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WiiU

North America

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut

by Jonathan Metts and Scott Thompson - March 27, 2013, 8:47 pm EDT
Total comments: 13

How is the 2011 critical darling augmented for the Wii U?

While heavily rumored for months, Square Enix finally announced last week that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is indeed coming to the Wii U later this year. The more surprising news is the affixation of the “Director’s Cut” tag and the addition and reworking of content; this isn’t a simple port of a two-year-old game, but a chance for the team to go back and address some issues while also improving the overall experience. I was given the chance to play Human Revolution Director’s Cut this past weekend, and can attest to the changes to the core gameplay. Whether or not those justify playing the game on Wii U over cheaper options on other platforms remains to be seen.

Human Revolution still plays similarly to its older counterparts; players take control of Adam Jensen, security manager-turned-Robocop, as he attempts to uncover the truth behind the attacks on, and motivations of, his employer, Sarif Industries. Players have options in how they outfit and play as Jensen, and can emphasize physical prowess and gunplay, stealth and hacking abilities, or a healthy mixture of each. These choices, as well as those made in dialogue trees with a number of NPCs, dictate the type of experience players will have in Human Revolution, and the entire suite of options is present here in the Director’s Cut.

The GamePad, while not as vital to the experience as in something like ZombiU, allows for some new interface options. Reading documents, hacking computers, applying augmentations, and navigating menus all take place on the GamePad screen. While mostly cosmetic, I did find using the touch screen to perform hacking operations a bit more intuitive, as I was able to quickly tap nodes without wasting valuable milliseconds moving a cursor around with a traditional controller. On the downside, the Director’s Cut moves the mini-map to the touch screen, which means looking down and away from the action to observe enemy locations and movements, leaving Jensen open to ambush. Oh, and don’t worry, Off-TV Play is available.

Another unique feature tied to the GamePad is the ability to, at any time, pull up a walkthrough. Players may pause and then browse the in-game walkthrough on the touch screen to see where to go next, look for possible side-missions, or simply get more detail about certain aspects of the game. It’s a welcome addition; I assume I’m not the only one who kept pulling up GameFAQs page on my iPad as I played the original two years ago.

One fundamental change to the experience is the reworking of boss battles. The game's four boss battles, all outsourced to an external studio, were a common target of complaints in the original release, so it's no surprise that the Director's Cut takes a drastic approach to the pivotal encounters. The original developers at Eidos Montreal have designed new stealth routes around expanded environments and added more hidden guns and ammo to reward exploration, even in the game's most intense combat scenarios. The arenas have been completely redesigned to allow more varied strategies and win conditions, adding new cover points and enabling "no-bullets" solutions through using hacked turrets or robots. (The bosses still have to die, for story continuity.) New safe zones have been included, likely to provide a legitimate alternative to the scripting exploits that were often recommended among players seeking help online. Although the bosses themselves behave similarly to their previous incarnations, their stats have been adjusted to better fit the overall difficulty setting. It seems the ultimate goal is to make these boss fights feel more consistent with the rest of the game and to allow players to exploit whatever skill path(s) to which they may already be committed.

In addition to gameplay changes, the Director’s Cut also includes in-game commentary and all of the original’s DLC, which is built seamlessly into the main campaign. The representative from Square also assured us that the Wii U version was the best-looking iteration of Human Revolution, even beating out the PC version. It’s been two years since I played the original, so I can’t comment on that exactly, but it certainly ran smoothly and I never noticed any technical hiccups.

For anyone who missed it the first time, Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut appears to be much more than a simple port, and those who own the Wii U exclusively should keep an eye on this one. Whether or not the additional and reworked content warrants passing over a cheaper copy of the original on a different platform or double dipping, however, remains to be seen. I look forward to getting another, more thorough chance at seeing the game and how the changes improve the overall experience. Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut launches in North America on May 7.

Talkback

LudicrousDa3veMarch 28, 2013

Did they mention a price?

oksodaScott Thompson, Associate EditorMarch 28, 2013

No, they were hush hush on that. So let the wild predictions begin!

ShyGuyMarch 28, 2013

Wasn't $50 mentioned on Amazon early on?

CericMarch 28, 2013

They are probably Reevaluating the Price.  Was going to go for $60 but honestly.  2 year old port.  At that long you need pretty much a new game worth of content.  The Right Price for this is $30 and thats on the generous side of a 2 year old port.

OblivionMarch 28, 2013

With the new content, it's worth 50 dollars. It doesn't matter how old it is. It's if the content justifies it. Have you played the game Ceric?

CericMarch 28, 2013

Quote from: Oblivion

With the new content, it's worth 50 dollars. It doesn't matter how old it is. It's if the content justifies it. Have you played the game Ceric?

Ironically no.  Considering I've heard about the base game actively about every month for the past year and seen it on sale fro $9.99 thinking "I should probably get that."  Theirs the rub.  Everyone who wants to play this game has.  Then their are people like me who wouldn't mind playing the game but, never got around to it.  $60 w/ new content isn't going to intice me to finally make the leap.  That's 6 times what I could have possibly played it for.  Now $30 with new content sure.  The question becomes is the new content worth the $40 to $50 it costs?  From what I've read the answer would be no.

OblivionMarch 28, 2013

From playing the game, I'd say it is worth it. The boss battles being completely reworked for those who went for stealth or no-kill playthroughs (the game was broken if you tried this route, thus making the game's "choices" larger pointless. With the DLC added in (the 20 dollars you can get this other places does not have the DLC, which is 10 dollars each seperately) and the Wii U specific features, it IS worth it.

LouieturkeyMarch 28, 2013

Are you going to pick it up. Oblivion?

OblivionMarch 28, 2013

Most definitely.

oksodaScott Thompson, Associate EditorMarch 28, 2013

For me, $40 is the sweet spot.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterMarch 29, 2013

Quote from: Oblivion

From playing the game, I'd say it is worth it. The boss battles being completely reworked for those who went for stealth or no-kill playthroughs (the game was broken if you tried this route, thus making the game's "choices" larger pointless. With the DLC added in (the 20 dollars you can get this other places does not have the DLC, which is 10 dollars each seperately) and the Wii U specific features, it IS worth it.

so OBLIVIOUS on the fact that its still a port of a two year old game...
to be fair this one does sound justified,

I swear to Jeebus if you don't knock that crap off, I'm going to start drinking.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterMarch 29, 2013

Quote from: Shaymin

I swear to Jeebus if you don't knock that crap off, I'm going to start drinking.

I had way to much fun with that, :D

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WiiU

Game Profile

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut Box Art

Genre Action
Developer Straight Right
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut
Release Oct 22, 2013
PublisherSquare Enix
eu: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut
Release Oct 25, 2013
PublisherSquare Enix
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