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Review: Deus Ex: The Fall

When Deus Ex: The Fall was first announced, I was sceptical. As much as I love my iPad, it always feels that there is a limitation to what kinds of games play well on a touchscreen.  The Fall’s claim to deliver a gameplay experience similar to its older brother Human Revolution seemed… optimistic, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt and jumped in. (This is the part where I would make a ‘will it fall?’ jab if I always took the easy joke.)

Deus Ex: The Fall delivers a gameplay experience independent of Human Revolution’s storyline, but operating in the same world around the same time. In terms of the timeline, The Fall is wedged in between Human Revolution and the prequel novel that was written for THAT, ‘The Icarus Effect’. Operating as a sequel to the book and a prequel to the game from 2011, it has links to both elements while still being understandable without knowing about either. It’s an interesting balance to strike, and surely posed challenges to the designers.

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You’ll find yourself following the story of Ben Saxon, a British ex-employee of private security firm Belltower – a company which played a big role in Human Revolution. At the opening of the game he’s fallen in with the Tyrants, who many gamers will recognise as the primary antagonists (and terrible boss battles) of the AAA console title. Surprisingly enough they don’t work out much better for Ben the Brit, and from there you find Ben looking into the conspiracy behind the worldwide shortage Nu-poz, the drug that prevents humans from rejecting their mechanical augmentations.

The storyline is impressively well-rounded, and provides enough nods and links to the greater Deus Ex storyline to keep fans interested. A favourite for me was a random note left by a character from the original Deus Ex, which definitely took me back for a moment.

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Much of the basic gameplay here is derived from Human Revolution, with the interface and upgrade mechanics echoing that game’s system on a smaller scale. Upgrades to your augmentations are unlocked piece by piece using Praxis Kits, which can be found in the game world or by levelling up, and allow you to add and improve your abilities to play the game in your own style. You still have the choice to play stealthily or combatively, with each map offering multiple paths for you to approach as you choose. Sadly the all-out combat approach is still a bit of a pain here, with the touch-screen controls working against you more often than not. The game utilises a lock-on system to ‘help’ you accurately target an enemy, but mostly just keeps your crosshairs in their GENERAL VICINITY. Trying to quickly swap from one enemy to another requires you to manually tap on the next warm body or empty space to unlock crosshairs, as simply trying to scroll out of the lock-on zone doesn’t actually break the link. Trying to move in and out of cover with your left hand, adjust targeting with your right and still having a spare finger to hit the oddly tiny fire button or next target is a game in and of itself, and if you’re spotted it can very quickly fall apart. The game does offer the option to manually rearrange the on-screen HUD which is nice, but doesn’t solve these core issues with trying to execute an FPS-style game on a tablet.

The upgrade and weaponry systems have also been adjusted for the smart device platform, allowing you to earn each incrementally in-game, or offering the chance to buy everything from the beginning. Upgrade points can be purchased for in-game cash (which is doled out fairly slowly), or you can utilise the in-app purchase to buy in-game money. This is nothing new for games on these platforms, but still feels a bit odd to see on a game attached to such a big-name property.

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In terms of visual and audio design, the game is surprisingly complex for something you can carry around with you. The environments of the game echo the black-and-gold aesthetic that Human Revolution did so well, and character models are nicely detailed to give your main cast the ability to emote (as much as one can with inbuilt shades on your face, anyway). There are a few gaps here and there, however. Some of the textures are a bit low-res which can stick out, and one major NPC in particular had hair that looked like it had been carved out of a piece of plastic. When all other major players have well-constructed hair and face models, this was pretty jarring.

All in all, the game is a nicely complex title for a tablet or other smart device. While it’s definitely a drain on the batteries, The Fall was able to retain my attention in a way not a lot of games on this platform are capable of. Whilst I couldn’t comfortably recommend this on iPhone/iTouch, it looks great on the iPad and delivers an expansion to the Deus Ex universe that should prove quite rewarding for fans of the series. I’m sure the experience will be similar when the game appears on Android, too. Here’s to seeing more games of this calibre on the iPad, and more content from the Deus Ex universe in future.


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About the author

Matt Gosper

aka Ponk – a Melburnian gay gamer who works with snail mail. Enthusiastically keeping a finger in every pie of the games industry. I'll beat you at Mario Kart, and lose to you in any shooter you can name.