30. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Don’t Nod’s second major action RPG, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was released early last year, and it turned out to be a way better experience than Vampyr. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was an excellent action role playing game with plenty to do with story being its main focus. Throughout the game’s narrative, players would have to make tough decisions which can result in any of the five endings.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

While some story elements didn’t quite go over well, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain does a great job presenting a large stealth sandbox with emergent gameplay. Missions can be tackled at different times, presenting varying challenges but the Revenge system ensured that enemies reacted to your tactics and took appropriate counter-measures. You could sneak through bases using cardboard boxes and tranqs, but on the other hand, rocket punches. Coordinate with companions to efficiently wipe out camps, or just FULTON anything and everything back to Mother Base.

A Deus Ex game – or any immersive sim for that matter – lives or dies by the complexity and believability of its systems. Deus Ex: Human Revolution nails the careful balance of being incredibly deep while remaining accessible for most players. There are a number of options available for players to tackle objectives – go guns blazing, hack your way in, carefully sneak through vents and climb ledges while remaining unseen, or pick out enemies one by one like a stealthy panther. You are free to choose either of these options or go wild mixing all of them as you deem fit.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was also the first game in the series to be developed by Eidos Montreal. Original developer Ion Storm closed its doors in 2005 – with the last release from the studio being Thief: Deadly Shadows. Eidos Montreal was formed after the Austin-based Ion Storm shut down, and the studio’s first game was supposed to be a sequel to Deus Ex: Invisible Fall. A new Deus Ex needed to be built for a newer generation of consoles and gamers, which of course required rethinking and re-evaluating what the series meant. Over the course of multiple years, Eidos Montreal managed to craft something emblematic of the franchise’s best parts all the while introducing new elements to the mix that would, of course, go on to become staples of the brand.

Deus Ex has always focused on gameplay options – the plethora of those at one’s disposal is a big part of the appeal of the franchise. Of course, what makes it special is the fact that none of the options feel awkward or out of place, and regardless of the path you choose – it feels like the right one. There’s also a wide assortment of abilities that players can use – such as going invisible, a super punch that can break through walls, and a protective shield that negates all fall damage. Supporting this vast arsenal is a progression-based unlock system, and players are encouraged to invest skill points into abilities that support one’s preferred playstyle. To be completely fair though, some aspects of the game such as hacking and shooting aren’t as refined as games built around those mechanics – but what’s here is certainly impressive for the time.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is set in a futuristic dystopia, where mega-corporations tower over governments and humans are scared of the rapidly advancing technology posing a threat to their existence. There is the Illuminati – an all-powerful group that has its puppets all around the world. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is also of course, about Human Revolution – and these mega-corporations essentially inject humans with augmentations that give them supernatural abilities which coalesce with the elite to form the upper echelon of society. Humans who reject these augs or aren’t affluent enough to purchase them, form a separate social group, and the media and mega-corporations actively cause conflict between the two groups in order to suit their own needs and profits.

The conflict between the augmented and the humans serves as a focal point for the narrative. It’s a heavy subject that uses its untimely themes of a cyberpunk setting to explore real-life issues such as racism, discrimination, and media influencing politics among others. Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s actual plot, however – while great in its own right, is bogged down by underwhelming performances and inconsistent writing. 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel set 25 years before the original, and as such dedicates a lot of the narrative towards exploring Jensen’s backstory – humanizing the character without feeling obnoxious or out-of-character. The supporting cast of characters including his ex-girlfriend Megan Reed and CEO David Sarif among others are also equally great, which of course contextualizes a lot of what happens in later games.

In addition to the general narrative proceedings, there’s a large number of notes and conversations that shed more light on the world and its intricacies. Deus Ex’s world at large is a well-realized place with a sense of purpose, and these additional story beats play a vital role in establishing the atmosphere. Another promising aspect of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is its art design, which is a major contributing factor to the game’s originality. Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s art style is distinctly unique, and serves an important role in dictating the future of the franchise. Black and Golden are two of the most dominant themes and can be found in abundance in the game’s environments, although there are supporting themes to match the overall presentation. Having two themes be so dominant in a game with a realistic art style can be a death sentence in terms of variety, but Eidos Montreal did a great job at nailing a consistent look without the game feeling boring.

Again, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is by no means a perfect game. There are a few flaws with both the narrative and the gameplay, but in the face of what it does right – these shortcomings are minor nuisances. That being said, Human Revolution can still be enjoyed in its original form – which can be attributed to a strong understanding of the game’s core values and how they should be evolved to better suit a newer audience. Two mainline entries and a decade later, Deus Ex’s current identity can be traced back to the framework and the mechanics featured in Human Revolution. 

What awaits the future of the franchise is uncertain, but what can be pieced from this narrative is that the confidence with which Eidos Montreal rewrote the playbook for the franchise is what most importantly, makes Deus Ex: Human Revolution one hell of a game.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

THE GENERAL (KAISER KNUCKLE)

The end of Kaiser Knuckle’s campaign sees players coming up against The General, in what proves to be one of the cheapest and most frustratingly tough bosses you’ll ever face in a fighting game. Thanks to ridiculously unfair teleportation moves, slide kicks that he just won’t stop spamming, and various attacks that can do devastating damage, the General is an absolute nightmare.

BLADES OF HADES (GOD OF WAR)

As compared to God of War 2 and 3, the very first God of War game had a lot more sections that put emphasis on pure platforming (or something close to platforming anyway). One such section was the Blades of Hades, and as anyone who’s played the game would tell you, it was a nightmare. Walking over thin wooden logs while trying to avoid all manner of massive axe heads and saw blades was even worse in practice than it sounds, and countless players died more than just a few times trying to get through this part.

Kill Your Friends – Far Cry 3

Forget for a second that Far Cry 3 had an utterly idiotic storyline with an unlikeable protagonist. By the end of the game, Jason Brody is given a simple choice – kill his friends and ally with Citra, leader of the Rakyat, or release them. Now keep in mind at this point that Jason’s friends have only really needed rescuing from all kinds of insane enemies and he’s the one de-sensitized by all the drugs and killing. By the end, if Jason decides to kill his friends, Citra ends up killing him for some Rakyat glory or something like that.

Even if you “never asked for this,” we would like to present you with our feature on- what the hell happened to Deus Ex?

Deus Ex started with its self-titled first game, released in 2000. Set in a cyberpunk world in the mid 21st century, an agent named JC Denton fights, in the flesh, against secret societies and gangs using powers given to him via nanotechnology. The world in this game is rife with economic inequality, with the Earth also being ravaged by a pandemic called the Gray Death. There is a vaccine called Ambrosia, but only in limited supply, and it being designated for those who are deemed important to society further accelerates social tensions to the point of rioting and decay.

By the end of the game, three different factions solicit Denton’s cooperation in bringing about a future of their own vision, and players can choose which sort of future to bring about. The first Deus Ex game is widely regarded as a success; worldwide, it has sold more than one million copies, and the game is well-loved by fans, enjoying its own modding community due to being built on Unreal Engine.

The next game is Deus Ex: Invisible War, released in 2003, and a direct sequel set twenty years after the first game. It canonizes a set of actions from JC Denton in the first game, which still end up producing a period of time called the “Collapse” – defined by economic depression and war, and major cities begin to surveil and control their population. The main character, Alex D, is a student at the Tarsus Academy, an educational institute network brand, and the story also follows some of Alex D’s fellow students, who align themselves with other factions during the course of the story.

The plot can take other turns at the end, including instituting a global surveillance state by siding with the Illuminati, or a world that features the elimination of biomods altogether. Invisible War enjoyed commercial success in the form of having more than 1.2 million copies being sold worldwide, and enjoyed great critical reception amongst many gaming outlets, as was the case with the first game.

The previous two games, developed by Ion Storm, would mark the only releases in the franchise for several years, until 2011, which saw Deus Ex: Human Revolution being released. It is set in the year 2027 and features Adam Jensen as the protagonist. Jensen works as a security lead for Sarif Industries, which works in augmentation technology. One day, a group of augmented terrorists called Tyrants attack Sarif Industries, and among the presumed dead is Megan Reed, Jensen’s ex-girlfriend. While investigating another Tyrant attack, Jensen comes to learn that a Tyrant behind the second attack is being remotely controlled by a hacker.

The end of the game sees Adam Jensen traveling to the supercomputer broadcasting the signal, while being lobbied by other faction leaders to serve their interests and visions for their future. Jensen can use the broadcast from the supercomputer to choose to further support or harm the development of augmentation technology, support the Illuminati in their bid to stigmatize augmentations, or even destroy the supercomputer altogether and broadcast nothing. The ending is also meant to serve as a set-up to the events of the first Deus Ex game. Human Revolution sold even better than the first two games – by November 2011, it had sold 2.1 million copies between North America and Europe, with Europe being responsible for more than half of that figure at 1.38 million.

As with the past two mainline titles, the critical reception was also generally favorable across the board. The last mainline entry in the series is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and once again stars Adam Jensen as the protagonist. Set two years after the events of Human Revolution, Jensen returns implanted with more advanced augmentations, and society has become stratified along their opinions of augmentations. On one side are humans who are augmented, and on the other are those who oppose it on principle or cannot afford augmentations. Canonically, the supercomputer from the end of Human Revolution is destroyed, but this action also allows the Illuminati’s messages of prejudice against augmented humans to take hold and further stratify society. Adam Jensen works for an anti-terrorist group called TF29 and the Juggernaut Collective, the latter of which specifically opposes the Illuminati.

While the critical reception for Mankind Divided was on average positive, it could still be fairly characterized as slightly less favorable than the previous three mainline titles. The sales for the game, compared to previous iterations and accounting for all its platforms, have generally been seen as underwhelming compared to past titles, a sentiment in part reinforced by Square Enix’s limited commentary on the game’s commercial performance. Though it should be said that this title was the Deus Ex series’s debut on the current generation of consoles, and the limited install base at the time of release likely impacted commercial performance and momentum. Mankind Divided’s story is accompanied by three pieces of DLC, collectively referred to as “Jensen’s Stories.” Mankind Divided’s ending leaves a massive opening for a sequel that explores the tension between Adam Jensen and the Illuminati, the latter of which are portrayed as corrupt and evil and have infiltrated TF29, and Adam Jensen and the Juggernaut Collective.

While Jensen supports destigmatizing augmented people, the Juggernaut Collective keeps their leader at a distance from him, and the Illuminati are planning to follow Jensen in hopes to get closer to their leader. Warren Spector, who worked on the first Deus Ex and oversaw the development of Invisible War, has expressed interest in working on a possible sequel, offering ideas on what he thought of Mankind Divided, though it must be said that Square Enix is the current owner of the Deus Ex IP.

Yosuke Matsuda denied the death of the Deus Ex IP in 2017 and stated that their development pipeline at the time meant focusing on other titles, and in 2018, David Anfossi of Eidos Montreal stated that the franchise needs to be handled respectfully and that Eidos Montreal has been discussing what they want to do with the next game, echoing comments similar to Matsuda’s own. So it would seem that the relevant parties are interested in pushing a new Deus Ex game; it’s just a matter of time and development resources and priorities being freed up for Deus Ex, if these comments are anything to go by. Be sure to let us know what you want from the next Deus Ex, which would almost certainly be worked on by Eidos Montreal. What do you think of Mankind Divided, and when do you think a new game could be announced – would a new Deus Ex game be released before the PS4 and Xbox One’s successors? Let us know in your comments.

WATCH DOGS

Of course, we’re starting with the most obvious (and by obvious, I mean publicized) choice. Watch Dogs is a game that is all about hacking. Hacking is your primary tool, and though you drive cars and shoot bad guys, hacking is ultimately what most stuff in the game centres around. From hacking into phones to extract private information on people of interest to hacking into traffic signals to turn the tide of car chases in your favour, Watch Dogs lets you do all that. It’s true that those mechanics aren’t nearly at the level that much of the game’s pre-release hype implied they would be, but all said and done, they’re still pretty solid.

Pokemon – Self-Destruct, Hyper Beam, Etc.

Anyone who’s played Pokemon, even the first generation, will be familiar with attacks like Self-Destruct. You know, the one where your Pokemon explodes to damage and/or kill the enemy? It’s pretty metal but how in the world do the Pokemon just faint? Even if there is some logical explanation, how do all of these cataclysmic beam attacks result in Pokemon? Given how Gary’s Raticate died, we’re motivated to think that some of these attacks are killing Pokemon (even if that particular theory involves the Raticate not receiving medial attention in time).

There are a few spoilers ahead, a few of them major, others not so much, while there are also none at all in some cases. In any case, if you see us beginning to talk about a game you don’t want spoiled, go away.

ORCS- (MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF WAR)

Shadow of War is centred around one concept- the domination of orcs. Whether it’s through disintegration of their forces by killing their captains, or by recruiting them to make them fight for you instead, that’s the central theme of the game. One other way to do that is by using a mechanic called “Shaming”, which essentially allows your character to break an orc mentally to lower its level. If you do it enough, though, it can have truly horrific consequences. An orc can go from vowing vengeance against you for shaming it, to eventually begging you to stop the constant torture by just killing it once and for all, to ultimately literally losing its mind completely, and not being able to speak. No one deserves this- not even the Uruk-Hai.