The Case

The original Deus Ex is a critically acclaimed cyberpunk-themed action role playing game that first came out back in the nineties. Up until 2011 it was being named “Best PC Game of All-Time” in PC Gamers “Top 100 PC games.” It is a title that is so popular that it produced a sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and a prequel Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The mobile version of Deus Ex, Deus Ex: The Fall, was successful and has now been ported to PC. So let us see if this lives up to the series expectations.

The Trial

Deus Ex: The Fall is an FPS set in 2027. You play as Ben Saxon, an ex British SAS (Special Air Service Regiment) soldier and former member of the Tyrants – the enemies from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. He is now an augmented mercenary hiding out in Panama and running low on drugs. Technically he is not an addict. The use of Neuropozyne is needed for his body so it doesn’t reject the augmentations.

The game starts in Moscow. This is basically the tutorial section of the game. Here you learn how to use the tech you got, how to buy weapons, equipment and teaches you to hack. After this you begin the actual story, which is where your partner, Anna Kelso, comes into play. Like Saxon, her body is also rejecting the augments. Ben’s primary objective is to secure a source of Neuropozyne and in order to do this he must help out a local doctor who will trade him the drug for information.

The game is a port from the original mobile version. This becomes obvious immediately, as the keyboard/mouse combination has a few issues. First, no matter how high you turn up the mouse sensitivity, it always feels sluggish. Second, you can’t alter the binding of the keys from their default layout. The cover system doesn’t work that well, with moving from cover to cover not functioning as intended so you come out of cover and end up getting shot. Using a controller did help make the controls smoother and more sensitive when compared to using the mouse to look around though.

The game does have the feel of a Deus Ex title. If you stick to the main mission it will take you about two hours to complete. There are side missions available that does extend it to around five hours, which is not bad considering it was a mobile game. This looks like it’s going to be an episodic game, as when you finish it you get a message saying “To be continued...” Whether this will be in the form of another game or DLC is unclear. A leftover feature from the mobile game is the prompts during interaction. These look like they pop up for you tap on tablets, whereas on the PC they come up, but don’t give indication which key to press and being quite pointless.

The level layout has not been altered from the iOS and Android version of the game. Moscow is very linear and feels like you are on rails. All you are doing, basically, is interacting with objects and killing enemies. When you enter Panama, the hub of the game, the loading screens gets very annoying. The player can find themselves walking along through the city, then suddenly, hitting an invisible wall. This can cause a lot of frustration, especially since a prompt asking you if you want to travel appears each and every time you hit a wall. This happens a lot and you also find that though Panama is not linear, there isn’t a lot of variation in locations that you need to visit.

Graphically, the game looks decent. On mobile devices it looked good thanks to the smaller screen; on larger PC monitors, you get mixed results. The main character models are detailed and look realistic, while all the NPC are simplistic and copied a lot throughout. Lip-sync is annoying, as when the character is speaking the mouth just open and closes with no pattern. Meanwhile the backgrounds really stand out and Deus Ex fans will observe lots of posters and other small details used in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

The storyline is average and the script is just as mediocre. The voice acting is ok - just brought down by the lip-sync problem mentioned above. The background music is probably the best part about the audio experience in this game. Being as this looks like a chapter-based series, there are no multiplayer options. The hacking parts of the game is a big let-down; during the game you will find that a lot of doors will require a skill level which is higher than you will have. This happens early in the game so many areas are not accessible initially. When you find one you can hack, it is more hit-or-miss kind of activity.

The Verdict

Deus Ex: The Fall is a great mobile game. What it is not is a good PC game. Mediocre would be a more accurate description, with it being aimed at the die-hard Deus Ex fans more than the casual FPS gamer. I would say give it a try for the price point, but leave high expectations aside.

Case Review