Killzone: Mercenary shoots onto Vita on September 10
Trion Worlds hit with more layoffs, Defiance team impacted
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault defending Vita next week
Game & Wario was originally going to be pre-installed on Wii U
The Last of Us digital download lets you start playing sooner
Deus Ex: Human Revolution endings 'simplified' due to constraints
by Steve Watts, Sep 23, 2011 6:30pm PDTDeus 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.
"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.
Comments
Deus Ex: Human Revolution lead Jean-Francois Dugas talks about some of the criticisms of the game, and the decisions that led to them.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution lead Jean-Francois Dugas talks about some of the criticisms of the game, and the decisions that led to them. : Shacknews
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 30 replies.
The endings didn't live up to the production values of the rest of the game. The rest of the game had a smattering of well constructed pre-rendered CG video. I expected something along those lines for the ending. What we got..... It was like playing Metroid on the NES and being rewarded with that short blob of text for your efforts. It was an insult. You could explain that for Metroid, being at the dawn of modern gaming. DEHR has not excuse in 2011.
Nevermind the fact that the spirit of these 4 endings didn't prove to be substantially different from what we got in the previous 2 games. It was bad enough that all of our gameplay choices amounted to nothing, thanks to button press endings. To essentially rehash the issues presented in the other games... Blech!
The only reason I played through as many times as I did (3) was because I wanted to rack up more achievements. DEHR is, honestly, a very easy game. You literally have to turn off all of the helper features like the goals & reticule to even up your challenge. Even then, it's easy once you've beaten it once.
As far as the BOSSES go.....
I know that people complained about the bosses and I do agree that they force you to change your stealthy mindset quite quickly. However, even on hard mode, they're actually VERY easy.
- BARRETT: Don't bother taking him head on or getting too creative. Once the fight starts, there's a room to your left. Run to it. There are some crates next to the door. Hole yourself up on top of them and right in the corner. Give yourself a minute to heal up, as you probably took a hit or two running into the room. Crouch down so that you can just see the opening of the room. Wait it out. This is a blind spot for Barrett. Provided that you're in that corner and crouched, nothing he can do will tag you. Not even frag grenades. He's powerful, but stupid. Eventually, he'll pass by the doorway. Don't reveal yourself. Just take aim and keep shooting him in the foot with your pistol. Yep. Shoot him in the foot. It's a cheap tactic, but it works. I've beaten the game 3 times and it never fails.
- YELENA: She's actually the second easiest boss. Take a hypostim before fighting her. She'll hit you pretty hard in her opening attack. Not a big deal. Just burn off that excess health. Even without the track & mark upgrade, you can tell which direction she's coming from so that you can plan your attack. She still has a silhouette that you can see through the translucent walls. Now, make sure that you've got that EMP shielding upgrade. WHY? Simple. Blast the f*** out of the closest generator things on the wall. It'll electrify the floor. You won't get hurt, but she'll get cooked like a X-Mas goose. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
- JARON: This is the one most people complain about. They claim that the new biochip upgrade screws you over. Not true. It does mess with your upgrades, but defeating Jaron Namir is butt easy. The grenade launcher is your key. Make sure that you have it and have it equipped before the fight starts. As soon as it does.... Unload on him. You don't need to run. You don't need to move. Just fire. He never gets a shot off an never recovers from each hit. Shockingly, it only takes 4 or 5 hits.
- ZHAO: She is THE easiest boss. There are a lot of steps to beat her, but they're all easy. The carousel of turrets as the opener? From the safe cover of that wall where you start the fight, a few well placed grenade shots will take them all out. The horde of zombies? Wait for them to get close and typhoon their asses. The mechs? Just EMP them. Zhao herself? A couple of good blasts from a heavy rifle will undo her since she doesn't put up a fight. The rest is just button pushing and some hacking. If you're afraid of taking hits, there are some well placed punch-through walls and passages that'll give you some time to breathe.
You must be logged in to post.