Review: Deus Ex Human Revolution – The Missing Link
Deus Ex Human Revolution has recently recieved its first piece of downable content with “The Missing Link”, but is this augmentation worth it?
The main game of Human Revolution is without a doubt one of the best games of year, receiving 4 1/2 stars from George back in September, so the prospect of having another few hours added on is a very enticing one. Seeing as this is a piece of DLC it would be moot to go into detail about the game in general, all that information can be found in George’s review linked above. Instead I’m going to focus solely on The Missing Link.
Towards the end of the main game Jensen finds himself on a Belltower cargo ship transporting him towards the endgame. While this journey seemed entirely uneventful The Missing Link shows us what actually happened. It does fit into the overall story arc but at the same time also feels a little forced, mainly due to the fact that this little excursion nor any of its arguably huge choices are never mentioned in the part of the game that takes place after this.
Despite not quite slotting into the continuity as gracefully as it maybe could have the self-contained aspects of the story presented here are a great addition to the canon of Deus Ex as a series. I wont spoil anything but I will say that references are made that link actions in all three games of the series, tying up the world and helping it seem even more organic and plausible. That being said the self-contained nature of the story is also its greatest downfall. Despite presenting you with arguably some of the biggest choices asked of Jensen (outside of the final choice in the main game) its hard to take it all too seriously, no matter what you choose Human Revolution will continue on as if The Missing Link never happened.
This feeling is only further enhanced by the fact that The Missing Link has to be launched from the main menu. While this allows players who have already completed Human Revolution to jump straight in it also serves to distance it even further from becoming a piece of the big picture. I cant help but feel it might have turned out better if a route similiar to GTA had been taken and allowed this piece of DLC to follow another character, allow a new take on the universe while simultaneously expanding the overall storyline.
There is always the possibility however that the next piece of DLC will access any save files made here and show the effects of your choices in a fashion similar to Mass Effect.
The irrelevance of the choices made is not my only gripe however, as I also feel like the content starts a little too slowly and maintains a air of claustrophobia throughout that starts to bore rather than immerse. This is mainly due to the nature of the environments, which are very corridor heavy and , even by Human Revolutions standards, contains an extreme amount of air vents. The starting area aboard the cargo ship feels like the same series of corridors, vents and ladders repeated ad nauseam, although the (short) trip outside onto the deck does feel reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid 2. Its a shame more outside environments weren’t used to show off the motion of the boat and beauty of the virtual storm.
Before too long Jensen then finds himself in a military complex that apart from a trip in an elevator with a nice view is once again a journey through many similar corridors and vents. The amount of backtracking present does not help matters.
Despite these feelings however I did enjoy my time with The Missing Link, it doesn’t quite match up to Human Revolution, but in the end its still the same gameplay, which is to say it plays exactly how you want it to play. Be it ghost like stealth, Rambo like combat or some meeting in between the choice is always there, at no point are you funnelled into a particular course of action. Unlike the main game however this freedom of choice even carries over into the contents single boss encounter. Doing away with the forced confrontations of the main game the boss can now be fought using whatever skills you’ve put your praxis points into.
Speaking of praxis points The Missing Link allows you to play as a very different Jensen than the one you controlled in the main game. Right at the offset you find yourself reset to “factory zero”, basically human once again. Although almost instantly your given a stockpile of points to pour into creating a super soldier once again. Although people pre-occupied with trophies and achievements may want to hold off, managing to beat the content without using any weapons, explosives or praxis points is a gloriously vicious challenge at times and changes the game into more of a human spy thriller, which is how I enjoyed the content more in the end. Playing factory zero on “Give Me Deus Ex” provided a tenser and more thrilling challenge to an otherwise easy game.
Which relates once again to my earlier point, where this in fact a story about an un-augmented human infiltrating this Belltower complex for whatever reason it would have felt like a better story to me, having Jensen go through it during such an important part of the main campaign feels almost disingenuous.
The bottom line is that if your looking for another 4 hours of Human Revolution to enjoy you will find it within The Missing Link, but due to the minor gripes and arguably steep asking price I can’t call it an essential purchase.
The Missing Link is available now on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam priced at £8.99/1200MS points