Deus Ex: The Fall

The Intro:

The original Deus Ex was a landmark achievement in gaming. The open-ended gameplay, the element of choice, and the fantastic story and dialogue melded to create a truly next-level experience. Since then, the franchise has fallen off the perch a bit. The newest game in the series, Deus Ex: The Fall is both a prequel and a sequel. Yes, that isn’t a typo. The Fall follows the events of Deus Ex: Icarus Effect, a novel which predates the events of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. But in terms of the overall timeline of the story, The Fall is still a prequel to Human Revolution. It’s all a bit muddled. While you don’t need to read the Icarus Effect novel to understand the events of The Fall, it helps to set the stage a bit.

My Two Cents:

"The ending is similarly unsatisfying. While the game manages to create a little bit of the atmosphere that we have come to expect from Deus Ex games, it never really dives deep into it to create a meaningful experience, says Brandon from The Old School Game Vault."

The staple themes of the Deus Ex games are still present here – the concept of choice, the effects of your actions echoing through the story, a dark and gloomy futuristic story, and plenty of characters who operate in the grey area. While The Fall does a competent job of blending these elements together, as a standalone product it fails because of the lack of context in terms of the story, seeing as it is essentially the bridge between two different stories in different media formats.

The Story:

This time around, you play as Ben Saxon, who is eerily similar to the Adam Jensen, who was the protagonist in Human Revolution. Ben is similarly plagued by demons from his past, has the same cybernetic enhancements and even looks similar to Adam. In addition, he is also in the middle of a far-reaching conspiracy, trying to figure his way out of the whole thing. Since he doesn’t have much in the way of a distinct identity, returning players will find it difficult to connect to his journey. Instead, you might find yourself looking out for cameos by characters from the previous games.

Some of the boss characters that featured in Human Revolution were underdeveloped because of plot reasons. The Fall fills in their backstories a little, so you understand how they came to be what they are. This is another problem with the game, which is that it spends too much time either explaining what happened in Human Revolution or referencing it, therefore failing to create a unique identity. Frustratingly, The Fall ends via the most clichéd of cliffhangers – a ‘to be continued’ screen. When there is no clear indication that the developers want to continue the story, this is particularly annoying and takes away any sense of completion or fulfillment for finishing the story.

The gameplay:

mechanics also suffer from the same problem – they are too inspired by Human Revolution. You basically have the same modus operandi, which is exploring a shady city, gang hideouts, talking to shifty NPCs and upgrade your character to progress through the game. This might be explained in part by the fact that The Fall initially released as an iPad game, and a year later the developers have ported it to the PC. While it might have been impressive for a tablet game, as a PC game, it falls awfully short. A lot of the problems of mobile games are woefully apparent in the finished product. The Fall gives you a taste of what a Deus Ex game is supposed to feel like, but it never really reaches its full potential.

The controls are similarly indicative of a flawed port. The keyboard and mouse controls never feel as smooth as they should in a PC game. The camera angles tend to get awkward in firefights, and there are clipping issues in certain areas. The lack of freedom in movement greatly reduces the efficacy of the cover shooting mechanics in the game. But probably the biggest disappointment about the game is how linear it is. In previous Deus Ex games, your surroundings could be used to create your own way through certain areas and obstacles. Here, you can’t really use the objects in your surroundings to create impromptu cover objects or explore alternative routes. Bodies dissolve into the floor after a few seconds, eliminating the need to hide them from your enemies. This basically negates the need to use stealth.

Even the store in Deus Ex shows the game’s tablet origins. It’s not really a character, but a menu screen that you can buy guns and supplies from, without any explanations. The developers have hastily remodeled the in-app purchase section from the tablet game to create a clunky menu screen that feels out of place in the story. You can access the screen in the middle of battles and buy equipment that will help you beat your enemies. This kind of mechanic takes away from any real sense of danger or the need to ration your supplies in the game.

In summation:

The PC version of Deus Ex: The Fall fails to take advantage of the sheer power of the platform. The control system is unresponsive, the store is straight out of a mobile game, and the story suffers because it’s trying to bridge a gap between two different stories that people might not have played through or read. It walks meekly in the shadow of Human Revolution, and most of the plot is driven by events in the previous games.