Just a Thought: Deus Ex Hype

<p><em>Hello and thanks for clicking on the headline of the first post in the &&num;8220&semi;Just a Thought&&num;8221&semi; series&period; Before you read the article below&comma; or close the tab&comma; allow me to introduce you to this new series here on BagoGames&period; Videogames have always been a very intimate hobby of mine&comma; one that I enjoy sharing and discussing with friends and strangers&period; The &&num;8220&semi;Just a Thought&&num;8221&semi; series takes this sentiment and converts it into short posts like this one&period; No post in the series will be the same&comma; but I can promise that each of them will provide a unique perspective&comma; some interesting debate&comma; and plenty of good conversation starters&period; &&num;8220&semi;Just a Thought&&num;8221&semi; is a like an open-ended chat with friends&comma; a tank of thoughts put forward in an asynchronous manner for others to respond to&period; So please feel welcome to post your own ideas and opinions in the comments section below&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>Exactly five years have passed since the release of <em>Deus Ex&colon; Human Revolution<&sol;em>&comma; or as I called it then&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Doose Ex&colon; Human Revolution&period;” Thinking back on the time I went to pick up my pre-order for the game brings a smile to my face&comma; as I distinctly recall having feelings of trepidation just a few days prior to its release&period; Having never heard of the series or the game that was to be the revival of the franchise&comma; I only decided to buy <em>Human Revolution<&sol;em> based on a hunch of a friend&period; What makes it all so amusing is that&comma; five years later—to the date—<em>Deus Ex&colon; Human Revolution<&sol;em> remains one of my most favourite gaming experiences&comma; and I can’t wait to get my hands on its direct sequel&comma; <em>Mankind Divided<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The thing is&comma; as any active gamer will tell&comma; amazing games seldom launch during the summer months&comma; and especially not at the tail end&period; Not only did the game title open with the wonkiest pairing of words&comma; the 18-year-old me had no clue why I should care for such an obscure game during a quiet period before all the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;big hitters” came out&period; But&comma; of course&comma; I’m glad I did end up making the purchase&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111852" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111852" style&equals;"width&colon; 590px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111852 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;23180402&sol;Deus-Ex1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Wait&comma; are those arms edible&quest; &lpar;Deus Ex&colon; Human Revolution&comma; Square Enix&rpar;&period;" width&equals;"590" height&equals;"350" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111852" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Wait&comma; are those arms edible&quest; &lpar;Deus Ex&colon; Human Revolution&comma; Square Enix&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Not only do I look back on <em>Deus Ex&colon; Human Revolution<&sol;em> and think it had one of the most well-directed game environments and soundtrack&comma; but I also recognize that it had something progressive to say about technological advancements that many modern games seem to be adapting into their storylines today&period; <em>Human Revolution<&sol;em> pulled me into a futuristic world&comma; one that perhaps isn’t all that far off—it was a society coming to terms with prosthetic technologies that would enable ordinary humans to have extraordinary abilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game questioned the use of technological integration with the human body and all the controls that should or should not accompany them&period; The protagonist&comma; Adam Jensen&comma; faced a horrific accident that could have killed him or left him severely disabled&comma; but the modern sciences of his world outfitted him with a new&comma; transhumanist-inspired form&period; What made him a fascinating character was that he neither asked for the new abiological nature of his body&comma; nor did he want to face all the plots and subplots of organization-based conspiracies or the ethical struggles of possessing superhuman abilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These themes have been explored in some other notable works of fiction that have sprung up after the game&period; I’m talking about movies like<em> Ex Machina<&sol;em> or <em>Lucy<&sol;em>&comma; and games like <em>Call of Duty&colon; Black Ops 3<&sol;em> or the visceral storytelling of the yet-to-be-released<em> Detroit&colon; Become Human<&sol;em>&period; Certainly the arts have tinkered with ideas of transhumanism and powerful artificial intelligence in the past&comma; but I feel as though <em>Deus Ex&colon; Human Revolution<&sol;em> has really created a climate for and engendered a new sociopolitical landscape for resurfacing the age-old debate&period; And this time&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t think that the underlying themes and questions that provoke the inspired plot of the new game will necessarily appear as outlandish science fiction&&num;8212&semi;at least not that much&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111853" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111853" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111853 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;23180757&sol;Deus-Ex2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"You better pray that this thing retracts &lpar;Deus Ex&colon; Human Revolution&comma; Square Enix&rpar;&period;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111853" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">You better pray that this thing retracts &lpar;Deus Ex&colon; Human Revolution&comma; Square Enix&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Aside from my eagerness to indulge in the debate for or against scientific progress to a point of technological singularity&comma; as predicted by Ray Kurzweil&comma; I’m excited to see how the argument has developed&comma; in a game-mechanics sense&comma; from <em>Human Revolution<&sol;em> to <em>Mankind Divided<&sol;em>&period; One game element I am particularly thrilled about is the ability to talk your way through important in-game conversations&period; I recall playing the first game as a pacifist&comma; but the boss missions required you to pull out your weapons—often weapons that you didn’t have if you were adamant about stealthing through the objectives&period; Luckily that issue has been remedied in today’s release&comma; and I can’t wait to see how it all pans out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From atmosphere&comma; to philosophy&comma; to storytelling&comma; to competent game mechanics&comma; to informed progressivism&comma; the revival of the <em>Deus Ex<&sol;em> series has flown very close to the sun for me&comma; and all without burning&period; Today I look forward to playing the latest entry and hope it soars on my list of favourite games like the previous one did&comma; and I ask you&comma; what is it about <em>Human Revolution<&sol;em> that caught your attention half a decade ago&comma; and what would you like to see augmented for <em>Mankind Divided<&sol;em>&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;