Deus Ex: Human Revolution endings 'simplified' due to constraints

Deus Ex: Human Revolution received plenty of critical praise, but a few common criticisms dogged the game. Namely, the way the multiple endings were triggered, and the boss fights. In a new interview, project lead Jean-Francois Dugas talks about the team's decisions on those elements, and admits that production constraints forced their hand in some ways.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

"There are two aspects to the ending," Dugas told Rock Paper Shotgun. "The first aspect has to do with the buttons. In the original design we did not want it to just be you facing four buttons and you just press one, end of story. We wanted the players to get involved in doing something more that would make the choice mean more in their minds, but again it was just a constraint of production at some point. We simplified the ending to make sure that we could do it, that we could ship it."

He says that he understands players' disappointment with the way the choice was presented, but he says he's completely happy with the actual ending videos. "That was the vision we had, and we fulfilled it. When I look at the endings and the feedback, it’s not unanimous that people hate them. Some players love them, other players feel disappointed because they just think 'what happened next?'"

The much-maligned boss battles were another stumbling point. He says the team originally wanted to make the bosses more consistent with the rest of the game. "We had our pillars of stealth, of non-lethal actions, and everything else, and we wanted to make sure that was reflected in the bosses, but in the end it was not," he said. "It's the place where people were surprised because they would equip themselves in a certain way and then they got their and everything they’d fought for disappeared. You have to change your mindset, which can be upsetting. I think the biggest weakness there wasn't the concept of having boss fights, it’s just that our boss fights are not Deus Ex boss fights and that's why people are complaining about them. I guess we live and learn."

That said, Dugas says the team was surprised that people found them "frustrating." He says the team decided to include them thinking "at least they will be entertaining in some fashion." If anything, the team expected fans to criticize them for being uninteresting, rather than difficult.

If you're hungry for more Deus Ex, the Missing Link DLC is coming in October. Check out our new hands-on preview of the upcoming story mission.