Why should I buy it? Is it worth spending money on?

If you liked Deus Ex, then yes.

Have you read reviews of the game?

I believe the Director's Cut version has performance issues which were not in the vanilla version.

If you enjoy the cyberpunk genre, it's a very good game... and... often on sale here for $3 USD.

To append to what InSaintMonoxide wrote, people have said the original non-D.C. version - not on GOG - is better in various ways. One example.

That said, the D.C. version does go on sale for like %85 off or $3 (at least in America, you might have regional pricing). And it does still have decent reviews overall.

It's a good time. It'll only be disappointing if you treat it as a successor to the original and want the same itch, but if you want an immersive sim, it's hard to go wrong with.

Its story can be distractingly dumb at times, so fair warning.

It's a good, chill RPG. It's not as open-ended as an Elder Scroll, not as intricate as a Deus Ex, but you still feel like your choices and progressions are mostly yours, and it's an okay power trip through cybernetic enhancements in a believably "lived in" universe. Structurally it's some sort of Vampires: Bloodlines lite, but -and that's possibly the most important- it has a tone and a look of its own, a real identity, a unique feel that will have you coming back for sequels.

Yep. And those can be solved.

1. Use Timer App and max its setting out as high as it'll go - https://www.lucashale.com/timer-resolution/
2. If you're on NVidia - Switch the Syncing to FastSync via NVidia Profiler or NVidia Control Panel, to stop the stutters. You might have screen-tearing here and there now, though.
3. If you want to fix Gold Filter (so it looks like OG Deus Ex HR version) or mod that your way, use this - https://cookieplmonster.github.io/mods/dxhrdc/#dxhrdc-gfx If you loved Deus Ex 1, absolutely.
It's the 2nd best game in the series, right behind OG Deus Ex.

Deus Ex 1 is one of the best games ever made. Sure, HR is a bit more streamlined, less emphasis on melee combat, has also cover mechanics, and combat controls are way better & less clunky - but it's still great. DC Edition also really makes boss fights much better and have more options than just straight-forward fights, too.

MD's also great, despite lacking a real ending here - it's a shame that the sequel was cancelled, not finished, and we're still waiting for more here; thanks a lot, Square. We really need MD2 to wrap this crap up. Hopefully, Embracer can rectify this. MD is game is great gameplay-wise and graphically (especially when it came out), otherwise. Oh, and A Criminal Past DLC is out-standing.

For me, series looks like this - Deus Ex 1 GOTY > Deus Ex HR OG with TML or DC versions > Deus Ex MD Deluxe > Deus Ex: IW > Deus Ex: The Fall.

The way DXHR appeals to me is the stealth action, non-bosses can be apprehended without ever knowing the player's presence and there are several upgrades to make this easier. Non-lethal options -my favorite- include the tranq-rifle, taser, and good old-fashion robot arms. Good lethal options are the silent pistol, sniper rifle, and elbow-swords. I also love that it uses the Resident Evil inventory system so that preventing clutter is the player's responsibility.

True to the first game, there are many alternate paths and most of them are ventilation shafts; that and dialogue choices are sometimes lacking compared to what should be possible, but it's better than no choice at all.

Well, the Director's cut failed at so much. But it made boss fights fun. Nothing says terrible like building for a stealth character and being forced to take a boss on head first with brute force. DC fixed that part by giving us options to deal with bosses.

I played through that whole game a few months ago.

It was decent, but it's certainly nowhere near being the masterpiece that most people claim it to be.

I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 at most.

Here are some of the things I didn't like about it:

- The villains are all totally one-dimensional caricatures with no personality or depth whatsoever (unlike the original Deus Ex, which actually has complex & deep multi-dimensional villains).

- The forced DLC that you are forced to play in the Director's Cut, because it was integrated into the main game in the Director's Cut and the player has no choice about that, is terrible. At the start of that forced DLC, they take away all your gear and all of your cyborg upgrades.

After a while into the DLC, they give you points to spend which are meant to compensate for the upgrades that the forced DLC stole from you automatically, except they give you far fewer points than what you actually had collected if you were playing astutely and getting upgrades whenever you could.

This results in you being forced to play the whole forced DLC as a gimpy weak character, even though supposedly the game is trying to compensate you fairly for the upgrades it stole from you.

But the compensation is way too low & stingy, therefore it results in an unfun gameplay experience for many hours whilst you are stuck in the forced DLC levels.

- The game starts out its first many hours making a huge deal out of the main character's relationship with his girlfriend, but by the middle and ending parts of the game, she turns into an afterthought by the devs, and there is no proper resolution to that storyline whatsoever at the end of the game. They just kind of abandon it entirely.

What I did like about the game:

- There are multiple solutions to most quests and multiple paths through most levels.

- The game captured the spirit of the original Deus Ex to some extent. But definitely not to the very high extent that that game gets undeserved credit and overly-praised for.

- The game does a good job of making you feel like a cyborg who is technically superior to normal humans who don't have any superpowers via augmentations, like your character does.

No, it's got boring gameplay, is far too long, and totally without humour. Very much inferior to the original Deus Ex, which is the only game Deus Ex game you should play.

Some examples for the bad gameplay:
- Tedious hacking minigame that comes up again and again, and which you'll quickly learn to hate.
- Automatic takedowns, you just have to press a button when an enemy is near, this is much dumber than in the original Deus Ex.
- Gameplay heavily skewed towards stealth, you get experience boni if no one sees you, so you're penalized for engaging in shootouts. This greatly restricts choices, making the game much less fun than in the original Deus Ex, where gunning your way through was viable on most difficulties (yes, even on "realistic"...by contrast, you're a total weakling on the higher difficulty levels in HR, another reason why you're forced into stealth all the time).

I want to write that you're wrong but... yeah, I pretty much agree on your criticism. I wouldn't go as far as to say HR is a bad game but it's vastly inferiour to the OG. I would also add that the shooting is dull (it's not great in the original either but still).

After playing through the game and got both Pacifist and Foxiest of the Hounds achievements on my second playthrough of the original version, they actually give you all the tools to kill the bosses (there's a room with a minigun right before the first boss, there's a laser gun right before the third), you just need to collect them and use them. Probably helps if you upgrade your weapons and select augs that help get you stuff. A purely stealth build isn't as unviable as it may seem.

I actually don't know that ever sat down and thought about the order I'd rank them but this is absolutely the order I'd put them in.