Deus Ex: The Fall review

Having hacked into a stranger's computer, I'm presented with a curious email: "My game of the year is Final Fantasy 27. Giving it back to the Japanese developer was the right move!"

Yes, Deus Ex: The Fall has a subtle sense of humour if you go looking for it; the iOS sci-fi action-RPG, released this week by Square Enix, is not without hints of corporate self-parody.

otherwise a dark adventure set in the year 2027. Rival drug companies are creating havoc on the streets of Panama, causing humans who have augmented their bodies with technology to suffer as a result. Ben Saxon, a British ex-military operative, is balls-deep in this conspiracy, aiming to set it straight. The story, which spans about four to six hours of gameplay, is the first chapter in this franchise's storyline, with sequels (and an eventual Android release) set to drop in the future.

This is an adventurous creation for sure. It was developed exclusively for mobile devices, yet it plays as convincingly as a console title. Plus it fosters one of the most intuitive and satisfying set of touchscreen inputs, baking in rich graphics over a subtly brilliant soundtrack reminiscent of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in the process.

 Plot-wise it won't win any awards for depth, but it's concise and well-suited for jump-in, jump-out enjoyment on public transport and stays true to the Deus Ex universe and atmosphere. There are a few side-quests, although the vast majority are forgettable fetch missions. They're worth doing in order to earn in-game money if nothing else but they cause little deviation from the otherwise linear-feeling storyline.

 You'll explore an array of orange-and-brown-tinted environments, from underground medical institutions littered with drug addicts, to hotel, office complexes and train stations. Liaisons with characters who choose to hold their meetings behind urinals in a gent's toilet are also present. Rejoice! Important NPCs, such as Anna Kelso (possibly Saxon's girlfriend, though I wasn't entirely sure -- readers may correct me here) make regular appearances in your earpiece, helping flesh out backstory or reminding you of current objectives. I'd have preferred to hear a bit more from them, but this is something else that's distilled down to just the essentials for this release. 

Where The Fall -- pardon the expression -- falls down, is with unconvincing mediocre voice acting and a giant question mark over the usefulness of your inventory: you won't find many exciting guns in the field, and you won't find enough money in your playthrough to buy them from the in-game shop. As such, combat gets repetitive, although admittedly never outwardly boring.

 You'll find other collectibles around the game, such as damage reducers and energy boosts, but you rarely need them. Augmentations, which are as central to Deus Ex as a musicians are to a music festival, are a similar tale -- there are heaps of upgrades you can make to your character, but they just don't seem to be essential. I went through huge chunks of the game seeing I could upgrade, but few made any tangible difference to how I played. The only exception is the hacking augmentation, which enables you to break into computers and unlock doors; and the ability to move heavy objects.

 The result of this was that my game climaxed with a wallet stuffed full of looted finances. Good job, too: the last boss was tough to beat with my standard weapons and remaining ammo. I had to buy the rocket launcher, and if I'd have spent my cash throughout the previous five hours on other perks, I probably would have felt pressured to buy it with in-app payments -- yes, they're here.

 It's also worth noting that the game is painfully bug-ridden -- it probably crashed as many times as it was loaded it to play, and takes your recent game progress with it. (A workaround is to close all open apps on your device, then turn on Airplane mode, then turn your device off and on again, leaving Airplane mode on when it reboots. Playing the game under these condition then prevents any major crashes. Also: save as often as you can to be extra safe.)

These issues notwithstanding, Deus Ex: The Fall is a tremendously enjoyable game and left me excited for the next instalment. Its ambition is only let down by inconsistent game balance caused by unnecessary augmentations, lacklustre weaponry on an initial playthough and modest possibilities to deviate from the main quest at hand. But that doesn't make it any less fun, nor any less worthy of praise.
For £4.99 it's without question worth the download for any fan of Deus Ex, sci-fi adventure games in general, or anyone who wants a glimpse at what the future of big-budget mobile-only gaming can be.
  If nothing else it'll give you something to do until Square Enix releases Final Fantasy 27.