Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Interview Series @ Siliconera

Siliconera is celebrating Golden Week (Google it - I had to) with a series of Deus Ex: Human Revolutions interview snippets with Art Director Jonathan Jacques Belletete. First, they talk about the connection to the original (and, oddly, hiring consultants to identify the core of its success):

It’s interesting that you say point out it is a shooter. I remember the first game had choices like diplomacy and hacking… will Human Revolution have those choices?

Big time. One of the things I say all of the time is there are aspects, very import aspects, of Deus Ex 1 that we identified straight from the get go. We even had an exterior firm also kind of do a study of those things for us, making sure we identified really what those the core elements, that made spirit, like the soul of the first one, what they were. We said, these things we’re not touching them. These things we bring them back into Deus Ex 3 and then we give it our own texture around it.

So, all of that freedom of choice, you know, is there. All of that I just want to go through the entire game without killing is there. Or if you really want to be the last man on Earth you can do this. If you like stealthing more than using weapons, if you want to hack through things, and just like the first one the level design is really built around those choices. Yeah, it works well. The comments that we had were this really feels like Deus Ex 1.

Next, they ask if players will see familiar characters from the first game, then on to the colour palette theme of black and gold and, finally, stylised characters with Final Fantasy hair:

And yeah, it’s Square Enix, and as a huge fan, they are the best in CGI. They are always the top of the top. They have specific techniques that they do that I wanted, like the hair. If you look at Adam’s hair, yeah it’s Final Fantasy hair. I’m not going to deny it. I’m going to tell you, that’s what I wanted. I’m like don’t try to do any other types of hair. You are the best at it, it’s stylized, and that’s what I want Adam to have. The haircut is the haircut he has in the game, it’s the haircut we designed. So be it, man.

Thanks, Omega!