Eidos Montreal calms Deus Ex fan fears

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 13 August, 2010

Will offer "same FPS/RPG blend" as original.

Eidos Montreal, the developer behind the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution, has reassured fans that the studio is not taking the critically-acclaimed series in an action FPS direction.

Following the release of a stunning CGI trailer earlier this year, and the emergence of gameplay features such as automatic regeneration of health, some fans have expressed concern that prequel Human Revolution is discarding the series' role-playing roots.

Not so, lead designer Jean-François Dugas told Eurogamer.

"It's the same blend of first-person shooter slash RPG that the first game was.

"Honestly, I know when we said it's going to have auto-regen and a cover system and shooting is not going to be stat-based anymore, a lot of people went, 'oh my God! Now they're doing just an action game and it's all about running around and shooting.'

"It's a fair concern when you just hear that this way. I totally understand it. But it has never been our goal to transform Deus Ex into a shooter game.

Dugas insisted that hardcore fans will find a stiff challenge in Human Revolution.

"You have a challenge that's not necessarily easy. It's not the case that because the shooting is more straightforward and you have regen that you're going to be invincible.

"You'll have to think. You'll have to look around you and maybe find other ways than just shoot and see what happens.

"We're balancing the game right now, and I can tell you when there are a few characters on screen that are after you, if you don't take care, a few bullets and you're dead.

"It's not going to be more of an action game than the other ones. It's just when you're in an action segment it's going to be more straightforward."

Make your own mind up with Human Revolution's first gameplay video.

The game's out for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 early next year. Will Porter saw the game for Eurogamer in June.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Salaminizer #1 2 years ago

    Mafia II has got a nice regen mechanic IMO
    I'm less worried about this one than XCOM (without the "-", huh)

  • Sweefyt #2 2 years ago

    "Honestly, I know when we said it's going to have auto-regen and a cover system and shooting is not going to be stat-based anymore, a lot of people went, 'oh my God! Now they're doing just an action game and it's all about running around and shooting.'"

    You would be the very first developer to ever make an auto-regeneration based game challenging for anyone other than console tards.

  • dsmx #3 2 years ago

    Some of the best moments in deus ex were when you had no health packs, your legs were blown off and you were crawling to get to a health bot and hoping that no enemies were around. Regen health will remove that element entirely.

  • X201 #4 2 years ago

    Peeper gun, Riot Prod, Gas Grenade?

    Or just guns and blades?

  • dsmx #5 2 years ago

    It more about the tension those situations create, if you have regenerative health that tension is gone. Now that said deus ex did have an aug later on that gave you regenerative health and the challenge in the game went when you installed it as you could make mistakes and you wouldn't die. Deus Ex you never were a one man army even by the end of the game you still had to be careful but a ssoon as you have regenerative health then you never feel like your in any danger. I just don't want you to have regenerative health by default it makes any game too easy and eliminates any punishment for doing something wrong, why don't games give you a choice anyway? Have health packs or have regenerative health.
    Edited by dsmx at 13/08/10 @ 16:51

  • ChthonicEcho #6 2 years ago

    I don't see why people still complain about regenerative health. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay, Mafia II and Bad Company 2 (in multiplayer) all incorporate the mechanic successfully, without taking away the tension or challenge.

    First aid kits are finite, creating a ridiculously difficult challenge for the developer - what is the right amount? Perhaps the only solution to that is something akin to the AI director from L4D, which decides if you're struggling and need a first aid kit. Otherwise, a well thought out regenerative health mechanic is just as good.

  • Skurmedel #7 2 years ago

    A great take on it would be a mini-game where you had to sew your arms together again, just think about it. And if you buy too cheap sutures the limb could fall off at an inopportune moment, or your guts come spilling out when interrogating a key witness. They could take it to enormous lengths and embed a whole surgical game in there.

    (lol what did I say now then?)
    Edited by Skurmedel at 14/08/10 @ 00:38

  • dsmx #8 2 years ago

    It's easy deciding how many health kits you need, you get less the harder the difficulty is. It's not complicated devs managed for years with health packs and it was rather simple making the game more difficult you just have less health packs in the game. You can see this rather obviously in the first COD, on easy difficulty you literally had piles of health packs littering the level on hard there's was maybe one if your lucky.

  • mkreku #9 2 years ago

    @dsmx: Haha, I thought I was the only one crawling around with no legs in Deus Ex :p Great fun, that feeling of doing EVERYTHING to survive, even going as far as crawling through an entire level with no legs, drinking every coke can you can find on the way just for those two precious hitpoints.

    I sure will miss that. And the character skill based shooting mechanics, I thought they worked wonderfully well in Deus Ex. Makes me wonder: they're doing a follow-up to one of the most critically acclaimed games ever. Why do they feel the need to change so much? Do they really think that making it more like every other shooter out there is going to make it better? Personally, I have my doubts.

  • EthanWoods #10 2 years ago

    People seem to have trouble remembering that the original game is 10-years-old; that's a life-time in the gaming world. Some things are going to change, and for the better. Ignoring the fact that the first game had an aug that gave you regenerating health anyway, the cover-system helps with the line-of-sight stealth as much as it's there for the shooty-shooty-bang-bang.

    Edited by EthanWoods at 13/08/10 @ 17:35

  • dsmx #11 2 years ago

    I have nothing against the cover system that is an improvement, but I do have something against regenerative health. It will either make the game too easy which it did in the first deus ex if you decided to use that aug, or it will make the game frustrating because they will have section with either infinite spawning enemies or ones with stupidly accurate and powerful weapons that kill you in 2 shots. If you have health packs you don't need to resort to cheap tactics to get people to die you only need to put less health packs in the level.

    Regenerative health is a cancer on gaming that has infected almost every genre, for some insane reason every developer seems to think its what you should have but it only results in developers resorting to cheap tactics to get you to die. The health pack system makes you more cautious, it slows the game down and it forces people to plan their actions. That is why regenerative health shouldn't be in Deus Ex, as soon as you put regenerative health in you takeout the planning bit and turn the game into standard FPS territory.

  • abigsmurf #12 2 years ago

    Just because they've added a first person camera angle, it doesn't mean it doesn't look like a bog standard cover shooter. The gameplay footage made it look just like any old Gears of Uncharted.

    Cover shooter mechanics make developers lazy. You get less variety from the enemies, the encounters are less varied (all they tend to do is shift the arrangement of cover around). From the first 5 minutes, you tend to defeat every enemy you come across in the exact same way.

  • Silvervein #13 2 years ago

    Considering what they shown so far, and all they said, I think we can safely say that the established trend with deus ex games continues. Namely, Deus Ex > Deus Ex 2 > (most likely) Deus Ex 3.

    Not to mention that all they already said about non lethal takedowns which were mostly removed, and combined with their focus on switching to 3rd person camera to show main character disemboweling people with his blades (and the bits borrowed from gears of war games) screams of changes to the deus ex formula, and those are not the changes that would bring it from the wrong direction deus ex 2 took the series in.
    Edited by Silvervein at 13/08/10 @ 19:25

  • PearOfAnguish #14 2 years ago

    "non lethal takedowns which were mostly removed"

    Don't think there are riot prods or batons, either. I think gas grenades might still be in there.

  • Silvervein #15 2 years ago

    @PearOfAnguish

    If I remember it right, that's what they said. Which was a blow to me as my favourite tactics for deus ex 1 were sneaking and non lethal takedowns. Seems they mostly eliminated that path of progress through the game. Strange they have balls to say that everything is as it was.

  • Turambar #16 2 years ago

    How about a menu option to switch regen off?

  • cheekyjay #17 2 years ago

    I will reserve judgement until it's out, though the potential is obvious. Did anyone else notice the colour palette in that trailer though - brownest game ever?!

  • metalangel #18 2 years ago

    Regen health OR cover mechanics. Not both. If my health regenerates, why be so concerned about hiding behind a wall to preserve it?

  • metroid455 #19 2 years ago

    @sweefyt don't call console gamers tards cuz thats just rude. im sure deus ex will be just as good on console as it will be on pc. take your rudeness somewhere else!

  • dsmx #20 2 years ago

    It's not that it will be equal on consoles and PC it's the fact that the devs have obviously not realised what made the first game so good, it almost seems like the played the second game and decided to improve on that one rather than the first one which could be argued is the greatest game ever.

  • Mekah #21 2 years ago

    What a load of crap. You don't remove the skill system, stat-based weapons, resource management, etc.. and end up with the "same FPS/RPG blend".

  • hiddenranbir #22 2 years ago

    Let's be honest, did anyone really think this would even come close to continuing what Dues Ex made great? Dues Ex in name only, banking on what are popular trends in the industry right now.

  • Freek #23 2 years ago

    I think they learned their lesson by looking at other action/RPG hybrids. The point that it always falls apart is that the shooting bitt doesn't feel right. If you're playing as a highly trained operative the bullit should hitt where you are pointing at.
    That doesn't mean you don't have other options, you see all the sneaking and covert ops stuff in the trailer, exactly as they have been claiming.

  • Quixz #24 2 years ago

    I will buy it, hopefully they wont ruin it with bad multiplayer..
    Edited by Quixz at 16/08/10 @ 06:56