Freedom of choice is something that has been synonymous with the Deus Ex games, from interactions with NPCs that could affect mission outcomes to tackling said mission in pretty much anyway you like. 2011’s Human Revolution was a brilliant game and it fully capitalised on these features to make it stand apart from most RPG/Shooter titles on the market.
Now with the next instalment Mankind Divided right around the corner, we have learned that the game follows in the same vein as its predecessors by giving you the tools to let bullets fly or go for a more Solid Snake approach to dealing with any situation.
One widely criticised issue with Human Revolution were the boss fights. For starters they could be game breaking if you were playing a certain way (stealthy) and didn’t have enough ammo or resources (I had to restart my game upon hitting the first boss). The game promised a no kill playthrough if you so chose to follow the path of a pacifist, but even so the bosses would still die in later cutscenes regardless of what you chose to do.
The team at Eidos Montreal knew this (and fixed the issue for a Director’s Cut version of the game) and it is something they do not want to repeat in the latest game in the series. They have promised to not only give the player an option to properly pacify bosses instead of killing them, but also a few interesting ways to go about it.
OXM magazine spoke with gameplay director Patrick Fortier (via Gameradar)
“That was the main thing that was missing from the boss fights. Thematically, I think they were interesting, but certain players found a challenge there that wasn’t really catered to them. Mankind Divided’s bosses are much more balanced in this regard, There are ways to stealth them, there are ways to beat them in combat and there are conversations you can have that maybe give you a different means of dealing with the situation altogether.”
The balls to the wall action is back, the stealth is back, now it seems perhaps some conversational prowess will be another way of defeating a boss.
This is an awesome arsenal for players to tinker with and develop their own personal way to play, something that (despite the aforementioned boss fights) made Human Revolution so engrossing.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One in 2016.
Although he has been gaming since the Sega Mega Drive launched in 1990, he still sucks at most games. When not being trash he watches French horror films, drinks herbal tea and secretly loves the music of Taylor Swift.
