Deus Ex: Human Revolution - PC Impressions @ Ars Technica
 

Ars Technica has some short hands-on impressions of the PC version of DX:HR, unlike most articles. A sample:
More information.

Oh my God this is the first time in years where the anticipation close to release is almost killing me.

Hmmm….

Quicksave - check!
Autosave - check!
Named save - I dunno?

Otherwise, sweet!

i feel like i'm a european having to wait to play the game 'til friday since i don't get home until then;)

i'm going to be marathon gaming fri thru sun, minus half of sat, but i really hope the game takes a while as i don't like rpg experiences that take only 20-30 hours or so even on "exploring everything" mode.

Sounds like I should get a new PC before I get this one.

I will be very surprised if DX:HR reaches into the 30 hour range. To be honest, I think 25-30 hours is long enough for a FPS/RPG hybrid with quality content.

Even the original was 20 max, in my experience. IW is like 12.

I'm pretty sure I heard one developer say exactly that while narrating a gameplay vid: 25-30 hours.

I never believe what developers say. I either beat the game faster or take longer.

Its impossible to say how much a game will last. If the game is realy good and has a lot of attention to small details, i easily spend hours and hours just exploring and reading everything and smiling when i see cool stuff. If the game is dull i just fast-forward through the main quest and then its a rather quick game.

If Deus EX:HR is as good as i think it'll be, i can easily spend over 60 hours in it, or even multiple replays depending if i feel that the game has a lot of choices/consequences.

One thing to remember some quests are timed and change the longer you take. You will have to factor that into your game-play also.

i guess i play games a bit different than most folks as i almost always play an at least partial stealth character, talk to and read all notes and seach every last corner. the original deus ex easily took me easily 40 hours or more for one playthrough and invisible war took over 30.

if a game gets dull then rather than rush through it, i simply end up not finishing it. then there's games that bottle in their gameplay like the witcher 2 which leave no option but to more or less rush through it.

I suppose trying to play Deus Ex past the first hour could be worth it, when I read everybody so fond of the game. Trying a third time… I just got bored, not my fault !

I have this on pre-order and predownloaded already on Steam. I'm kind of curious how I will feel about it. Everyone seems to be gushing so I feel like I should love this game and I hope I do, but I have to confess that not only have I not played the first two games, but I really loathe FPS games.

I did like New Vegas a lot but I think the VATS appealed to the turn based player in me. I do think there definitely needs to be more sci-fi RPGs but it seems like these days that always comes hand and hand with being a shooter. I suppose that's the most logical route to take when you are doing real time action oriented combat in a high tech world, but I don't want to feel like I am playing Crysis or something.

I have plenty of friends who quit first hour because they thought it was just another shooter.

I think I also spent around 40 hours on Deus Ex. I went completely stealth and non-lethal, and managed to not kill anyone (intentionally) until the end-game.

That is it. Should I read it is worth to persevere ? is the first hour representative of the next hours ?

My one-hour game-play : it seems to be a shooter, where… you shoot to finish a level. Now, if you want, you can search for objects/clues and complete the level without that much shooting but read some things, hack some things, and not shoot but explode ennemies, or deactivate enemies.. err.. and then.. well.. finish the level. Ok.

I'm one of those people who takes forever to play a game and generally has high gametime but I can't imagine spending 40 hours on Deus Ex. I just finished a replay of it before HR comes out and it took me 14 hours.

Well I can't imagine finishing DX in 14 hours.

Actually, I suppose I could, but I wouldn't want to. :)

Well this time I was pretty quick and I knew exactly what to do of course. Maybe my first playthrough was 30 or so, but I don't think so. The point is you can't characterize me as someone who runs through games, I always take a loooong time, well over publisher estimates. I am a slow gamer, but I don't think Deus Ex has 40 hours worth of content in it.