Deus EX: HR The Missing Link (DLC Addition)

Welcome back dear readers to another round of "tag me" in Deus Ex Human Revolution.

There was once a submarine and it was yellow (as my fellow reviewer would say). This little submarine was cut of it’s content in favour of the DLC and release date.
So you invested your hard earned bucks in DeusEx Human revolution and are eager for more?

You want to see what Adam Jensen is capable of once more?

You liked the story and the philosophical background and want to experience the whole thing anew?

Your answer if you should or shouldn’t will be answered here.



After reviewing the whole thing and I really couldn’t warm up with it I was eager to see what they managed to do with the DLC. They promised an all new engine, better lighting, better graphics which did not seem to be the case at all.
ONCE MORE if you haven't played the game and still want to do it, this review might contain slight spoilers for the main course. So you can either live with it and read on or stop here and might never know~

DLC and it's hickups

Sadly we start of where we left off… technically…near 2/3rds of the game in a hibernation capsule on a huge ass cargo ship brimming with Belltower dudes on our way to search for clues about the attack on Sarif.
To make this more difficult for the player or rather more tedious you are stripped off of every achievement/augmentation you’ve had so far.
Oh goody! This will make the DLC far longer than it needed to be so the developers could charge more, isn’t that great? Not to mention that dear Adam does know nothing on the events that happen in the DLC afterwards in the main game nor does he mention anything to Pritchard. We’re going straight with the “didn’t hear it didn’t see it” thing here.
You start off in a torturing room on the ship (good thing it’s belltower securities cargo ship otherwise that would’ve been very suspicious.) ;)

At this point we realize that some guy called Burke and Keitner have stripped us off of everything we had, weapons our gear, we’re basically just a bleeding pile of a cybernetic human dragging himself through a cargo ship.
Down to the bones the gameplay is the same as it was in the main game DX:HR, there are no tweaks, no plot twists, no surprising additions for the main storyline. It’s basically just additional playtime with a few choices that do not really change anything in the main game at all.

Graphic wise, there isn’t anything new.
If you saw Deus Ex Human revolution, you will know how the DLC will look like, mostly grey and brown with huge additions of the color yellow. Basically the same in-game models for enemies and NPCs like in the main game, no additional takedowns, no additional weapons. The basic structure of the ship and the Belltower base are nearly the same, there are ventilation shafts, guards, movable objects, and there are ladders as well as staircases, that’s it.
Once again the game does feel bleak and empty most of the time even with additional content. Rain or the sea does not move the ship at all, it seems like it’s going on a straight line through the storm.

Even though our hero is robbed of all of his augmentations, there’s no way that he could slip or fall on the wet ground. So the gameplay and sneaking additions are nearly none existent. Even with his wounds there are no limitations in movement and once you find your gear, most of the blood and wounds magically disappear.
There are side missions in the DLC as well, I found three of them. Building your own rocket launcher (which you already had before), exchange an energy module on a machine so that it will not overload and so on. You can find stuff lying around here and there, as always, weapons grenades, mines, praxis kits. So when you reach the final boss of the DLC you will probably be well armed for battle anyway.

Sometimes the game feels the need to let us go through merciless and poorly executed security procedures like full body scans to progress further. Which not only takes nearly a minute to do so, it also drains the fun of going back and forth in that environment. There are up to four scanners in total and a lot of backtracking to do so prepare yourself for the time you have to wait.


Soundtrack wise also occured no mentionable change; if you liked the main OST you will also like the DLC one. So there’s not much to say here except it’s still consistent and very fitting in the game.
Sounds overall are basically the same, if the enemy talks to you while playing and you’re not fast enough to "kill " him, then he will repeat his lines over and over and over. It’s the same with the guards and the NPCs. Not much variety but the voice acting is once again (in the english version) well done.

The entertainment value of "the Missing Link", like ProJared would say: "Is a doctor shot out of ten."
It’s not that bad but it feels bland, awkward and weak. Especially so when compared to the main game. At no time the player gets the feeling that there’s a deep conspiracy going on, even less feelin gis involved when you have already finished the main game. It’s pointless to put it in a polite way.

$14 or 11€ aren’t worth it especially when you have to walk around aimlessly through yellow grey corridors to see the rather predictable end of it all. When Adam Jensen gets back in his hibernation capsule it’s like it never happened, except for a cryptic message that there might be even more DLC on it’s way.
It feels more like a missed opportunity to change something than a missing connection in the game and those who do not want to play it but liked the main game, can be glad that it's not in it.

For those who do not want to invest money in it, here's the 'Boss of the DLC as well as the ending conversation.

»Missing Link BOSS Spoilers«

That being said, I won't even bother to rate the DLC content by numbers since it did either already belong in the main game or not.
If not they didn't manage to blend it in very well.
If yes it was the right decision to cut it out, since it would've turned out to be a bother in the main storyline.