[XOne] Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Ik heb niks gespeeld, ik ben pas sinds kort een beetje 'serieus' aan het gamen en daarvoor had ik wel af en toe een ps/ps2, maar was er nooit veel mee bezig. Op PC sowieso heel weinig gespeeld. Maar deze game is wel degene waar ik het meest naar uitkijk.

 

Deel 1 was echt zo meesterlijk... Er is geen rpg/shooter hybrid meer geweest die dit kon evenaren, not by a long shot!

 

Ja, geloof ik graag. Helaas kan mijn netbook niet veel meer dan patience aan volgens mij

 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Interview: Game Director Jean-Francois Dugas

The hype behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution can be best described as excitement with caution. It is after all a new installment is one of the most beloved video game series, and with a completely new team at the helm, it has a hard task ahead of itself convincing fans that it won’t be a, to put it politely, a screw up.

We chat with lead designer Jean-Francois Dugas on how the game is shaping up, and explore the core mechanics that will define the game.

Could you give us a brief on the background and the story of the game?

The game takes place in 2027 — a time when advancements in biotechnology are enabling people to mechanically “enhance” their mental and physical skills. In effect, making them smarter, stronger, and more physically capable than others who are not enhanced. This has created a new social tension and a new definition of the “haves” and “have nots”. It is also a time of chaos and conspiracy as people, corporations, and governments struggle to stay on top of this new innovation. You play Adam Jensen, a private security specialist working for one of America’s most innovative biotechnology firms. You’re a mechanically augmented character whose job is to safeguard company research — at least, that’s what you believe. Until the day when everything changes for you.

Adam Jensen looks pretty savvy – who is he and how vital a role will he play in the game’s story? Can you share a little bit about the process behind the character design?

The character of Adam Jensen is pretty savvy, if you don’t mind our saying so. He’s the character you’ll get to play in the game; a security specialist whose been handpicked to oversee the defensive needs of a very experimental biotech firm, and he has a pretty rich back story that will eventually play into the story’s underlying global conspiracy. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

At the start of the game, Adam is nearly killed and must become augmented to save his life. This gives him a host of new augmentations to play with, some of which are top secret military-grade. But is becoming augmented something he was really ready for? Or was it something he wanted at all, given the current social tension surrounded augmented people? All these questions play into the story and the game, and they also helped fuel his design by giving us a solid base to begin with.

In terms of his design, obviously we looked to the first game and JC Denton, but we also turned to archetypical cyberpunk movies like Blade Runner. We wanted to bring the sunglasses that were present in the first game back, and the trench coat, of course, is a must! On top of that, our overall artistic design has a Renaissance flair to it; bringing these into the characters helped to produce unique designs and patterns that just help make things more interesting, with great levels of detail. With Adam, we think they’ve enabled us to create a very interesting and iconic character.

Why did you chose to set Human Revolution as a prequel? Will there be any story elements that will contradict with the previous two Deus Ex games?

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel for several reasons. First, we wanted to bring a fresh start to the franchise and make this new game unique and a stand-alone title. Meaning, we wanted to make sure that players don’t have to be old DX fans to appreciate the game – we have a new main character and a supporting cast that you’ll encounter and get to know during this journey.

Second, in the original timeline of DX, there was a time where mechanically-augmented people began to proliferate in society, which happened before the arrival of nano-augmented people. The distinction lies in the fact that nano-augmentations are invisible and the mechanical augmentations are not. We thought it would be an interesting thematic to explore from both a gameplay perspective (seeing how your character evolves) and from an ethical/moral perspective (the benefits & dangers of a world where some can afford to get augmented while others can’t).

Beyond than that, setting the game as a prequel enables us to create a story that gets to dig into more complicated human motivations and beliefs — but we’re not ready to unveil all the specifics of the story just yet!

Human revolution deals with transhumanism, ‘human enhancement’ – could you tell us about the biomechanical augmentations we have seen in the trailers, and how they will play into the gameplay?

The augmentation system allows players to tackle any challenge the way they want to. You want to be stealthy about it, we have augmentations that will help you with that. You want to play full on combat, we have augmentations that will help you with that. Basically, augmentations in the game are classified according to our 4 pillars of gameplay:

* Combat augmentations will allow you to be a more dangerous opponent — that is, to perform lethal melee attacks.
* Stealth augmentations will allow you to become a “stealth master” — for example, by getting a clearer sense of the enemy patrols and their lines of sight.
* Hacking augmentations will allow you to access more difficult devices that in turn, open up more post-hacking possibilities — for example, turret domination.
* Social augmentations will allow you to get a better sense of the direction in which your interactions with people are heading (are you convincing them to be on your side, for example, or not?) and then adjust to these results more easily.

Basically, there’s something for everyone here.

Since Human Revolution is being developed by an entirely new team, how hard was it to learn and absorb what Ion Storm had created and successfully implement it into the game?

It’s definitely a challenge to live up to the expectations of the fans and the industry, but I wouldn’t say our goal with Deus Ex: Human Revolution is to replicate exactly what Ion Storm did. Our initial goal was to identify the core values of DX and bring them back for a new generation of gamers. The core values were, of course, established by Warren Spector and company, so by building on top of them, I think his heritage is quite present. Of course, that first game was released several years ago; we needed to bring fresh ideas to the table as well. But when we did, we made sure never to disrespect the essence of what makes a DX game what it is.

Must be daunting – after all Deus Ex is considered a classic, and if you step out slightly off – you know how fans can get?

We’re huge fans of the original game ourselves, and on a lot of topics, we’re on the same page as the fans. As mentioned before, it’s really important to us to respect the core values that made the original game outstanding. But it’s also important to bring new ideas to the table — ideas that will elevate the experience for old fans while adding new levels of excitement and surprises that can draw newcomers into the Deus Ex world. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is going to stay true to the original game on many levels, but at the same time we’re coming up with new gameplay possibilities, reinforcing the choice and consequence aspect, and introducing a brand new cast of characters and storylines that will expand the Deus Ex experience for a new generation of gamers and old fans alike.

Was Warren Spector, in any way, included during the production of the game?

No, Mr. Spector was not involved in any stage of the production.

How will Human Revolution differ from the previous two titles – treatment, story and gameplay wise?

The first game was definitely our inspiration, more so than Invisible War, so on that note, we are going back to an inventory system similar to Deus Ex 1 and getting rid of universal ammo which Invisible War had. In terms of level design and technology, the levels will be similar in size to the first game, with significantly less load times than Invisible War.

But at the same time, it is important that we bring something new to the table, whether it be artistically, storywise, or in terms of gameplay. One of the bigger differences fans will notice right away is that, since Human Revolution is a prequel, we’re focusing on visible mechanical augmentations, rather than nano-augs. In the first two games, due to the nature of nano augmentations, you really couldn’t see your character change as you upgraded them, but with mechanical augmentations you will visually see the modifications that you make, and with our contextual third-person camera, during combat you will really get to see some of your more brutal augmentations in action.

Beyond that, as mentioned previously, we’re coming up with some new gameplay possibilities, reinforcing the choice and consequence aspect, and introducing a brand new cast of characters and storylines that will expand the Deus Ex 3 experience for a new generation of gamers and old fans alike.

Online play has become a big deal since the last Deus Ex came out. Will there be an online component to the game? Co-op maybe?

No online component has been announced yet, no.

Deus Ex was always about player choices and the freedom of adopting different play styles. How much of that has been retained?

We think people will enjoy a gaming experience that hasn’t been recreated in recent years. Although some recent games have aspects of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in them, our combination of different play styles, multiple approaches to problems and their solutions, and being able to see the consequences of your actions makes for a really great and unique game experience. Almost every objective and challenge in DX:HR has a different way of completing it, plus you get to customize your character (and weapons) and then choose the paths you take. The gameplay choices are exposed in a non-linear fashion, so different people will end up having a different experience depending on where they go, who they talk to, how many sub-plots they get involved in, etc.

Whether you like action, stealth, hacking, or social, you can complete missions in different ways. In Deus Ex: Human Revolution there are two primary gameplay styles (combat and stealth) and two supporting gameplay styles (hacking and social interactions). You can basically play the entire game by going “frontal” or by going “sneaky” and/or by switching back and forth as you please. You can also expand your possibilities through these means in order to open up new paths, find new solutions to problems, acquire useful goodies or information, etc.

Usually, what we see is that when old franchises are brought back and into the new generation gaming cycle, they are overly simplified and ‘dumbed-down’. How much influence was it on the gameplay to know that games have a much wider audience than what was back in 2000?

Like we said in the previous question, while games have evolved and gotten more mainstream, we are very much retaining the non-linearity aspect that was at the core of the first Deus Ex game.

The game uses the Crystal Engine. We guess it has been heavily modified to suit the requirements as the engine has never been used at such a scale as Human Revolution. Why was it chosen over other existing technologies such Unreal Engine 3 which has been used superbly by Bioware for its Mass Effect series?

We chose the engine because it is an internal Eidos engine that is very mature with powerful tools for building the game. Actually, it allowed us early on (during the conception phase) to play around with some gameplay mechanics, which was very helpful and it still is! However, our game is not driven by the technology but mainly by the Art direction needs. For Eidos Montréal as a brand new studio, we didn’t want to spend a year or more building an engine. Luckily, we are able to work directly with the engineers at Crystal Dynamics to get the most out of it and we are also making many enhancements to suit Human Revolution’s artistic direction, as well as its unique gameplay. One of the big things fans of the original should like is that the engine is very good at streaming data so you will see larger, more open areas than Invisible War, and with fewer loading screens.

You’re aiming for an ‘early 2011’ launch – any specific release window yet?

Nope. The release window is still Early 2011.

 

Eerste is alleen FFXIV.

 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution not 'consolified'

Deus Ex hasn't been toned down as far as complexity is concerned to cater for consoles according to game designer Jean Francois Dugas.

When talking to PSM3 magazine about how to approach Deus Ex after such a long absence Dugas said, "We just went in and went back to the first two games, saw what was working well and analysed what would keep the essence of Deus Ex alive but at the same time fit a modern, global audience."

PSM3 asked if Deus Ex had become "consolified" because of that:

"Absolutely not. I think PC is a great platform, but I think consoles are a great platform, too," Dugas replied.

"Back in the '90s, games on the two platforms were very different, but I think these days it's all about bringing things together - movies, TV, music - they're all converging in the same places for everyone to access."

"I see it as convergence, and it's the same for games."

"We didn't think, 'Oh, it's coming to console; it has to be easy'," he continued.

"We can have a very deep experience, but it's important that if you want to just jump in to it, you can jump in to it. It's not about removing complexity or cutting possibilities: it's about the way the complexity is introduced."

 

Beter! Niks ergers dan een dumb Deus Ex. DX gaat over complexiteit, keuzevrijheid, diepgaand, etc!

 

*stemmetje in hoofd zegt "nog steeds regenerative health"*

 

[yt]Ouod4zOselE[/yt]

 

Prachtig. Wat een vette trailer zeg.

 

Vind 'm ook cool. Game waar ik misschien wel het meest naar uitkijk. Hier heb je 'm in het Engels:

[yt]b1-VUQ2A4kI[/yt]

 

Plaats gewoon die van XBW.

 

Die gasten weten wel hoe ze een trailer moeten maken, damn wat ziet dat er gruwelijk uit.

 

Wordt helemaal gek van die trailers zeg.

 

Wat een waanzinnig goede trailer! Damn deze wil ik spelen.

 

Lijpe shit

 

Wat een geniale trailer, zeg! Die muziek is ook geweldig. Ziet ernaar uit dat dit weer net zo'n must have wordt als het geniale eerste deel, na het wat tegenvallende tweede.

 

Vet! Gameplay zag er ook al tof uit. Hebben!

 

Deus Ex dev explains why it's black & gold

Ever wondered why every single Deus Ex: Human Revolution screenshot and video is clad in black and gold overtones? Of course you have. That's why when we got a chance to speak to art director, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, we asked him just that...

"Okay, so that was just one day... one picture. I think it was like a Sunday, and I saw this black and gold advert - I have no idea what it was. But it just struck me - this could be a great palette, it's never really been used in videogames. It was great for communication, packaging, bags so on," Jacques-Belletête explained.

"If you look at Assassin's Creed, it's white and blue. Ours is gonna be black and gold. And I think it worked well, because if you look at the Renaissance, the painters at the time like - Rembrandt, Vermeer... - a lot of the colours they used were black and white.

"Obviously they could paint in the daytime, but if they wanted to paint at night they didn't have leccy so would paint with candles - which resulted in this warm, black and goldy colour," he added.

According to the artist, Eidos Montreal's decided that black represents cyberpunk and gold represents the Renaissance. He should've just told us that in the first place - it would've made him sound much more clever than a bloke who nicked an idea from the telly.

(cvg)