Deus Ex Mankind Divided Interview: Seeking Redemption

If you ignore the awful “Augment your pre-order” campaign going on with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and just remember how cool the game looks, everything seems to work out fine in this world. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be out on February 23rd and also marks the debut of the franchise exclusively on current gen platforms. Granted, there’s still a lot we don’t know about Eidos Montreal’s FPS/RPG which takes places several years after Human Revolution in a world where augmented humans are openly persecuted but the the developer has been working to improve on various aspects, including the first person shooting.

GamingBolt had a chance to speak to Eidos Montreal at E3 2015 – long before the pre-order madness began – and learned a few details about the improvements, Adam Jensen’s state of mind following Human Revolution and much more.

"This time one of his catch phrases is, “you have to embrace what you’ve become.” But in order to embrace what you’ve become you have to first figure out what that is."

Leonid Melikhov: The game will use DirectX 12, how do you think this will impact the performance of the PC and Xbox One versions? Also, are the console versions running 1080p 60fps or 30fps?

We’re still far away. Obviously we’re still trying to fine tune it to make sure it meets our criteria. We’re not ready to talk about this stuff just yet. Later on it’s something we’re going to be willing to talk about for sure. Not just yet.

Leonid Melikhov: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided picks up two years after “Human Revolution” and the world is in quite the state. How does this influence Adam Jensen’s character this time around?

For “Human Revolution” one of the things we dealt with in there was that it was all about how something terrible had happened to him and he had lost choice in his life and he had to regain it. At the end of that story he regained that choice for everyone in the world and he tried to do something. He tried to save the world, but he was a little bit late because the chaos had already started. In that one the theme was “I never asked for this.” Now it’s two years later and he’s dealing with the fact that he feels that he failed. Because he feels that what he tried to do was buried by the Illuminati.

Leonid Melikhov: He feels guilty.

He feels a bit of guilt and he’s looking a bit for redemption and to find purpose again. That’s why this time one of his catch phrases is, “you have to embrace what you’ve become.” But in order to embrace what you’ve become you have to first figure out what that is. So in this one he’s kind of on a path for redemption. He knows who the bad guys were. He wants to get them. And he has to find a way to do it. Along the way he’ll learn, through his experiences, to become more than he is.

"We have worked very hard to improve the fluidity of the combat to bring new augmentations to it, and new weapon abilities and stuff that you can do on the fly as you’re going."

Leonid Melikhov: Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an excellent action adventure title, but the first person shooting felt less than solid. How has “Mankind Divided” improved upon this? Will the combat be more fluid than before or more strategy over running and gunning?

We’ve really worked to improve the combat experience because it’s true: everyone seems to think the stealth was the pillar of gameplay in the last one. We wanted to bring it up to the same level. We have worked very hard to improve the fluidity of the combat to bring new augmentations to it, and new weapon abilities and stuff that you can do on the fly as you’re going. Many of which you’ve seen in the demo. So I won’t actually go into it. We’ve also worked a lot to make it a lot visceral experience and not necessarily fully destructible environments, but you can see a lot of the chaos of the combat.

Leonid Melikhov: I liked the slow motion.

And the slow motion. That’s one of the augmentations.

Leonid Melikhov: How much bigger will the world be?

We’re not ready to give that. Next gen lets us do some great things. We’re not ready to get into scale and all that just yet.

Leonid Melikhov: Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.