By John Walker on June 20th, 2011 at 2:58 pm.
There are some new pictures of what Deus Ex: Human Revolution looks like. Some are good. Some are some of the worst screenshots ever taken. Want to look at them? Follow our handy 15 step guide:
1) Click on pictures
2) Develop eyes
…
13) Carefully dispose of acid
14) Remove bandages
15) Look at the images
Make sure to have a read of our interview with the director and lead writer on the game. Because it’s good.
20/06/2011 at 15:01 Choca says:
Brown, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, green, green, red.
20/06/2011 at 15:07 Iain_1986 says:
Wasn’t the original Deus Ex pretty much Blue, Grey and Black?
20/06/2011 at 15:08 Baboonanza says:
Who said games weren’t colourful enough? That’s 5 right there.
20/06/2011 at 15:08 Anton says:
All that bloom is quite annoying.
And the color treatment is like watching Blade Runner with a gold filter. =P
20/06/2011 at 15:12 Ovno says:
Oh god no its using a colour pallet, I must complain loudly about this small issue ever time this game is mentioned and claim I will never buy it….
And
“And the color treatment is like watching Blade Runner with a gold filter. =P”
I think you probably just made the person who decided on this style very happy when you said that, after all comparing a cyberpunk game to blade runner is possibly the best accolade you could ever give it.
20/06/2011 at 15:44 AndrewC says:
The horrors of actual art direction!
20/06/2011 at 15:48 LionsPhil says:
It’s a pretty ugly change.
DX1 wasn’t all grey. The MJ12 base was totally red for at least one room. Thing is, though, grey’s an inoffensive, neutral colour, and in a world before pixel shaders DX1′s graphics were clean and readable. Time (and seeing it in motion) will tell if DX3′s chunky tikka graphics are actually conducive to gameplay.
20/06/2011 at 16:00 steggieav says:
The game looks like a bumblebee.
20/06/2011 at 16:00 Tei says:
@ovno It also look somewhat like like “Highlander II: The Quickening“.
20/06/2011 at 16:02 TheApologist says:
Colour palette complaints are one of the most baffling genre of complaints developing on games comments threads at the moment.
Complaints about the predominance of brown and grey games for being brown or grey might well be reasonable precisely because of their predominance. But the fact that colour palettes are now recognised as a facet of games that might be critically appraised seems to have led to complaining about the art direction of any game that uses a palette, even when it is a) distinctive, b) developed in line with the themes of the narrative and world, and c) a million times better looking than predecessor games.
20/06/2011 at 16:05 The Sentinel says:
Diablo 3 has a lot to answer for….(well, more the fans of that game, in all fairness)
Me? I think Human Revolution looks gorgeous. Although I must add the caveat that I can’t look too closely at the screenies or, indeed, any words about the game until release. My self-established mental hype/spoiler embargo won’t let me. :)
20/06/2011 at 16:05 noom says:
Yeah, the colour palette seems pretty appropriate to me. I don’t look for a particularly lurid colour-scheme in my dystopian cyber-punk fictions personally.
20/06/2011 at 16:36 ResonanceCascade says:
@TheApologist
Yeah, but you forgot about the 5th law of video gaming. Whiners gon’ whine.
I actually really like the art style in the game.
20/06/2011 at 16:48 DiamondDog says:
I love it, but as shown in the 7th shot the object highlighting will be the first option to uncheck.
20/06/2011 at 17:57 TheApologist says:
@ResonanceCascade It’s true, I did. Though the proliferation of the topics about which people will complain is strangely fascinating. It’s like watching those videos of fractals.
20/06/2011 at 20:10 Zenicetus says:
“Colour palette complaints are one of the most baffling genre of complaints developing on games comments threads at the moment.”
I agree about most complaints being spurious or just personal taste issues. But there is one exception, and that’s any game that uses the horrible Teal + Orange palette gimmick: http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html
At least this game doesn’t do more than just skirt the edge of that effect with yellow colors and a few touches of aquamarine here and there (and it’s color, not colour, dammit).
21/06/2011 at 00:59 psycho7005 says:
“(and it’s color, not colour, dammit)”
English based site, english spelling. Get used to it :P
21/06/2011 at 07:06 apa says:
Dey see me goldin’, dey be hatin’
20/06/2011 at 15:02 Turin Turambar says:
Looks nice
(if i don’t click on the images to see them at the true size :P)
20/06/2011 at 15:08 jon_hill987 says:
At which point it looks like UE2 with added bloom, but you don’t buy Deus Ex for the graphics, you buy it for the plot and intense first person stea… oh wait it’s a cover shooter…
20/06/2011 at 15:12 razgon says:
It’s not a cover shooter, unless you want it to be – BUT good snark – Those are important on the internet!
20/06/2011 at 15:21 Bennus says:
Yeah it has no plot that the original Deus Ex lead writer gave his blessing and advice to. It’s a ‘cover shooter’ after all.
20/06/2011 at 15:21 Springy says:
These look like console screens to my eyes. Nothing wrong with that, just saying why they’d bother releasing a bunch of pics at 1280×720 with no fancy effects and muddy textures.
20/06/2011 at 15:27 Ultra Superior says:
I was so afraid of this as well. I also hate the yellow outline around interactive objects – luckily all of this can be turned off.
And the cover – its like cocaine – once you try it…. its SO WELL DONE, its the best cover I’ve ever seen in a game. I honestly thought cover can’t be good. I hated it in all games, even the consoley shitz like uncharted and Gow.
This game opened my eyes. The cover in there is BRILLIANT.
20/06/2011 at 15:38 John P says:
Yeah the cover’s pretty good until you unstick from cover and find the game has somehow moved you a foot or two, so you end up nose to nose with a bad guy who was around the corner last time you looked and you get shot in the head. Most noticeable in the forced and ridiculous boss fight at the end of the ‘demo’. Yay for less control in video games.
But at least the transitions between 1st and 3rd person feel natural, so that’s one concern allayed.
20/06/2011 at 15:43 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
The cover was both better and worse than I expected.
The switch between first-person and third-person when entering/leaving cover is very fluid, and I barely noticed it. The cover system adapts wonderfully to impromptu cover you create by stacking boxes.
Moving around while in cover is easy, even when leaping between gaps with the jump-o-button—
unless you want to go around a corner, which you can’t do without leaving and re-entering coverSee Magnetude’s comment below for correction. This is more troublesome if you choose the “toggle” setting instead of the “hold” setting.But the game’s combat—not just its stealth—is tuned for using cover. Enemies acquire you very rapidly (when they see you), are quite accurate, and their bullets do a lot of damage—especially on “Deus Ex” difficulty. (Even fully augmented you only absorb 45% of damage, so you’ll never be as godlike as JCD could be). So the process of 1. aim at enemy while in cover, 2. peek out of cover quickly to shoot—this is the way the combat is designed to play.
You can play without it, but it’s a lot harder, and you need to be able to quickly strafe out from behind something, headshot, strafe back in, or you will die very quickly (and if you don’t headshot, most enemies die very slowly). The ‘see through walls’ augmentation that you can unlock does help.
20/06/2011 at 15:47 Ultra Superior says:
@John P Strange – I’ve finished the ‘demo’ three times and never had a single trouble with cover, nor the bossfight. I doubt there is this ‘movement’ when you ‘unstick’…
the only trouble I felt was with the takedowns – you can’t perform a takedown when you are not on the same level with the enemy – for example, when you are creeping over the crates – you need to step down on the floor to perform takedown. The same applies when you are on basement level and you try to grab a dead body on the street level and pull it through the basement window – you have to get to the streetlevel, grab a body and then drag it down to the basement.
:-P
20/06/2011 at 15:53 LionsPhil says:
Velvet: So if I’m reading you right, all the “oh but you can just not use it” apologists were talking bullshit, then, and the game is substantially crippled if you want to take cover the old, fluid FPS way, rather than by velcroing your spine to walls?
(Not least because no lean keys. Who strafes out of cover? Not JCD.)
20/06/2011 at 16:26 Ultra Superior says:
You really don’t have to use it (sticking to cover, being behind something obviously helps in skirmishes). It gives you no extra advantage except for the FOV. I like to use cover to peek around, observe and when it’s a good moment, I go stealth hunting the guards without sticking to cover.
Thing is, it’s truly so very well done, it’s only stupid to ignore it, because it is fluid and it’s good.
Why resist it, when it’s finally done right ?
20/06/2011 at 16:33 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
@LionsPhil Basically yes—if you’re going for a frontal assault style. You are at a great disadvantage in combat if you don’t use the cover system, particularly when facing multiple enemies.
Stealthing a level is (oddly) much less dependent on it, as Ultra Superior notes. You can crouch the old-fashioned way behind things, and use the minimap or the see-through-walls to avoid enemies without ever needing the look-around-corners ability of the cover system.
20/06/2011 at 19:06 Magnetude says:
VelvetFist: Hold the jump-between-cover button to slink around corners like a snake. I’m guessing you turned off the prompts that tell you this.
The cover system is quite excellent, although it does pop you a bit too far out. Best to use toggle cover to avoid this I find. I like his dramatic flourishes when hopping between pillars as well.
20/06/2011 at 19:23 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
Thanks, Magnetude! Yes, I’d turned off the prompts (and the highlighting, and the waypoint markers), because I don’t like prompts scattered throughout my game. I prefer it when they’re limited to a tutorial (thus informing you of the controls). So I didn’t know that was an option—good to know!
While pressing Space (which you use to jump) to leap between cover is a natural extension of the game’s controls, holding it to move around corners is quite counter to what I would expect.
Highlighting I tried on my second playthrough, but quickly turned it off again. It is odious, and destroys my fun in exploring for loot and vents and things.
20/06/2011 at 15:06 McDan says:
You forgot the “profit” step John.
20/06/2011 at 15:06 Schaulustiger says:
Look, crates!
20/06/2011 at 15:13 V. Profane says:
As cover!
20/06/2011 at 15:35 tims says:
from a giant robot with a big gun.. And a missile launcher?
20/06/2011 at 15:38 stahlwerk says:
So, crates.
What’s the average TTC nowadays, anyway? Sometimes a warehouse is just a warehouse.
20/06/2011 at 21:48 WudangMartialArtsFlakyPastry says:
You can tell it’s a quality game when the crates have pallets under them.
20/06/2011 at 15:08 Unaco says:
Colour me excited! What colour is excitement anyway?
20/06/2011 at 15:08 Baboonanza says:
Yellown
20/06/2011 at 15:09 Anton says:
Gold
20/06/2011 at 15:28 noom says:
Texture like sun.
20/06/2011 at 15:28 CMaster says:
Black and Gold, obviously.
20/06/2011 at 15:09 Bostec says:
That first picture, is it some kind of Death Boomerang arm he has? I’ll be upgrading to that!
20/06/2011 at 15:14 Jerricho says:
Its an Armerang …
I’ll get my coat.
20/06/2011 at 15:14 cookie says:
I’m looking forward to this.
20/06/2011 at 15:21 Ultra Superior says:
Screens dont do this game a justice. It looks gorgeous and plays like nothing else since DX1. Its a great game, or at least the leaked beta is :D
Cant wait for my COLLECTORS EDITION packaaage and weeks of solitude yyyys
20/06/2011 at 15:25 stahlwerk says:
So, John, you say we need to somehow… modify our eyesight… to see those pictures?
20/06/2011 at 15:43 Nick says:
I, for one, don’t need to, as my eyesight is already modified in such a way.
20/06/2011 at 15:48 stahlwerk says:
Whoops, there goes my beverage!
20/06/2011 at 15:54 Harlander says:
How dissapointing.
20/06/2011 at 15:54 LionsPhil says:
How unfortunate.
20/06/2011 at 15:58 Dozer says:
Very regrettable.
20/06/2011 at 16:02 jon_hill987 says:
An explosive device!
20/06/2011 at 16:23 Ian says:
IED!
20/06/2011 at 16:46 Raiyan 1.0 says:
What a shame.
20/06/2011 at 16:50 wcaypahwat says:
Senior citizens, undertaking global leadership.
20/06/2011 at 19:11 Magnetude says:
An attack which renders the target unconscious without ending his life is invariably the attack which generates the least amount of noise.
20/06/2011 at 19:12 ResonanceCascade says:
My vision is augmented.
20/06/2011 at 19:14 stahlwerk says:
The first item on my list is irrational fear.
20/06/2011 at 19:27 fiddlesticks says:
He was quite a charming fellow. The circumstances under which he deceased were simply awful.
20/06/2011 at 19:36 Magnetude says:
I requested a beverage flavoured by the juice (or artificial equivalent thereof) of a particular citrus fruit, but received instead a beverage flavoured by the juices of two other citrus fruits!
20/06/2011 at 21:57 CMaster says:
I am not an automaton
21/06/2011 at 08:05 JackShandy says:
Why attempt to enclose the aformentioned? It is acceptable.
21/06/2011 at 09:55 Tulse says:
Negative. Within 26 weeks.
21/06/2011 at 13:06 wcaypahwat says:
In the space of seven nights and days?
21/06/2011 at 14:19 povu says:
You’re gonna incinerate alright.
20/06/2011 at 15:27 Diziet Sma says:
They do seem a bit myopic. The use of blur in games is certainly going the way lense flare did when it was first implemented. Hopefully, just like in Witcher 2, it will be configurable for those that go, like me, “Aghh my eyes why isn’t anything in focus any more.”
20/06/2011 at 15:37 Ultra Superior says:
I paid a good attention to this and I have to say there is not much bloom at all – what seems like it in screenshots is actually a “volumetric light” or “color-lighted fog” …”colorful mist” they use it a lot to create atmosphere – electricity, sparks from fire, cigarettes – there is a constant sense of mist that diffuses the nearby lightsources.
It’s not like Witcher’s bloom, where every window, every torch has a vibrant vivid red PLASMA wrapped around.
Another thing I got from the leak is that DX11 and DX9 version are very much different. DX9 seems more contrasty and DX11 seems more colortuned and misty.
20/06/2011 at 15:47 Gundrea says:
In our glorious cyberpunk future there will be no working dehumidifiers.
20/06/2011 at 15:30 gropingmantis says:
Are these shots from a console? Distinct lack of AA.
20/06/2011 at 15:31 Heliosicle says:
They’re in 720p, and why release shots of the pc version in 720p?
Definitely console.
20/06/2011 at 15:31 Leo says:
Hmmmpf – I’ve lost faith in modern developers and their ability to honor beloved franchise legacies. Appeasing the console kiddies means this game will probably be shallow and catatonic.
I’ll pass on this one.
20/06/2011 at 15:32 stahlwerk says:
Hi, welcome to RPS!
20/06/2011 at 15:32 Heliosicle says:
(its not)
20/06/2011 at 15:39 Ultra Superior says:
Oh poor Leo.
DX1 was my favourite game of all times. Now it’s DX3, because it’s so much well done – it’s what a DX1 would be if it was made today.
20/06/2011 at 15:43 Protagoras says:
BLAM THIS PIECE OF CRAP!
20/06/2011 at 15:31 Freud says:
It’s very Sepia, isn’t it?
20/06/2011 at 15:38 tims says:
Deus ex instagram!
love it.
20/06/2011 at 15:41 tims says:
Does anyone else find the Gods and Heroes ad a bit blatently bleh?
I mean not even a skirt? Jesus.
20/06/2011 at 15:47 stahlwerk says:
With the additional side-effect of reducing workplace safety of having a quick glance at RPS now and then, yes.
20/06/2011 at 15:52 Gundrea says:
I’m pretty certain a young woman like herself shouldn’t be enjoying barbery that much.
20/06/2011 at 16:02 Dozer says:
Wondered what you’re talking about, because I saw Serious Roman Guy on the left side of the article, and “Read our Finest Words” box on the other.
Then disabled Adblock, the RPS sidebar dropped a few inches, and I understand what you mean now. My whitelisting skills are weak, old man. @@rockpapershotgun.com is insufficient!
20/06/2011 at 16:17 Harlander says:
If it’s set in Rome, only the dudes got to wear skirts.
Historical fact!
21/06/2011 at 08:09 JackShandy says:
I like that she needed to put on both a skirt and a loincloth, because neither of them was enough.
20/06/2011 at 15:58 steggieav says:
These screenshots look terrible. However, I’ve heard pretty good things about it from the people who played the beta, and that’s more than enough to keep me interested.
Also, the beta: is it like the whole game, or does it feel like a demo?
20/06/2011 at 16:48 Ultra Superior says:
Like a superhuge demo. Definitely not like a game – story-wise it ends way in the beginning, however there are hidden hints that will give you an idea about the scale of the game. Good news – after repeated playthroughs, I’m still discovering new and new hidden things. The world is remarkably rich, full of secrets and great for exploring. It doesn’t look like that at first – hidden paths are often really subtly hidden. They’re obvious in some places, which is understandable at the beggining of the game – but your inner explorer will rejoice. I’d say it’s on par or even richer on secret as DX1.
Screenshots are irrelevant, the game looks and plays absolutely great.
The city level reminds me (scale wise) of Vampire Bloodlines – only much more detailed. It’s way more richer than Hells kitchen or even Hong Kong in DX1
20/06/2011 at 16:58 LionsPhil says:
Well, that’s a promising thing to read.
C’mon, Squeenix. Gizzus a proper demo for those of us who don’t torrent bits.
20/06/2011 at 16:07 magnus says:
Hooray, it’s out just in time my rig upgrade. Boo, but I won’t be able to play it on day 1! :(
20/06/2011 at 16:07 tomeoftom says:
John, you are a funny, funny person.
20/06/2011 at 16:10 Jahkaivah says:
I do like Mr Totally-Not-A-Bad-Guy in the last shot.
20/06/2011 at 16:52 Ultra Superior says:
It’s funny you say it.
SPOILER: He’s not. If you convince him to do the right thing, he’ll help you few missions later.
20/06/2011 at 17:02 Jahkaivah says:
Awesome.
20/06/2011 at 16:33 Ribaam says:
lowres textures and 720p resolution — the could atleast add some hifreq noise to mask the obivous
20/06/2011 at 16:59 LionsPhil says:
I bet it’s not even optimized for DirectX 17.
20/06/2011 at 17:03 Ribaam says:
atleast well optimized for all low memory conditions
20/06/2011 at 16:38 Sardukar says:
You’ll..pass on this one based on…the screenshots and some early reviews? Despite many people on this site telling you it’s good? Okay.
ANYway. Those are some terrible screens. The game produces many much better, including loads in Sarif Ind without such a distinct and overpowering colour scheme. I..may have seen… some at 2560×1600 and they are very pretty indeed. Lots of whites and reds.
You may ignore the cover option easily. I liked it and I ignored it a lot, as I preferred to sneak from cover to cover with my guns ready to rock. Cover is handy when people are shooting at you..just before you bug out as they throw grenades. Sprint, cover button, glance at enemy, let go of cover button and sprint/cloak-crawl to fallback position, pause, slide out pull trigger. Maybe die. Filthy AI.
20/06/2011 at 17:24 Velvetmeds says:
I’m not even gonna click, no point in seeing screenies of what is already 2011 GOTY.
20/06/2011 at 19:09 Magnetude says:
Edit: Nothing to see here.
20/06/2011 at 19:44 Rii says:
Screenshots as a media event are so 2001.
20/06/2011 at 21:55 wodin says:
Played the leaked beta…it didn’t know whether it was a stealth game or a gun game…either way it failed for me in both…no ammo for a gun game…bad level design for a stealth game…
20/06/2011 at 22:47 Velvetmeds says:
You’ve got to be joking.
21/06/2011 at 00:42 John P says:
Maybe exaggerated, but he’s right about the shooting at least. There’s very little ammo for everything except the pistol, so you can’t really play it as a shooter. I’m sure some people will say ‘but you’re not supposed to play like that’, but isn’t that the whole thing about, you know, Deus Ex games? Playing how you want?
Personally I prefer playing slowly and stealthily, and I think the stealth in HR is pretty good, but it’s not much good as a shooter.
Based on an early preview, of course, so the ammo issue is subject to change.
21/06/2011 at 01:58 Tuco says:
@John P.: hell no, the whole point is to give you options, not to make every one of them a cakewalk.
What you are asking for is damn bad game design, like in Assassin’s Creed. “Look, I can act in many different ways and chose many directions, and all them are essentially pointless cause there is no challenge in this game!”, followed by “Look, this is me just running to my target from any direction I like, cause there’s nothing preventing me to do so!”.
Of course you have to manage your ammo as a marksman, cause where’s the point in stealth when killing everyone is both the simplest AND easiest choice?
Why avoid fights you could win without any effort?
21/06/2011 at 03:20 Sardukar says:
I had no problem with ammo unless I flipped to spray and pray mode. Since I was playing on GMDX, that seemed like suicide. Which it was.
This was a combat-style playthrough, minimum stealth, (just for conversations, because I like overhearing the complaints of my imminent victims), no cloak aug, move-and-shoot style.
I didn’t expand inventory and I travelled with the bullpup shotgun, the Combat Rifle and the sniper rifle. I shot anyone I felt like, including a long and doomed engagement with Detroit’s Finest. I ran short of ammo for the combat rifle only if I panicked and tried to spray my way out of trouble.
Most of the time I carried between 40-80 rounds for the CR, 20-30 for the shotgun and damned few for the sniper rifle.
Of course, I did explore everything and buy ammo everywhere, so that helped.
21/06/2011 at 09:28 wodin says:
No I’m not joking….I only got upto the ridiculous hard boss with the muscles…with hardly any ammo to take him out…after the umptieth time I gave up….
The game was way to sparse and modular looking especially the suposedly run down apartments…yawn….how anyone could do the whole level in the factory in stealth mode I’ve no idea…
Also for being an engineered man your useless at first…I know you have to level up but surely they could have made you abit better to start with…your boss certainly wasted his money if thats what it produced…
I expect the usual rave reviews quickly followed by dissapointment…
21/06/2011 at 11:04 JackShandy says:
I see a lot of people put “…” after ever sentence, and I have no idea why. Is it to indicate that the subject is so dull that you can’t help but trail off into a catatonic stupor after every breath?
21/06/2011 at 22:45 Velvetmeds says:
I played the game fine in Deus ex difficulty. No problems stealthing around or killing.
Of course, you can’t just expect to run around like crazy shooting and thinking you’ll get away with it. This isn’t some serious sam or COD.
21/06/2011 at 01:18 Juiceman says:
I found it more fun to play than simply look at pictures.
21/06/2011 at 02:45 MD says:
This machine failed to dispense my chosen flavour of fizzy citrus drink.
21/06/2011 at 02:46 MD says:
My attempt at replying to a post did not succeed.
21/06/2011 at 10:49 Dhatz says:
all those are situation from the leaked beta demo