Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Eurogamer Roundup

Eurogamer has apparently been given "unprecedented access" to Deus Ex: HR, with three new articles resulting.  First, a standard preview:

And that - somewhat early on in what will be a glowing preview of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, by the way - is the message I want to convey. This is, recognisably and joyfully, a true Deus Ex game - we can stop worrying and start tentative negotiation with the hype train.

When you see the game in motion you find yourself breathing sigh of relief after sigh of relief at the tiniest of things - from the way the screen looks after you've hacked a computer and are fiddling with security feeds, to the way a strength augmentation will let you pick up boxes that are in your path.

Sure, a 20-minute preview presentation of the nerfed and agoraphobic Deus Ex: Invisible War may well have featured box movement and correctly represented CCTV too - but with DX3 you can't escape the feeling that Eidos Montreal knows what made the original such a classic, and the follow-up a disappointment in comparison.

He isn't kidding when he says it's a "glowing" preview, by the way.  Next, in Fan Service, Eurogamer asks several devs about the inclusion of specific features from DX1.  Here's Narrative Designer Mary De Marle:

On being able to kill main characters...

"We definitely wanted to create a story that, despite at heart being a linear story, had key moments in it where the decisions you make can cause characters to disappear from the storyline. Or, can enable them to come back later. We very much want to have that, just as Deus Ex 1 did. So we have those instances in the game."

Finally, they have an interview with lead designer Jean-François Dugas:

Eurogamer: In terms of how it all works, such an important part of Deus Ex is the experimental nature of the gameplay. How open will the action be?

Jean-François Dugas: All missions have multi-path solutions. It's not once in a while - it's all of them. We also have a lot of areas that are more open, like Detroit or Heng Sha streets - in the demo your saw today we went round two corners. It's much, much bigger than that.

Eurogamer: How much bigger? Give me numbers and statistics.

Jean-François Dugas: 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... There's a lot to explore.

In terms of how the game is open, and the experience of playing the game, one example I can give is in Detroit. It's early on in the game and as ever you have objectives: when you've done A you can move on to B and C.

The thing is while you're doing A you can come across something, and can hack it and shut it down. If you do that then right away one of your colleagues will call you and ask, "Jensen, what did you just do?" You say: "I don't know. There was this switch and I shut it off."

But as you progress and do the other objectives it becomes clear that what you've already switched off is actually the final objective for the map - only you did it at the start. So basically we support players that maybe go left when they're meant to go right, when it makes sense, as much as we can.

Away from Eurogamer, IGN's Video Rewind feature dissects the recent E3 trailer for those interested.

Thanks, Omega!