Deus Ex Bosses Can't Be Beat With Dialogue
By Sarah Fields 01 September 2015
Deus Ex: Human Revolution made a serious blunder when the game forced players who chose a stealthing playstyle to face boss characters face-to-face. Many fans of the Deus Ex series were subsequently thrilled to hear that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided would be fully ghostable, and that fights with bosses could be avoided entirely.
Unfortunately, it would appear that diplomatic players may not have it quite so easy as first suggested. Gameplay director Patrick Fortier has explained in an interview with Eurogamer exactly how the boss fights will work in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and what players who focus on stealthing and persuasion can expect.
As it turns out, the game will be entirely ghostable, meaning that players can use their stealth abilities to avoid many combat encounters. However, boss encounters will not be skippable via dialogue, as originally reported. According to Patrick Fortier, the original statement regarding bosses was misunderstood. He’s now clarified that while boss fights are mandatory, players will be able to use all of their stealth abilities to their advantage, unlike in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. In addition, he’s confirmed that players will be able to avoid killing enemies, including bosses:
“Classical boss fights are another thing, and they will be supported in fully non-lethal ways. When we say you can complete the whole game without killing anybody, bosses are people too, so they’re included – there’s no exception.”
While this turn of events may be disappointing to some gamers who enjoy relying on their skills of persuasion to avoid combat, there will be some benefits to the smooth talkers, too. Fortier notes that discussions with non-boss characters may lead to certain advantages, like helping the player to obtain the means to make the boss fight easier. Thankfully, since Eidos Montreal is working on the boss fights themselves instead of outsourcing them as they did for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, it will hopefully satisfy those who were irritated by the lack of regard for ghosting players whose skills were made useless during boss fights.
With any luck, games of the non-lethal playstyles will still be satisfied knowing that they can avoid killing anyone, including bosses. Boss encounters will be more difficult than a simple persuasive conversation, but at least Eidos isn’t recreating the disaster of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set for release some time in 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Eurogamer
