Hello everyone. I recently got all the achievements in Deus Ex The Fall (my second time "platinumming" a Steam Game) and I wanted to talk about it.
Overall a straightforward if slightly annoying set of achievements. There's no difficulty settings but you're still relatively fragile in combat on the base difficulty. There's 2 main issues I had when going for all the achievements. The first is that you only get 1 save file period. This save file also holds your latest manual save, autosave and quicksave. So if you mess up at any point and void an achievement, you're out of luck and need to restart the entire game. The other issue is that some achievements aren't "counted until the next area". For example, take the achievement "Total Evasion - Hide from an alerted guard until he loses interest and returns to his patrol". Really easy but I only got it after evading an enemy and going to the next load zone. There are a few instances where this works against you. For example "Boy Scout - You didn't accept a reward for helping Camila with her stalker problem! Such a nice boy!". You need to decline the award and then leave the load zone to register the achievement which also autosaves the game which means you can't go back and get the award. I suppose you can disable the autosave and rely entirely on manual and quicksaves but I was too lazy to. For me, I generally knew the game well enough to know where and when I should save to avoid any major mistakes but I don't think I should consider that a pro.
I unfortunately cannot remember off the top of my head which achievements auto-register and which need an area transition to trigger. I did some reasearch and supposedly, its Proton save location is under Steam's compatdata/258180 prefix. So in theory, you could manually backup/transfer your save as an option. I personally cannot confirm that works however.
My unfounded conspiracy theory is that only one save slot is a consequence of its origins as a mobile game. Remember when this game first came out, lots of iPhones like my old 4 had 8GB total of space. Most of which was already taken up by iOS and your limited apps. Deus Ex The Fall was nearly 2GB. I suppose the app expanding to take up more storage for save slots was a no-no? And the game never got that fixed even when ported to PC?
The minimum you need to play this game is 1.2 playthroughs. 1 normal non-lethal run (for the achievement) and partly into a NG+ Run because of "Packing Heat - Own a rocket launcher and a plasma rifle". These cost about $11,000. If you absolutely scavenge for every little credit card (including shooting civilians to get their money), you can get around $10,000 by the end of a playthrough. Money is extremely tight in this game.
I did nearly 4 full playthroughs because of "Unlock the Power - Purchase 10 praxis kits". Because even after saving every $, I only had enough for 5/10 at $2500 a pop so I needed another NG+ run to get another $10,000. Until I realized you can just buy 1 and keep reloading your save to re-buy them and it still counts. A rare time where the game isn't stingy about locking in your progression. I wish I knew about that earlier to save myself 2 whole playthroughs. I think you can reasonably get all the achievements in 4-5 hours. I am an outlier for doing it in 10 I suppose.
There is one sorta bugged achievement in "Hard Times - You have got a problem. You found a can of beer in the trash and then drank it" since the game might not register this. The most consistent strat for this is to drink all the beer you already have in your inventory so you have no beer. Go to the Slums Area. Immediately hook a right and find the nearest trash can, loot it for beer, drink it and hope it counts.
So yeah, that's the achievements. Overall, not a bad list. A lot of it is just "do the optional stuff in the game" that I'd do (and did) normally. I think I wasn't going for the achievements, I'd probably end up doing about 70-80% of it because that's what happened when I played the iPhone version. I only missed 1 side quest and some of the money related Achievements. The game is generally so brief and contained that going for the achievements doesn't change much. I suppose it would have been cool if there was a "Do a run with no upgrades/augmentations" achievement as that would be an interesting thing for the achievements to push but by my 4th Playthough, I think was done with the game.
One interesting note of the achievements are the historical context. The achievement "Natural Born Pacifist = Complete the entirety of Part 1 without killing anyone" even shows us this was never meant to be a one and done game 🥲.
As for the game itself, despite its mostly negative rating on Steam, I kinda liked it. I think it's a perfectly fine 6/10 little game. I have something of a soft spot for this game because it was my first Deux Ex game. I remember playing it on my hand me down iPhone 4 because I didn't have a PS3 at the time. As someone that played a lot of PSP and DS ports/versions of games that had a proper console version, I was very enamored by this version.
I played this game across 3 different devices because the game doesn't support cloud saving and I was too lazy to manually transfer my save around to my different devices. My ROG Ally Z1 running Bazzite on the latest Experimental Proton and I recall it ran around 60-80 FPS maxed out. The gamepad controls worked flawlessly and I even got Gyro working for aiming. My i7-13620H + RTX 4060 Laptop with Fedora Running on Experimental Proton was running it around 100 FPS but with weird stutters and the aiming crosshairs disappearing. But my i7-7700HQ + GTX 1060 Laptop running Bazzite was getting smoked. I was getting 30 FPS when standing still and 1-2 FPS when moving and the Crossbow wouldn't ADS. It got so bad that I did an experiment where I held "W" down as I walked into a wall for 5 minutes and the game dropped to zero FPS to the point even the Steam Overlay disappeared.
I tried all my different Proton versions (Latest, Hotfix, Experimental, GE, DW, 10, 9) until I landed on 7. All of a sudden I got a silky smooth and rock solid 120 FPS with Vsync on. Doing some research, I suspect there might have been a possible regression in how newer versions of Proton handle older Unity ports like DETF? I still got the same bug where accepting the Stun Gun meant I no longer had crosshairs but at this point, I'll take it.
Back to the game, despite its age and origins, I found it looked quite good. At 1080 p maxed out, environments and major characters looked good. Environments were cluttered and full of details and environmental storytelling. The game retains the gold filter from Human Revolution and even borrows the soundtrack which I found nice. NPC models in places like the Slums looked ....questionable. But I'm willing to be lenient here. Judging this as a 2013 iPhone game, this game's graphics would be S tier by those standards. Plus as a fan of those PSP/DS ports, I find the imperfections more charming if anything.
A lot of the UI works fine on both gamepad and Mouse + Keyboard. The visual design is still very mobile first and there is some input delay on some clicks and menus like the game is expecting a tap that didn't fully go through. Holding F and G open up the sub and grenade menu and let you use the scroll wheel to cycle through them. I know this sounds like bare minimum stuff but I've played a lot of Mobile Games on Gamepads and Mouse+Keyboard in my time and a lot of even modern ones get this wrong (see my review on Neverness to Everness). So the fact Deus Ex The Fall does an actually good job here is legitimately worth celebrating. The most confusing moment I had was at the start of the tutorial that asked you to bind something to your quick select menu and I missed the exact instructions of clicking the slot then the item so I played a good chunk of my first playthrough with empty slots.
The core gameplay is largely lifted from Human Revolution. You have the same cover based movement, crawling through vents, weird cutscene melee takedowns, power/battery system, augments the whole works. Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion but I was never a huge fan of Human Revolution's take on Stealth as I feel it shares a lot of my complaints with the early Assassin's Creed games. You have very few ways of interacting with enemies or the environment those enemies are in. I was playing Splinter Cell Double Agent on PS2 a while back and in that game, you can Jam Lights to create shadows which both creates pockets of darkness for you to sneak through but can also distract and pull guards. You can whistle to lure guards around. Levels also more stuff for Sam Fisher to climb around on while still being in proximity with enemies. In other words, you rarely find a vent that just straight up bypasses everything. You still need to sneak through an area.
In contrast, both Human Revolution and The Fall don't really have stuff like that. Light, sound and distractions aren't really consistent tools you can use. Levels often have vents and other pathways to completely bypass enemies altogether. Here's an example in Deus Ex The Fall. In the Slums, there's a drug hideout. The entrance is guarded by around 7 guards. You could shoot your way in, or work in from the side but you can't stealth KO all of them. Or you could find 2 of the alternate ways in that let you skip the entrance and enter from the sides. Once inside, if you want to go to the Drug Lab, there are vents and walls that completely circumnavigate most of the guarded areas inside. Inside the Drug Lab, there's 2 side quests that send you here as part of their steps. And even here, there are vents, breakable walls and hackable doors that let you skip a lot of the sneaking.
To be more specific, there's generally 3 kinds of stealth options in stealth games:
Avoidance: vents, alternate entrances, breakable walls, and hacked doors.
Manipulation: distractions, sound, lighting, patrol control, and environmental traps.
Neutralization: takedowns, weapons, mines, and non-lethal tools.
My argument is that The Fall is relatively generous with avoidance and neutralization but underdeveloped in manipulation. So what was originally: “Which route does my build allow me to use?" slowly turns into: “Which of my six ways of bypassing this encounter do I feel like using?”
Of course, the idea HR and TF are going for here is that this is a Stealth RPG rather than a pure stealth game. So rather than areas being purely mechanical stealth challenges, Stealth Areas are closer to "RPG skill checks". "Can you break walls? If yes, here's a free pathway. Can you hack or destroy these doors? Free Pathway". But at least in HR, there were a few more factors at play. There was the meta aspect and inventory management. Resources were scarce and you had limited inventory space. The boss fights, as whack as they were, still meant you had to plan around them to some extent. Maybe you would choose to put a few points into inventory space to carry more stuff rather than upgrades to break walls or move crates or hacking. So "planning your route" was more important. Instead of solving a stealth problem purely mechanically, you're cashing in prior character-building decisions.
Moreover, HR rarely asked you to backtrack or revisit older levels. The Fall sends you back to places like the Nightshades Nightclub and the Elena Hotel (thrice if you include Camilia's side quest). Guards may not respawn so if you're ghosting, you just reuse the same paths you did the first time and do a bit of annoying waiting for guard patrols to be favourable (or use your Camo/Invisible Augmentations), or reuse the same pathways and KO/kill guards for the free EXP, or if they don't respawn, just walk through with no issues.
The XRG Data Center Level in The Fall is the one area I feel the game locks in for a challenge that's actually kinda tough regardless of your build. Stealth Players have fewer instapass vents (or the vents require progressing past enemies blocking them). Combat players have some pretty tough enemies that can take a lot of shots. It felt more like "rather than there being a bunch of easy options, I actually had to mix and match my tools since my build(s) helps but doesn't auto-solve the level". The routes and vents converged more often. Enemies tended to occupy more useful pathways and were quick to punish mistakes.
Though, to be fair, I suppose I should be lenient to the game given the context. Remember, this game came out in 2013 when Smartphones were finally becoming powerful enough that publishers asked "hey, can we squeeze proper AAA games into this thing?" I remember contemporary reviews of The Fall from the time were impressed that something like The Fall could even exist. Even stuff like the tutorial (which almost every review I found of the PC version criticizes) makes sense from that lens. The studio making this game were aware this was uncharted territory for mobile players so the tutorial being so overbearing, heavy handed and slow was likely seen as a necessary compromise for mobile players new to Deus Ex. Even the scaled back abilities, enemy AI, enemies disappaerening when neutralized and levels were likely technical decisions just as much as they were accessibility/audience considerations. But the consequence is now that The Fall is on PC, it's being judged relative to other PC games where its Mobile Design, even if made with good intentions in places, ends up being seen as flaws.
Funnily enough, the most fun I had playing the Fall was during my 2nd, 3rd and 4th playthroughs where I was under no obligation to be stealthy anymore. So I could use a mix of hit-and-run tactics, melee takedowns and gunplay. Gunfights in the drug lab and Data Center were fun because I'd be using the vents to scurry away as guards came to rush me and I'd be the one flanking them. It was some nice cat-and-mouse gameplay as I had to watch myself as I wasn't very tanky and escaping with only 13HP from a vent to try to reposition was intense. Plus, it was fun to have all the augments and being able to style on enemies.
Funnily, this is the sort of dynamic system interaction I feel the stealth side lacked. It's quite ironic and funny. The achievements initially trained me to experience the game in one of its least interesting ways. Natural Born Pacifist made me approach everything cautiously and avoid killing anyone. Once I'd gotten it, genocidal Ben Saxon was here to slay. Somehow, I'm having more fun on the pointless replays I didn't need to do. The stealth playthrough theoretically embodies Deus Ex's player-choice philosophy, but going loud actually made me engage with the levels more deeply.
The Fall doesn't have Limited inventory. Instead, you have a "Black Market" that lets you instantly buy and teleport weapons, ammo and equipment into your pockets (think Drebin's Store from Metal Gear Solid 4). Being originally a mobile game with microtransactions, I suppose Square Enix expected you to buy a few things here and there which is why although items and ammo are fairly reasonable, the high end weapons are crazy expensive. I shudder to think of the game's balance if this game got more content. At least I will say compared to HR or MD, I found myself less stressed doing gunfights because common ammo drops for the starting pistol wasn't a worry because enemy drops were good. That's one area The Fall is generous in.
The story of the game is a brief prequel/side story/interquel to Human Revolution. You play as Ben Saxon, a member of the Tyrants (the bosses of the HR) who goes rogue after a mission and hides out in Panama during the worldwide Neuropozine shortage that augmented people need to manage their prosthetics being rejected by the body. Ben's investigating Big Pharma and their connections to a new drug, Rizene, said to be a more affordable Neuropozine replacement. The story takes place just after the attack on Sarif Industries in Human Revolution while Adam Jensen is off on sick leave. Also, you meet Alex Vega in this game before she shows up in Deus Ex Mankind Divided.
That's the bulk of the story because it's unfinished. Even to this day, there is a "To be continued" and a "More Content Coming Soon" Tab in the main menu. At least the world building, lore and atmosphere is on point. My favourite part is that you can hack into a computer and learn that Final Fantasy 27 is winning GOTY in 2027 after a Western studio took over FF and it's now finally in the hands of a Japanese Studio. I did some brief research and apparently, our boi Ben is actually one of the main protagonists of the official tie-in novel, Deus Ex: Icarus Effect (which came out in 2011). The Fall essentially adapts a chunk of his timeline from the books. Maybe I should check that out one day but for the sake of this review, I will pretend it doesn't exist.
It's hard to properly review this game's story given even the Achievements call it "Part 1". But I had an idea. A while back, I found someone donating their old Xbox 360 and a copy of Deus Ex Human Revolution Director's Cut Disc 1. I was playing through disc 1 until just after the Attack on Sarif Industries when the game told me to put in Disc 2 which I didn't have. I was really miffed. But that makes for an interesting comparison. How does the story of Deus Ex Human Revolution Disc 1 (about 30 minutes) compare to the story of Deus Ex The Fall (about 2-3 hours)? In other words, if I played both these games back to back and you asked "which one do I want the remaining story to" which would I pick?
And even with this advantage to The Fall, I'd still choose Human Revolution in a heartbeat. HR's first 30 minutes has a lot more going on. You have Adam and his interesting relationship with his ex-Megan and his workplace banter/slight rivalry with Prichard which is entertaining. Adam's also "in the front seat" given his job at Sarif Industries. Moreover, the mystery of who the Tyrants are, why they attacked Sarif and kidnapped Megan, Adam's new status as a cyborg and how he would react to that are super interesting.
Plus, there's something The Fall Does that inadvertently makes Human Revolution more interesting despite not being true. The plot of The Fall is Ben looking for a Neuropozine replacement to prevent Augmentation Rejection. If I didn't know the whole plot of Human Revolution, this would make me more excited to play Human Revolution because "Adam is currently working under Sarif who is paying the bills. What happens if Adam ever wanted to go rogue or go against Sarif's orders? He'd lose access to Neuropozine. How would he react or work around that?". Obviously in the actual story, Adam is one of the few rare people that doesn't need Neuropozine but I wouldn't know that from just playing Disc 1 so this would make me more interested in HR. Basically, HR's opening as an exciting Origin Story for Adam and all the mysteries make its 30 minutes more enticing compared to The Fall which feels, you could tell me is a DLC for a larger game and I'd believe you.
Poor Ben in the Fall doesn't have as much narrative material to work with. He doesn't have someone to consistently banter/butt heads with the way Adam does Prichard. His relationship with Anna seems strictly professional. The nature of his mission means he has very little time for introspection, humour or friendly conversation. So Ben doesn't have many opportunities to express his own character. The most interesting thing about Ben here is his past and his relationship to the Tyrants. But it's not clear from the game how much runway there is. I get the impression from the story that Ben is "the new guy" on the squad who already didn't see eye-to-eye with everyone. All this means is that even if the Fall's overall story would have been amazing, the Fall itself doesn't exactly make that convincing.
In closing, there's no pressing reason to play The Fall. The story is incomplete and its gameplay is a diet version of HR. Other PSP/DS adaptations of console games at least tend to have enough going on to be worth playing on their own. Like, I still sometimes replay Need for Speed Carbon PSP and DS, or something like Resistance Retribution, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, GOW Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, GTA LCS/VCS/CW, LittleBigPlanet PSP etc are so fully featured that even via emulation on modern phones, they still absolutely slap as Portable Titles. You can't even play Deus Ex The Fall on phones anymore since the game has been pulled from Apple and Google's storefronts.
And I find that disheartening. The Fall is redundant but never even got even a chance to try. And never will since it reviewed quite poorly and the Deux Ex series is on ice. It's not a good game. Its phone versions disappeared. Its continuation disappeared. Its PC port survives, but that's also the version whose existence people mocked. And now the technological achievement that originally justified the entire project “look, it's basically Human Revolution on your phone!” doesn't even function in its intended ecosystem anymore.
Yet, despite everything, the Fall accomplished something personal. I didn't own the hardware to play Human Revolution at the time. I had an old hand me down iPhone. The Fall did exactly what it was supposed to do. It brought Deus Ex to someone who otherwise couldn't play Deus Ex.
So if nothing else, at least I can say the fact it existed was meaningful.
