Deus Ex: Human Revolution Preview
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Following your initial discoveries, you'll follow Megan through the hallways of Sarif Industries, where you'll get a better idea of what the biotech company does and what sort of contracts they fulfill (many of which are for the military, as you might have expected). Long-time Deus Ex fans will catch references to Page Industries and Versalife during this walk, which concludes with your former squeeze asking you to meet her at the company's helipad after you finish your conversation with David. As you might have expected, things don't go as planned, and the prominent company is attacked by three heavily-augmented mercenary types. You don't actually get to witness much of the attack, but as you pass through the carnage that the trio has wrought upon the facility, the game takes advantage of the situation to teach you how to crouch, move objects, travel through the ventilation system, and, eventually, how to unload a few clips of your own into some of the lesser thugs that are helping to carry out the attack.
Just when you start to get the hang of things, a cinematic kicks off, and you helplessly watch as one of the near-cyborgs tosses Adam through a wall of glass. A short lopsided scuffle takes place, but the eventuality is that the three cybernetic mercenaries have Megan cornered and Adam's world goes black as the unknown assailant fires a bullet point-blank into his broken body. From there, the game jumps into what is easily the most impressive credits sequence I've seen in a video game to date (though, to be fair, there isn't a whole lot of competition in this particular department). As the development team is listed, David Sarif and a team of scientists can be heard commenting about your near-lifeless condition as images of multiple surgeries involving metal, tissue, blood, and artificial components are depicted. Adam Jensen will not be the same man when he wakes up.
Adam's Augmented Reality
Will it actually be possible to be stripped of a majority of our humanity in the blink of an eye sixteen years from now? I don't know, but that's exactly what happens to our protagonist. In truth, it's a full six months before Adam's wounds heal enough for him to return to work, and once again it's due to an attack on Sarif Industries. This time, one of the company's warehouses has been besieged by a group of pro-human activists calling themselves Purity First. But enough about the story, let's dive into Adam's newfound augmentations and the upgrades he's able to acquire for them.
There are 21 augmentations available to Adam following his "surgery", and each of these has anywhere from 2-8 upgrades beneath it for a total of 69 upgrades across all augmentations. Acquiring an augmentation requires two Praxis Points (Human Revolution's primary currency for character development), while each upgrade only requires one. Allocating two points to pick up a new augmentation immediately grants you access to the first upgrade beneath it, so you'd ultimately need to utilize 69 Praxis Points to unlock every augmentation and its associated upgrades. According to a conversation I had with lead writer Mary DeMarle, though, earning 69 Praxis Points and therefore achieving access to all augmentations and their upgrades will likely be impossible during a play-through. I'm not sure what the level cap will end up being, but you'll earn one Praxis Point per level, and pick up additional points when you find or buy Praxis Kits.
