Deus Ex boss battles outsourced

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 19 September, 2011

"If you panic, you're going to die."

The boss battles in superb science fiction action role-playing game Deus Ex: Human Revolution were not developed by Eidos Montreal.

Instead they were outsourced to little known studio Grip Entertainment.

Deus Ex's boss battles drew criticism for their frustrating difficulty spikes. They also focused on action gameplay when much of the game encouraged the player to use stealth skills.

In a video posted online, below, Grip boss Paul Kruszewski admitted creating the boss battles was a tough job.

"Full confession: I'm a shooter guy," he said. "I was coming into this not knowing a lot about the Deus Ex world.

"The guys at Eidos gave us the design, gave us the engine. We brought in our own behaviour tree engine and we gave them back that experience.

"Boss battles are special moments. There were two challenges: we had to take our tech and inject it into the DEX3 engine. And then within DEX3 itself is, you're coming at it, and you can be anybody, you can have this augmentation, that augmentation, this weapon…

"And so, balancing all this stuff, you don't know the priority of the guy is coming into the game, and you want to give him a great experience. You want to be true to the designer's vision, but you want to give the player a great experience. So balancing was brutally hard."

But Kruszewski had a word of advice for players struggling with Deus Ex's boss battles.

"There is a flow to these guys. We think there is a lot of fun. You've got to figure out what their OODA loop is. You've got to get in that and it's going to work out.

"But if you panic, you're going to die. Simple as that. So just remain calm. Be Zen, and orient, observe, decide and act."

Despite the divisive nature of Deus Ex's boss battles, the game was critically acclaimed upon its launch, and shipped two million units within two weeks.

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 (91) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MistaGav #1 5 months ago

    This guy is to blame...OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

  • TruSmiles #2 5 months ago

    Haha, I guess that explains why they feel so different. Every boss has patterns though, as he says, just need to spot them. Or put loads of points into Typhoon and blast them away :)

  • jellyBelly #3 5 months ago

    Wow, never heard of outsourcing boss battles before. They really are forced, unnecessary just simply annoying in human revolution, an otherwise excellent game.

  • Mughes #4 5 months ago

    Worst parts of the game, hands down. Completely spoils the flow of it and made me want to stop playing. Why the hell they felt the need to include them at all is a mystery, much less outsource them to a studio that clearly has no fucking clue. Dipshits.

  • Shinetop #5 5 months ago

    I still blame Eidos. They should've provided them with a better design, better feedback on the result, or they just should've gone to a studio that actually gets what Deus Ex is about.

  • YoungPayters #6 5 months ago

    strange to hear that they outsourced boss battles. more of a learning algorithm developed by Grip Entertainment really. But still strange to see all the same.

  • MattEdWithCheese #7 5 months ago

    Think Brammers said that it was as if the boss fights were done by a different team altogether, turns out it was true!

  • Eraysor #8 5 months ago

    No wonder they were so bad!

  • Atropos #9 5 months ago

    Alternatively you do this:

    *Spoilers...(?)*

    Throw EMPs at the first boss, then shoot him in the face, a lot.

    Do two Typhoons on the second boss when she runs at you.

    Run up to the third boss and Typhoon him, then shoot him in the face a couple of times with the grenade launcher.

    Use the laser rifle on the bitch in the computer, it goes through her protective bubble.

    ...Don't think any of the fights lasted more than 30 seconds for me. My real problem with the boss figts wasn't that they were hard, but that they were so incredibly easy, especially if you maxed Typhoon, which you really should've by the time you reach the 2nd boss (especially if you are a pacifist, it's the only boss-killer you'll ever need)
    Edited by 1 at 19/09/11 @ 17:24

  • Haq-1 #10 5 months ago

    @ MizterColeMiner

    I don't understand how that strange video has got anything to do with this lol.

  • DozyKipper #11 5 months ago

    He is a shooter guy and knows nothing of the Deus Ex world?


    GET OUT!

  • Shikasama #12 5 months ago

    Ah so it's MY fault that Barrett, on Deus Ex difficulty, kills you in seconds if you have been playing a stealth, no kill game.

    Good to know.

  • evnewell #13 5 months ago

    hmm... so everyone agrees that the boss battles are a hack job - Brammers even suggested in his review that they felt outsourced. After all the criticism, this guy is forced to make a statement and he says:

    "There is a flow to these guys. We think there is a lot of fun."

    The very fact you're speaking out on the topic of your broken boss battles, proves that you failed. I think a statement to the affect of,"sorry guys, we failed," would have sufficed.

    Was developing the boss battles tough? Is Deus Ex a tough game to develop? Yes and yes. But look, when you see what Montreal accomplished with the entirety of the game, complaining that the boss battles were tough to develop doesn't score you any points. I think the rest of the game would have been tougher to develop, and they pulled it off brilliantly.

    I'll be wathcing out for Grip Ent. in the future - and avoiding whatever they develop.

    Still a great game.

  • berelain #14 5 months ago

    "You've got to figure out what their OODA loop is."

    Their what now?

  • munki83 #15 5 months ago

    Prick

  • Lotos8ter #16 5 months ago

    Interesting but I'd question the decision to outsource the boss battles rather than discard them altogether.
    For me, its the first boss that needs adjusting. You're still relatively weak and a tank boss at that stage of the game is just wrong. Pity that the developer couldn't have brought other techniques into the fight, like having a small time limit to hack some turrets to deal with the boss or stealth to an environmental hazard... I don't know.

  • charming_fox #17 5 months ago

    I had no fatal weapons on me when entering the first boss battle so it took about 30 goes, lot's of loading screens, I eventually did it by running into one of those ammo rooms and standing on the table to the near right corner, the boss stood outside and repeatedly blew himself up until he was dead, then I was magically on top of him panting and FMVing all over his face. The 2nd boss I quite enjoyed until she got stuck and stood still, invisible, which I didn't realise for ages because my tactic was to hide unti she was close then PEPS her in the face and shotgun he in the head thenr un off again. Yeah, they were pretty rubbish tbh.

  • woodyrulesok #18 5 months ago

    Barrett was the hardest bit of the game for me. Literally took me about 2 hours to do.
    I'd been playing a stealth game up until then and had no good weapons or fighting upgrades.
    I never bought the Typhoon and beat the 2nd and 3rd bosses with just my pistol.
    Knowing what I know now, if I was to start again, I'd just go the shooty route.
    Still a good game though.

  • Guv #19 5 months ago

    Who had the brilliant idea to outsource boss battles? :S I mean why would anyone think this was a good idea.

  • Bennicus #20 5 months ago

    "You've got to figure out what their OODA loop is" That sounds really fun... must be why I enjoyed the boss battles so much (spam two fully upgraded typhoons for each boss). What a waste of time and effort!

    (For Eidos & Grip I mean, it wasn't much time or effort for me, it was a bit boring though.)

  • Rens11 #21 5 months ago

    Just. Beaten the first boss after about 15attempts would have been ok on console but just learning how to use mouse and keyboard

  • mortiz666 #22 5 months ago

    Who on earth outsources boss battles? A key moment of the game should stay as close to the main dev team as possible, you outsource the fluff.

  • Wyrm #23 5 months ago

    This is a ridiculous way to design a game, utterly absurdly incompetent decision making. Two parties doing different things is not what a massive franchise like this deserves. Deus Ex HR has a list of problems as long as my arm and while a decent enough game, does not deserve the level of praise it got.

    As for staying Zen, nah, I'll just stand there and unload a whole heavy rifle magazine into it and I'll win.

  • landlock #24 5 months ago

    I bet this is done more often then you guys think. It's just that usually no one speaks about it.

    If you ever look at the credits you can see how much is outsourced to various different companies other then the main developer.

  • Ares42 #25 5 months ago

    I'm flabbergasted... I hate to hate on the guy, but seriously the AI might be incredibly complex underneath, but the fights all had very simple solutions. And his approach to balance is just... not what Deus Ex is at all (which is what most people have complained about).

    He's talking about how they have to think of how all the different augs can exploit the situation, but Deus Ex balance is actually extremely easy since the main idea is to make an option for every single possibility. It's not about making one boss fight and making sure he can't be beat easily by some fluke (which they imo failed at anyway), it's about making 10 different bosses fights each solved by utilizing different setups.

  • qpop #26 5 months ago

    Two words(ish) EMP Grenades!

    That's worked on everything so far.

    EMP, Typhoon, rinse, repeat

  • Lunatic4ever #27 5 months ago

    there is no way he can find words to justify the boss fights...no way.

    Him saying "Be Zen, and orient, observe, decide and act" ist just fucking stupid...

  • peppergomez #28 5 months ago

    Do what I do- just adjust the difficulty setting to the lowest setting for these dumb fights, then ramp it back up after winning.

  • theirongiant #29 5 months ago

    I made every wrong decision you could possibly make to prepare for the boss fights. You couldn't have made worse choices if you knew what was coming and deliberately tried to fuck it up.

  • deded #30 5 months ago

    They aren't that bad, but they just don't fit the game and shouldn't be in there. Either that, or you should be able to beat the bosses in the same way you can the rest of the game - by thought and strategy. The MGS series has always had (mostly) great boss battles, but possibly it's most lauded boss, The End, could be killed before you even get to the battle if you think of it in time. That's the kind of thing Deus Ex HR should have had. That and the ability to blow the be-jesus out of them with LAMs before they ever get in range. (Anna Navarre RIP).

  • Bennicus #31 5 months ago

    @landlock "I bet this is done more often then you guys think. It's just that usually no one speaks about it. "

    I work in the industry and it's very rare to outsource chunks of gameplay in the way this article makes it sound. The closest I can think of is sometimes a different studio will do the multiplayer mode of a game (eg Splinter Cell), or more often a bunch of art assets will be outsourced. If these guys have some cool AI tech, I'm surprised it wasn't just licenced and used by the Eidos team who actually made & understand the game, it seems strange to give a few chunks of the game to another company.

  • ProtoformX #32 5 months ago

    The heavy rifle works well as well. For the first boss I just literally threw things at him (Grenades, followed by any explosive/gas thing in the room). For the other two, point blank heavy rifle works absolutely fine, even if you have your augs disabled with the new biochip. I actually found the final boss really easy - tap code in terminal, EMP augmentation made me immune to the electricity on the floor, then if you stand up on one of the steps to the side of her protective bubble and crouch, the enemies on the ground can't reach you so then you can pummel the shield to your heart's content.

  • Caimbeul #33 5 months ago

    Why would you outsource them in the first place least of all to a Dec who admits not having a scoop about Deus Ex?

  • Paulie_P #34 5 months ago

    I didn't have much trouble with the bosses but I think that was because I heard so much bad word about them, that I remembered to stock up on some explosive items even though I played stealthily.
    The first boss took me a couple of tries but i basically hid behind the pillars and spammed him with grenades.
    The second boss was the one that caused me most difficulty until I realised I had 1 Praxis point and I used it to prevent myself taking electrical damage, so I kept hitting the servers around the room so she got electrified and then pummelled her with bullets.
    After this I decided to implement Typhoon in preparation for the third boss but when the moment arrived, it wouldn't let me use the Typhoon (I had full ammo for it :-/). In the end I just spammed him with the grenade launcher.
    I actually enjoyed the final boss as it involved an element of stealth in that I cloaked, opened up each pod and shot them before the cloak ran out. I had no chocolate bars left by the time i finished the last one but I still had enough time to get up and shoot the girl in the computer before I was shot to death myself.

    But yeah the bosses were poor compared to the rest of the game.

  • EugenesLair #35 5 months ago

    "This guy is to blame"

    No, the idiot at Eidos who decided that such a thing could be outsorced is.

  • God_Octo #36 5 months ago

    Oh Eidos, you have to stop farming bits of your games out. The previous Tomb Raiders all suffered by being palmed off to various other companies to port them to other consoles. You have enough technological know how to make the games in the first place, so why do you then stop there and farm them out?

  • Paulie_P #37 5 months ago

    I didn't have much trouble with the bosses but I think that was because I heard so much bad word about them, that I remembered to stock up on some explosive items even though I played stealthily.
    The first boss took me a couple of tries but i basically hid behind the pillars and spammed him with grenades.
    The second boss was the one that caused me most difficulty until I realised I had 1 Praxis point and I used it to prevent myself taking electrical damage, so I kept hitting the servers around the room so she got electrified and then pummelled her with bullets.
    After this I decided to implement Typhoon in preparation for the third boss but when the moment arrived, it wouldn't let me use the Typhoon (I had full ammo for it :-/). In the end I just spammed him with the grenade launcher.
    I actually enjoyed the final boss as it involved an element of stealth in that I cloaked, opened up each pod and shot them before the cloak ran out. I had no chocolate bars left by the time i finished the last one but I still had enough time to get up and shoot the girl in the computer before I was shot to death myself.

    But yeah the bosses were poor compared to the rest of the game.

  • schnide #38 5 months ago

    Oh stop moaning kids, I played as stealth on both playthroughs and still managed to defeat them - and that was on Hard.

    I thought it made a nice change from not allowing myself to kill anyone :)

    I suppose you could have a boss battle that would have still allowed stealth.. but that's not what you got and Deus Ex HR still rocked with bells on.

    Edit: To be fair, the very final boss was piss poor though.
    Edited by 1 at 20/09/11 @ 09:24

  • Paulie_P #39 5 months ago

    I didn't have much trouble with the bosses but I think that was because I heard so much bad word about them, that I remembered to stock up on some explosive items even though I played stealthily.
    The first boss took me a couple of tries but i basically hid behind the pillars and spammed him with grenades.
    The second boss was the one that caused me most difficulty until I realised I had 1 Praxis point and I used it to prevent myself taking electrical damage, so I kept hitting the servers around the room so she got electrified and then pummelled her with bullets.
    After this I decided to implement Typhoon in preparation for the third boss but when the moment arrived, it wouldn't let me use the Typhoon (I had full ammo for it :-/). In the end I just spammed him with the grenade launcher.
    I actually enjoyed the final boss as it involved an element of stealth in that I cloaked, opened up each pod and shot them before the cloak ran out. I had no chocolate bars left by the time i finished the last one but I still had enough time to get up and shoot the girl in the computer before I was shot to death myself.

    But yeah the bosses were poor compared to the rest of the game.

  • PearOfAnguish #40 5 months ago

    Bit sad that he works in the industry and yet knows next to nothing about Deus Ex, or that having been given the job and knowing his knowledge of the series was limited, he didn't spend a few quid on the first two titles. Could have at the very least checked with someone at Eidos about whether shitty generic boss battles were appropriate to this game. It's fucking weak.

    Let's hope he doesn't get further work in areas outside his very limited expertise of man-shooting. "Oh hey sorry about those boss fights at the end of matches in FIFA 13, we didn't know much about football".

  • Lunastra78 #41 5 months ago

    I had a suspicion they had been outsourced to the janitor.

  • Softie2k #42 5 months ago

    Liked the second boss a lot actually. First and third were pretty crappy and the final boss WOEFUL.

  • Machetazo #43 5 months ago

    What in blazes! Paid beta tester: Achievement unlocked by anyone buying the game? If this guy's word is taken at face value it seems to be so.

    The funny thing is, that I was going to post about asking to find a "sans random, game-breaking shit-added" version so I could play, and not incentivise more "special" editions to be offered.
    No need for that, anymore, because I'm no fan of games that pull silly stunts like this causing players to run in to a brick wall, unless from the absurd degree of point customisation for the last however long, they specced just so with no reason left to believe they needed to. /rant
    Edited by 2 at 19/09/11 @ 18:34

  • The-Jack-Burton #44 5 months ago

    As was said earlier, just hit Typhoon and save yourself the frustration

  • GAmbrose #45 5 months ago

    If you have full Typhoon you can literally run up to them and just fire it off 2 or 3 times...I didn't even have time to see any patterns because they all died within about 20 seconds.

  • LazyNinjaUk #46 5 months ago

    One thing I learned after playing it through on normal first time was to pack some serious heat and the right augments, playing it through second time on hard, setting off no alarms and get no kills was to keep one offensive weapon with me, Revolver with explosive rounds. Thanks to this foresight, all the bosses were piss easy. I feel sorry about people doing it first time as they wouldn't know what to do.

  • Machetazo #47 5 months ago

    I can hardly imagine a less suitable game to try to wing it in any area even related to it.
    (directed at S-E, T-J-B, not your advice. :) ) I'm astonished they'd even consider it.

  • darleysam #48 5 months ago

    Well, someone won't be asked to the next party..

  • Xensor #49 5 months ago

    I've only done the first 2 bosses so far, here is my solution that i'll try on the rest:

    Shoot with stun gun, switch to machine gun, shoot in the head repeatedly, win :p

  • septimus #50 5 months ago

    The only game I have played in years where I wish there was a God mode for these. Fucking pointless flow ruining shitty experiences. Or boss battles for short.

  • grenade_master #51 5 months ago

    I didn't panic. I just killed the game process (quitting would be too slow) and deleted the game. Thanks Mr.Kruszewski!

  • Shinetop #52 5 months ago

    So... what exactly is an OODA loop anyway?

  • Rack #53 5 months ago

    This interview went out before the game was released as part of the Facebook fluff. It's not a response to criticism so shouldn't be read in that light.

    Personally I'm not going to blame this guy for the boss battles, handing them out to an inexperienced company was just an awful idea, in many ways they did okay considering their lack of experience and understanding of the product, they should just never have been allowed near it.

  • CloisterBlack #54 5 months ago

    I think he said "...a priori what the guy is coming into the game" not "...the priority of the guy is coming into the game".
    Both make as much sense, which is not much, though.

    @Shinetop
    Order Of D?????? Actions?.. I am just guessing.
    Edited by 1 at 19/09/11 @ 19:45

  • RobTheBuilder #55 5 months ago

    That explains it.
    In this context I am prepared to forgive them a bit, after all they were developing them seperate to the main game!

  • TheDarkFurie #56 5 months ago

    The guy is a fool. Did we have an opportunity not to kill the bosses? No, then it's not a part of Deus Ex. Did we have multiple ways through each encounter that took full advantage of playstyles like hacking and stealth? No, then it's not a part of Deus Ex. Did we have a chance to do anything other than shoot, grenade or Typhoon the bosses to death? No, then it's not a part of Deus Ex.

    By designing boss battles rather than boss encounters this guy made sure that many gamers were punished for not playing the game right in a series where choice has always been your main weapon and there is no right way through the game. He should have designed areas that enable the player to use any of their skills for some advantage, something that was only explored in a small way during the second and fourth boss battles. Multiple outcomes to each encounter should have fed back into the game based on whether the bosses survived them or not as well. A simple boss battle that could have fit into any shooter did nothing but bring down a wonderful game experience.

    He should have tried out some of the Deus Ex series or looked them up at least to see what sort of things they aim for. Eidos are just as much to blame for not thinking to make it very clear that they needed boss situations not simply battles. All in all, the worst design decision in a game that includes a woman acting out the Black and White Minstrel Show.
    Edited by 1 at 19/09/11 @ 19:51

  • anomagnus #57 5 months ago

    You can build a shooter jenson and take em out. Not really fun.

    Or

    You can build sneaky, sneaky ninja jenson, put two points in typhoon, and win.

  • Nithron #58 5 months ago

    I played stealth first time through, but the Barrett fight really didn't bother me that much. I used my cloakmod to run between cover, then hit him with grenades from behind the pillars. I actually enjoyed it, although it was a bit too far into the tough side of things.

  • Dezm0nd #59 5 months ago

    I love this as a news article. Pass the buck to the guys who aren't the REAL developers. LOSERS!

  • pualhorse #60 5 months ago

    observe orientate decide act... one day somebody will put a searchable encyclopaedia on the internest ;-)

  • Scimarad #61 5 months ago

    Eidos Montreal in "Don't Blame Us!!!!" shocker!

    Seriously, those boss battles were totally pointless and added nothing to the game other than frustration and annoyance.

  • Naster #62 5 months ago

    It was quite irritating that even if you used only non-lethal weapons to take a boss down the game wouldn't recognize it, they'd still end up dead. Other than that, and for the fact that they didn't exactly fit in perfectly with the rest of the game (no stealth options), I found them enjoyable enough. Nothing astonishingly good, but a good change of pace from the usual gameplay.

    I beat Barrett without breaking a sweat because I was luckily packing the stun gun (and a load of bullets). I found that it took so long for Barrett to recover from a stun gun shot that I had enough time to load in and fire another shot before he could move a muscle. It was pretty funny to watch him just twitching in place helplessly for the entirety of the fight :p.

  • butler` #63 5 months ago

    i really didn't see a problem

    there was a spike in difficulty, but, it's a boss fight...

    l2p noobs?

  • Sunyavadin #64 5 months ago

    THIS IS WHY YOU NEVER OUTSOURCE.

  • TheJuriel #65 5 months ago

    There is no fun to Deus Ex boss battles. They're pattern repetition attrition matches. Yawn.

  • Triggerhappytel #66 5 months ago

    So they outsourced it to a studio with no knowledge of the DX universe and whose studio head admits being "a shooter guy"? Big fucking round of applause for that decision.

  • Shinetop #67 5 months ago

    Apparently it's "Observe, Orient, Design & Act".

  • Bleemo #68 5 months ago

    I aced the battles on medium simply using the typhoon, quite easy really. it just dawned on me how massive Barret is though why is he so massive? I mean Jensen is supposed to be 6'1" is barret over 7'? it's almost as if the game model was incorrectly scaled?

  • sherpa1984 #69 5 months ago

    "So just remain calm. Be Zen, and orient, observe, decide and act." "

    Hmm is that an invisible enem... oh-god-stream-of-plasm[quickload]

  • Rack #70 5 months ago

    @Butler. It's more like, spike in difficulty plus change in genre plus massive drop in quality.

  • floatstarpx #71 5 months ago

    after 20+ attempts on the first boss, I turned the difficulty down... beat the boss... turned the difficulty back up. :\

  • tachometer #72 5 months ago

    The boss battles may be shit but the room you fight the 3rd boss in was one of the highlights of the game for me, very creepy

  • Centrifugal #73 5 months ago

    I just finished Human Revolution before. I have mixed feelings. When it shines, it really does shine with some brilliant moments. To continue the Icarus theme though, whenever the game seems to reach its highest point, the wax melts and it falls crashing back down to the ocean of mediocrity.

  • rottingyoda #74 5 months ago

    If you have cloak, alot of energy and an emp grenade then the bosses aren't that hard. Still, prefer if another approach to taking them down was available then a gun battle.

  • Andeus #75 5 months ago

    That was stupid.

    Ok I'm not an engineer or someone @ Eidos montreal but why outsource a gameplay part of the game to people who have no idea what the game and it's philosophy is about?

    Why have people inject their tech with the dangers of introducing bugs? Just take a hostile NPC, give it unique looks, change the variables for him so that he has more HP/Armor and then introduce some unique AI profiles. Since the Eidos Montreal guys had already delved in the DX mentality to make the game in the first place, they would probably do a better job.

    On another note, I didn't mind the bosses. Dunno why everyone is so upset. I never got Typhoon, I didn't even put 1 point in the Armor Augmentation, nor Aim Augmentation.
    All you need to kill a boss is a fully upgraded revolver.

    Damn Best Weapon in the game, it's so good it's borderline cheating.

  • Jon1292 #76 5 months ago

    Its a shame, because every boss battle so far, I've only won because the boss has gotten stuck by invisible terrain.
    In most games, I would move and see if they'd free themselves eventually, but in this case I just couldn't be bothered to win the fight legitimately and stood still shooting them, while they did nothing to defend themselves.

  • devinshockwell #77 5 months ago

    The one thing that struck me as really odd after the second boss battle was...

    After defeating Yelena Fedorova the news AI Eliza Cassan asks 'will you save her'. Now surely this is a perfect Deus Ex moment to choose either to save the life of Yelena Fedorova or leave her to die! I was so convinced this option would be available that I dragged her to the damned helipad only to discover she's left to die either way!

  • loboMuerto #78 5 months ago

    This is what a MBA degree sometimes does to a man: outsourcing boss battles to a clueless studio as if they were a non-vital, value-adding feature like a call-center. Idiots.

  • Bluetooth #79 5 months ago

    How idiotic it is of Eidos to outsource boss battles, of all things. Textures, models, other mundane stuff sure, but boss battles require context, something that only the original team know about. I seriously hope this is a oneoff.

  • jaec #80 5 months ago

    let's see how zen he feels with a tranq. rifle and stun gun!

  • SlackMaster #81 5 months ago

    **Spoiler**

    Barrett can be very easy if you know how. I kept getting killed and then tried using the taser. Three to four shots with this and he's dead. Just stay close enough to use it but far enough away that he doesn't grab you. Circle strafe a pillar keeping it between you and him until you have reloaded the taser then pop out and shoot him when he stops firing. He has a slow start up time to his gatling gun which gives you plenty of time to shoot him.

    I found the second boss harder as she rushes you and if you are using area effect weapons you can end up hitting her when she is too close and causing damage to yourself.

    The third boss is more susceptible to gas grenades than emp.

  • Zebula77 #82 5 months ago

    What the fudge does OODA loop mean? :p

    I'm sorry guys. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was great, with the exception of the boss battles.
    The one cool semi-boss battle was the one against the two mechs. I loved that one.

  • Tonne #83 5 months ago

    stungun + typhoon works on all the bosses, so stock up on energy bars typhoon ammo and stungun ammo

  • TelexStar #84 5 months ago

    This sounds a lot like Eidos pointing the finger for something that wasn't that well received. I don't blame these Grip guys personally. Eidos held the purse strings and must have known what was being developed, if not then they should have.

  • HairyEngineer #85 5 months ago

    Frag mines, in pairs. Only takes about three sets. Works on 1 through 3.

  • actionfitz #86 5 months ago

    ""And so, balancing all this stuff, you don't know the priority of the guy is coming into the game, and you want to give him a great experience. You want to be true to the designer's vision, but you want to give the player a great experience. So balancing was brutally hard."

    so we just decided - fuck it. Lets just assume everyone picked the big guns and big armor augs and run with that...
    Lazy fuckers.
    I wonder if the arsehole tried to take his precious bosses down using upgraded tranq rifle and stun gun?... :

  • TheDarkFurie #87 5 months ago

    This makes me worry about Thief 4. What if they outsource the weapons in that game and we're putting out torches with laser rifles and handguns? What if enemy A.I. is outsourced and they have two states - searching and attacking? What if they outsource the world and Garrett has only one opportunity to steal or nowhere to hide the bodies?

    If a single part outsourced can ruin that part of the game when they've shown how well they can create things in house, then anything outside the company could ruin Thief 4. Considering what the team did with Deus Ex outside of the boss battles, Thief was on top of my list. Now I'm putting it on the maybe pile until I find out who else had a hand in it.

  • Kikizosan #88 5 months ago

    In retrospect, the bosses were all really well designed (save for Barrett killing you so quickly and easily on Hard, if you'd specced for stealth). But playing the game, they just weren't so fun, most likely because it jarred with how I'd played the game up to that point. They did get progressively more manageable, though (the last boss is stupidly easy in comparison to the first), but that kinda matches up with the growing feeling of empowerment the augmentations give you.

    In a different game, they'd have been fine, just didn't match up to the game they were in - this interview sheds some light on that.

  • RobTheBuilder #89 5 months ago

    To be fair we don't know what the brief to Grip was, nor how much of the actual game setup was available at the time. Also, they were approved by Eidos or wouldn't have gone in the game, so it's not all their fault!

  • LR100 #90 5 months ago

    Who was the ponce at Eidos who, first, decided to outsource boss battles (surely they weren't that pressed for time) and secondly, who signed these boss battles off as acceptable when Grip presented them?

  • jamespo #91 5 months ago

    The battles weren't that tough...