Parent's Guide: Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Playing as the Head of Security of Sarif Industries, Adam Jensen, Deus Ex: Human Revolution sees you travelling the world in order to try and unravel the mysteries behind the initial attack on your employer's building. Who were the augmented mercenaries? What were they after? Who told them about Sarif's research? There's a big conspiracy, and you've got to get to the bottom of it. It's a classic "the fate of humanity depends on you" story, giving you an incredible amount of freedom in how you go about your objectives.

Played from a first person perspective, the game requires you to be able to handle dual analogue controls - if you've played any other shooters before, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Gears of War, they should be fine. From there, though, how difficult the game is is mostly in your hands. With more of an emphasis on thinking rather than shooting, in Human Revolution, you're usually given an objective, and are then free to approach it however you see fit. When you're asked to enter a police station, you can either sneak in the back way, and hack your way in; go in through the front doors and shoot the place up; or walk in calmly and talk to the guard on the desk, who happens to be an old friend. Choosing the right options from the conversation that follows will let you in without killing a single person.

There's a lot of bad language in here. A lot of the hostile protest groups, gang members and other miscreants you come up against aren't afraid to call you all kinds of awful names, and with no option to tone down their potty-mouthed rage, it's not really one to be playing with young kids in the room.

There's also quite a bit of violence, if you decide to play it in a lethal fashion, as Adam has the ability to do a lethal take down when he's snuck up behind an unsuspecting enemy. While just tapping the B button will allow you to knock the other guy out, holding the B button makes Adam conjure up a pair of large blades out of his arms, with rather graphic and gory results.

There's no multiplayer to speak of in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, either online or offline, but that's not to say you can't really get involved. As it's a relatively slow-paced game when played stealthily, you could always sit with your child to offer advice and support on where to go next, where the cameras are, and how to get those guards out of the way - or help out with the rather complicated hacking minigames. As a thinking person's game, there's plenty of room for parental contributions.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Xbox 360