Deus Ex GO

Visually Deus Ex GO is quite a bit different from Hitman GO. While Hitman GO was stylized almost as a board game, Deus Ex GO is represented more similarly to the prime Deus Ex titles. Everything has that sleek cyberpunk look and all characters and robots are fully animated and move in real-time. The originality of the visuals in Hitman GO may be lost, but the graphics of Deus Ex GO simply felt more engaging and immersive for me. Enemies, even when moving in slow-motion or at a standstill between turns felt like mobile entities as opposed to chess pieces.

Almost every level of Deus Ex Go delivers a confounding but ultimately rewarding puzzle worth solving. Though the world around those puzzles is relatively empty and replay potential is limited, Square Enix Montreal has mixed a healthy stealth and hacking focus with a bit of action to create a clever and, at times, truly testing set of brain teasers.

I asked for this.

Last week, a combination of feeling that I couldn't wait for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and my nightly 90 minute stint sat in the corner of a nyctophobic child's bedroom until she nodded off drew me to mobile spin-off Deus Ex Go. You know where this is going. CHEEKY MOBILE GAME REVIEW. But c'mon, Deus Ex is ours no matter where it appears.

Although Deus Ex GO may feel too straightforward, it’s still in the top-tier of pick-up-and-play puzzle games. It may not feel thematically coherent to the standard previously set by Square Enix Montréal, but it’s still worth your time.

The core of Deus Ex Go, though, remains a spectacular achievement. The Go series has consistently impressed me with how well it intuits the quintessential qualities that make up the games it's meant to represent. Deus Ex Go is the most cohesively designed and complex of the set so far, and that's saying something.

Compared to Lara Croft GO, however, it doesn’t have quite the same lasting impact. This is mainly due to its heavy reliance on trial and error, reacting to the movements and positioning of hostile elements instead of empowering Jensen with a more robust toolset, thereby making the game a smidgen less taxing.