A few years ago I decided to pickup Deus Ex: The Fall during one of the many Steam Sales. It is one of the most negatively reviewed games on Steam, but for a few bucks I figured someday it would pique my curiosity. It received a lot of flak for being a port of a mobile game. As a result the graphics aren’t exactly polished, and the game itself leaves off with a “To Be Continued” message upon completion, as repeated in the many reviews I’ve read. So, how bad is it?
Deus Ex: The Fall takes place in the same universe and timeline as Deus Ex: Human Revolution. You play the role of Ben Saxon; a mercenary in hiding after some shit goes sideways. After going through a basic tutorial in the form of a flashback your friend and partner Anna Kelso in a safe house. Both of you are augmented, and there is currently a Neuropozyne shortage; something augmented beings need to prevent cybernetics and other body augmentations from being rejected. Saxon has to set out to find a supplier, or even an alternative that isn’t quite legal yet.
The graphics aren’t really anything to write home about. Granted, this is a port of a mobile game that was ported to PC minus the microtransactions. There is no jumping, which is weird for an FPS, and the NPC’s are slightly more diverse than the original Half Life. As I walked through Panama city I found multiple NPC’s that were identical all the way down to the shirts they were wearing. Other than that it handles quite similarly to Deus Ex: HR. It offers the same options for combat, multiple dialog choices and reading material like in the previous games… making me wonder why I didn’t choose to play those instead?
As I read in the reviews, this game only has about four hours of gameplay total. So this will be another one that I’ll be taking very slowly, just to savor the few dollars I pissed away to be able to play and tell a short story about. 😛 I’ve already left a note for my future self so that I’m hopefully not too lost.