttons.  And really the buttons didn’t bother me as much as the terrible canned footage and dialog cinematics that came with them.  Boo.

 

Overall a  big satisfying thumbs up for me.

 

Edit:   Bonus Awesomeness. The non-lethal melee take downs, never got old.  This led to the entire police station is having a forced slumber party in the air ducts.  Sorry guys I needed your candy bars.