I know what you’re thinking. “But Chris … a few weeks ago you said you don’t like shooters!”

First of all, that’s not true. I said I don’t like most shooters. There are exceptions. Despite being unfamiliar with the series, I liked enough of what I saw from previews for Deus Ex: Human Revolution to give it a shot, especially since it was free for me to play it.

What followed was an experience in unstoppable roaming turrets, devastating punches, never asking for this, and a game that ultimately does a lot of things very well, but nothing truly great.

Deux Ex is the story of Adam Jensen, who has to be rebuilt with cybernetic implants following a terrorist attack on the company for which he provides security. These implants give him an array of remarkable powers, from being able to punch through walls to safely land from falls of any height. As it turns out, it also provides Human Revolution’s greatest strength: the feeling you get from getting stronger as the game goes along.

Different players may build Adam in different ways, and for the first half of the game (because later on you get enough Praxis points that you can upgrade pretty much everything) those choices provide a remarkably different experience. You could go for stealth and cloaking, sneaking around enemies. You could beef up your damage resistance and go in guns blazing. You could become a master hacker and breach computers, turning turrets against your enemies and rendering security cameras useless. Deus Ex does an excellent job of making you feel like you’re in control.

Gameplay is a polished experience with fluid controls and the added advantage of a built-in excuse to have radar, objective markers and other FPS staples. Graphically, the game looks very good, albeit a little jaundiced (Adam sees things in shades of yellow, so an area with a lot of interactive objects can look … strange), although the facial animations could use substantial work. Characters’ dialogue rarely matches their mouths, and facial expressions are nonexistent at best. I wasn’t expecting L.A. Noire here, but mouths that open and close at the appropriate point doesn’t seem unreasonable for current-gen systems, and the result is jarring from an otherwise engaging experience.

So with the nuts and bolts out of the way (get it, he’s a robot), how is Deus Ex overall? It’s hard to find many complaints — in a lot of ways, Human Revolution manages to amalgamate a lot of tried-and-true FPS mechanics into a very solid game. The RPG elements help drive home the idea of humans being augmented by technology, as Adam starts with minimal abilities and ends up with a variety of very cool skills. The shooting parts controls are tight and responsive, and though the overall story is pretty linear, players are presented with a variety of ways to approach each individual situation. Plus, running around, being sneaky and punching tons of people in the face is a lot of fun.

And yet … there’s something stopping me from embracing this game wholeheartedly. Maybe it’s because while Deus Ex does a lot of things well, there’s nothing about it that really stands out. Maybe it’s that the plot is a collection of ideas we’ve seen elsewhere before (Superhuman abilities! Government espionage! Avenged lovers!). Or, admittedly, maybe it’s just that I’m not enough of a first-person shooter fan to enjoy this game as much as others. I’m glad I played Deus Ex, but it’s not something I’m likely to play again once the first playthrough is over. Still, most video game fans should give this a shot, especially folks who love shooters and aren’t going crazy over mediocre ones like Gears of War 3.

Uh oh … better wrap this up before we get hate mail.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars