She's somehow eluded them for this long, the odds of locating her are slim to none or so the smoking man seems to think. The others on the conference call seem just as equally discouraged except for one, who speaks that their chance of finding her may actually be feasible in the very near future. No names, disguised voices, the only person on the call are the smoking man. The conspiracy begins here. 10 years ago, we were introduced to the oft-silent terrorist/hero of Deus Ex, JC Denton. What we didn't know at the time, was that Denton's woes had been set in motion 25 years earlier in the year 2027, with an attack on the world-shattering and controversial Sarif Industries, a leader in human augmentation. On this fateful day, Adam Jensen will lose his love and his humanity as he is thrust into global conspiracy. Today is a big day for Jensen as well as his love, Megan Reed, who has stumbled onto something groundbreaking in her work for Sarif industries and it’s all about to come to fruition. With Adam as head of security, it’s his job to see that Megan’s project is completed without a hitch, as protesters march the streets outside of Sarif.
You see, not everyone is keen on Sarif and Megan’s work on human augmentation and it’s up to Adam to make sure that none of the violence plaguing the streets interferes within the happenings within Sarif Industries. You quickly hop into the shoes of Adam before he escorts Megan to the upper portions of Sarif. Reading a few documents makes it evident that Megan’s research is a big deal, but she is clearly hiding something behind her recent breakthrough. Megan quickly urged me stop reading through her emails (which I couldn’t resist). Once I was done rummaging through her office, we began the walk through the labs of Sarif, watching current Sarif tests through the various windows located within the hallway. The walk through the labs is a rail sequence, but you have full control over the camera as there are plenty of cool tests happening on both sides of the hallway. Fast-forward to the elevator, when we briefly met Pritchard, an antagonistic know-it-all who will more than likely play a large part in Jensen’s story. The top of the elevator takes you into the warm office of Sarif, who attempts to rally an uncaring Jensen towards the importance of human augmentation. The screens filling Sarif’s office begin flashing with a security alert and that’s Jensen’s cue to investigate (after your down searching Sarif’s office, of course).
There’s an easter-egg surrounding Sarif’s private elevator for Deus Ex fans, but I won’t spoil it here.Once Jensen hops onto the elevator towards the alert, he draws his assault rifle and it becomes evident that it’s about to hit the fan.As you run through the labs of Sarif, it’s evident that an attack is tacking place and it’s an attack that Jensen is surely underpowered for, but seeing as how Megan is no where to be found, he has no choice but to press on. Since Jensen has yet to gain any form of augmentations, the mechanics in this opening tutorial focus on the most basic actions in the game such as combat, stealth, and cover. Default controls feel fairly comfortable, with the left trigger initiating cover which in turn will cause the camera to zoom-out temporarily turning the game in a 3rd-person shooter. You can blind-fire, or pop out to take more accurate shots. It becomes evident that cover will be a life-saving aspect of the game, even with regenerating health, as even on the Casual difficulty, Jensen went down pretty quickly. Once Jensen turns a corner, an unknown augmented soldier who makes quick work of Jensen, turning him into a bloody carcass, grabs him. Jensen looks up in time to see Megan get knocked out and whisked about by the group of super-soldiers.
This brief, 20-minute venture through Sarif does a fantastic job of teaching you the basics of how to kill, hunt, and survive throughout DE:HR. It just barely scratches the surface of all the tools available to Jensen as he delves into the conspiracy surrounding Megan and Sarif Industries. It also does a fine job of showing you that you won’t be successful in the game if you are incapable of playing cautiously. The intro alone introduces some of the main players, each of which seems to have some extremely curious back stories that I can’t wait to see fleshed out in the full game. I really enjoyed the opening moments of Human Revolution and I can’t wait to share more. Keep an eye on Planet Xbox 360 the rest of the week as we unveil more coverage of Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s first chapter and an in-depth interview with Mary DeMarle, lead writer on the game.
