Deux Ex GO – Our Review

Deus Ex Go is now the third entry into the Square Enix’s Go series after previously converting Tomb Raider and Hitman into this mobile-friendly format.  Once again the aesthetics and story of the familiar franchise is lifted and rendered into a much more streamlined puzzle game that feels much more like playing a board game than anything else.

Here Adam Jensen is sent into a tower to rescue someone important.  The plot thickens as you get closer to the top of the tower but overall the story is a largely forgettable endeavor to justify increasingly challenging puzzle sequences.  We actually read a few other reviews to remind us of the story but they too mostly left out the story details as it really wasn’t that significant.

The game may be minimalistic but death animations certainly are not

Gameplay is distilled down to simply clicking on where you want Jensen to move and possibly interacting with an interface to hijack some piece of technology in that room.  After you make your move, the game moves each piece still standing one space and you repeat.  Early challenges are about sneaking up or sometimes by unaware guards but complexity does set in towards the end of the 54 levels that require you to at times use guards as makeshift walls to block unrelenting gun turrets or make careful use of the limited remote hacking powerups you get to navigate the room’s obstacles.

The game offers microtransactions in the form of solutions to a level but we never really felt like they were necessary.  The game isn’t that hard.  We blew through the 54 levels in about four hours just when they started to feel like they were getting good.  The game certainly does not overstay its welcome but don’t expect the depth and time suck for which the Deus Ex franchise is known.  Interestingly the game does tie-in with the Xbox and PC versions of Deux Ex Mankind and successfully finishing GO automatically grants you a couple of Praxis kits for those games (not that you need them there though as you’re OP out of the gate).

We can’t tell you what exactly happened here, but we did enjoy the 4 hours it took to finish it.

What works

The aesthetics are top notch once again and the haunting Deux Ex theme is stunning here again.  Considering the distilled down portfolio or objects and minimalist design of levels where only a statue or part of a wall are visible leaving you to fill in the gaps, the game does a great job of making you still feel like you’re playing a fully realized Deux Ex mission.

What doesn’t work

It’s too short.  There are weekly challenge missions but the story is a one and done experience with basically one possible solution per level leaving very little room for replayablity.  That’s actually very ironic considering it’s a Deux Ex game.

Overall: Good but Skippable

If you’re a die-hard fan then you’ve already played it.  If you’re stuck on a plane and need a good iPad game, this isn’t a bad option.  Otherwise, we’d recommend just sinking your teeth into Mankind Divided at this point to get your Deux Ex fix.