Live-action Deus Ex trailer is like the Portal 2 ads without the jokes (but with extra nightmare fuel)

Okay, so you're at the forefront of human/robotics integration. Your hardware probably costs more than a 50% share in the moon. Probably a full moon once the surgeon/engineer is paid for too, and I'm talking something like Ganymede here, not our piddling little Earth moon. So don't you think, that in mind, thatyou could possibly, you know, just make your hyper-advanced robo-fingers actually look likefingers rather than spare bits of a Meccano skeleton kit?

That's the main question raised by this very-well-done ad for the fictional Sarif Industries, the robo augmentation company in the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Seriously guys. People don't want that shit. It's fricking horrible. At least bundle in a pair of rubber gloves with every purchase. Dad might thinkhis kid's running for the ball, but he's just running away.

Aesthetic blunders aside, Sarif's product line is a pretty sexy proposition. Well, not literally sexy. I hope. No seriously, they need to draw the line somewhere, and robo-genitals is that somewhere.

Either way, the ad's creepily over-sanitised, blue-skies-and-soft-focus Nintendo stylings doa great job of inferring the darker, more violent possibilities of this tech. Crushing skulls. Taking X-ray photos of people's skulls as you crush them. Throwing small dogs right through people's chests and letting them chew on their ribs (while taking 3D photos of it). Okay maybe I've gone too far with that last one, but you get the idea. I am certainly nowexcited about the idea of getting my cyber on, and I'm certainly thoroughly excited about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. How about you?

April 13th 2011

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.