🔰SHREDVIEW🔰 - From someone who actually plays and finishes the games before reviewing.

NOTE: If you like my work, please check out the rest of my reviews, I put a lot of work in these to offer the best overall description of what you’re up against. Thank you in advance!
https://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/id/cervusrex/recommended/

🔷 ABOUT THE GAME & LORE 🔷

Have you ever had that one thing you been ignoring for years because you couldn’t make sense of, and when picked up on later, it turns out to be awesome? Last year I’ve went back to this game for the achievements. I had previously started and dropped maybe 6-7 playthroughs mid game over the span of 10 years, only this time, I was totally astonished, turns out that to understand such a piece, I needed to grow up.

"Deus Ex: Human Revolution" Director’s Cut is a first-person action RPG immersive sim reboot of a 2000s classic, and it pulls it off gloriously. Arriving 11 years later, it adapts brilliantly and stands tall among the best of its year, wrapped in an exquisite cyberpunk-futuristic aesthetic and driven by a great story with distinct characters. A golden ticket back to an era when substance was the foundation of videogame design.

Set in the year 2027 where human augmentations been around long enough to see the consumer market, we step in the shoes of maybe one of the most iconic protagonists in the history of gaming: Adam Jensen. A security chief rebuilt with experimental augmentations after a deadly attack. In a world of conflict and inequality over human enhancement, he digs into a global conspiracy of corporations, private militaries, and shadowy elites, and ends up deciding humanity’s fate.

🔷 THE GAMEPLAY 🔷

👉 GENERAL:
Eidos Montreal woke up and chose violence in 2011, they had many targets in scope and made sure to hit all of them with the 2013 Director’s Cut. The plan was simple: Why bother aiming when you can fire in all directions at once? So a masterpiece was born. This one is here to stay throughout the ages, as a prime reference of a great era when real content drove videogames. Here’s the breakdown:

• The perspective will be mainly First Person, which serves the purpose extremely well, but it also transitions to third person for some very specific instances, like going behind cover, shooting from cover, takedowns, etc.

• The story is one of the game’s biggest strengths, and when I said I had to “grow up” to get it, I meant it, because it hits serious, mature themes. In this dystopian future you’re not just watching the chaos, you’re inside it, tangled in power games and conspiracies trying to reshape the world. The cast is distinct, well-written, and brilliantly voice acted, and you get 4 endings with major consequences, plus the Director’s Cut includes DLCs.

• The protagonist gets his own spotlight this time, because from design to personality to voice acting, Adam Jensen is unique. Voiced by Elias Toufexis, he’s a psychologically complex man shaped by trauma and betrayal, forced into an identity crisis by the augments that saved his life, and behind the calm, stoic shell is a former SWAT turned corporate security chief driven by moral conviction. Dialogue choices let you steer his tone, but he stays sharply aware of the world’s injustices while still clinging to the idea that righteousness matters.

• The playable areas are split into sectors, but they’re still big enough to roam freely, packed with lore, secrets, loot, and side activities that reward exploration. The world feels cold but gorgeous, and the NPCs make it feel like a living city, plus exploring early can even cut down quest time later.

• Choices are another area where the game shines, giving you real freedom in how you play: stealth, hacking, guns blazing, or even talking your way through via dialogue. Some conversations turn into persuasion battles that can lock or unlock content, and side quests, while optional, still influence the world and expand the conspiracies and moral dilemmas.

• Loot, gear, and upgrades are key to keeping up as the challenge ramps, even if not everything is mandatory. There’s a streamlined, genuinely useful tech tree where you spend resources to upgrade Adam’s augments, gaining abilities, boost skills, expand inventory, etc. Even when maxed, inventory is limited, forcing real choices about what you carry for what’s coming. Ammo can be scarce too, so going lethal means tighter resource management.

👉 NAVIGATION SYSTEM:
Navigation can be a bit confusing, not gonna lie. The map helps a lot in those clustered areas with tons of paths, but I still found myself opening it constantly. The game won’t hold your hand outside of obvious intro bits, so paying attention actually matters: use landmarks, remember locations, and don’t rely on the quest log to give you pin-point directions.

👉 PHYSICS & MECHANICS:[/b]
We came a long way since Sir Isaac got bonked by an apple. In the Director’s Cut, all systems nominal: stealth, detection, gunfights, cover, weapons, abilities, all work properly. Hacking is a core mechanic, and investing early pays off. It gets obnoxious when you’ve played the hack minigame about 200 times by the end. Everything can be handled creatively, and you can even go all the way without killing.

👉 GRAPHICS & OPTIMIZATION:
How many games lean hard into yellow pallete? Exactly. You wouldn’t expect it to work this well after the original, but the Director’s Cut nails it: that golden glow mixed with the cyberpunk sci-fi vibe is smooth, memorable, and a monument to art direction done right. It runs like butter and this looks f****g amazing for 2011, and 2013, still.

👉 ACHIEVEMENTS & COLLECTIBLES:
Tough times. You can do it all in one playthrough, if you are careful. There are plenty of missables and the nastiest are Pacifist, Foxiest of the Hounds & Factory Zero. You can save before a room and reload if you screw up, but there’s no tracking, except those end-of-section stealth bonuses on screen, so miss one, lose track, and you only find out you got f***d at the end. Use Nøstalgia's guide on steam.

🔷 CONCLUSION 🔷

I wanted a casual completion run, but ended up back in school, had me reflecting on society, and I had a total blast. It wasn’t what I wanted, it was what I needed. It takes itself seriously and blends detective work with special forces into a one-man army done right. It’s sad as hell Adam’s story was left unfinished, so I’m saving "Mankind Divided" for darker days. If you’ve got a brain for deep thoughts, play this game, by all means.

🔷 PROS & CONS 🔷

✔️ PROS:
- I can’t believe how good this storyline was.
- Many choices of approach & gameplay.
- Each key character has depth and it’s well voice acted.
- A superb golden visual aesthethic.
- One of the best protagonists of all time.

❌ CONS:
- Achievements are broken, very tedious.
- Ammunition is rather scarce.
- AI can be abused once you get used to it.
- You play the same hacking minigame 1000 times.

🔷 SHORT REVIEW & STATS 🔷

• PLAY STYLE:
🔳 PVP
🔳 PVE
🔳 ONLINE CO-OP
🔳 Online Multiplayer
🔳 SPLIT SCREEN
✅ SINGLE PLAYER

• GRAPHICS:
🔳 FIRE THE ART DIRECTOR
🔳 FAIRLY OLD GAME, WHAT YOU EXPECT?
🔳 NOT GREAT, NOT TERRIBLE
✅ GREAT
🔳 EXCEPTIONAL

• REPLAYABILITY:
🔳 YES
🔳 EVERY NOW AND THEN
✅ NOT SURE
🔳 RARELY / ON MAJOR UPDATE / DLC RELEASE
🔳 NO

• STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS:
✅ YES
🔳 NO

• GAMEPLAY:
🔳 WTF IS THIS S**T
🔳 TERRIBLE
🔳 DECENT
🔳 ENGAGING
✅ HAD A BLAST

• DIFFICULTY:
🔳 DARK SOULS
🔳 BAFFLING
✅ CHALLENGING
🔳 MEDIUM
🔳 WALK IN THE PARK

• STORYLINE:
🔳 A WHAT? WE WRITE CODE NOT BOOKS
🔳 GOES FINE WITHOUT ONE
🔳 DECENT
🔳 ENGAGING
✅ SHAKESPEARE AINT GOT S**T ON THIS

❗ NOTE - This is a review based on personal preferences and opinions. I always suggest you try the games for yourself before letting others decide for you. Even though we're all gamers, we are sure not the same.