We already know that Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be part of Square Enix’s E3 portfolio, but details about the game are emerging at pace even before that event kicks off.
In a discussion with Eurogamer the lead designer at Eidos Montreal, Jean-Francois Dugas, has expanded on the approach being taken by the team. Elsewhere at the same site, there’s a selection of snippets addressing specific questions that may interest long-term fans of the series.Dugas says that “All missions have multi-path solutions. It’s not once in a while – it’s all of them,” which is a reassuring statement as this was a key portion of the original. He describes a situation where players must break into a morgue, and essentially describes combat, stealth and dialogue approaches as possible options. Stealth will now feature third-person takedowns.
In terms of level size, Dugas says they are “Big enough to lose yourself. It’s not Fallout big, don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of streets, back alleys, rooftops, building interiors, sewers, conduits.” The mission hubs are “absolutely” comparable to the Hell’s Kitchen and Hong Kong hubs in the first Deus Ex.
Returning to the dialogue, this is phrased as “social fighting” and will involve choosing emotional stances rather than specific lines of text – much like in Mass Effect or Alpha Protocol (though it is claimed to be “deeper than Mass Effect.”) Another apt comparison, given the setting, might be the Blade Runner game from ’97.
Multitools appear to have been ditched in favour of hacking taking precedence for both doors and computer terminals. Here, the team refer to the Introversion hacking game Uplink as inspiration: “The goal here is that you have a network: you start at a node and you have to reach your target. There is a mainframe though – which can detect you through the network and will start to retrace you.”
Augmentations and skills will be merged in Human Revolution (just like they were in, ulp, the less-than-super Deus Ex: Invisible War), though this hopefully just means having access to a ‘swimming aug’ rather than a specific dolphin-esque talent to chuck skill points into.
If you’re worried about this kind of streamlining leading back to ‘universal ammo,’ however, put your fears at rest. On weapons, Dugas says “We’re going more with a full cast of weapons. All of them have their unique abilities – so there’s a range of lethal weapons and a range of non-lethal weapons. And it’s not universal ammo: it’s a specific ammo for each.”
Old school Looking Glass Studios fans may also be pleased to hear that the code 0451 is confirmed as present and correct.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is set to demo at E3, so we’ll no doubt be bringing you even more information next week.
