Eidos Cops to "Weak" Deus Ex Boss Fights

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Eidos Cops to "Weak" Deus Ex Boss Fights


Eidos Montreal says it's to blame for the poorly-implemented boss fights in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, because it knew they were weak but crammed them in anyway.

There are two things about outsourced to Grip Entertainment [http://www.amazon.com/Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Xbox-360/dp/B002I0JA7E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320268617&sr=8-1], as though that somehow explained how they managed to slip into the game unnoticed, but Producer David Anfossi says responsibility lies entirely with Eidos.

"The problem was not the supplier, it was what we did with them," Anfossi told Edge [http://www.next-gen.biz/news/eidos-montreal-admits-deus-ex-boss-error]. "The boss fights were too much for the team to do internally in the time we had. We totally underestimated the effort to do that correctly. We had to work with an external supplier with that, but the design and everything is from the team at Eidos Montreal."

"We knew that it would be a weakness for the game, that we had to make a compromise to deliver it [on] two levels. First, the boss fights were forced, which is not the Deus Ex experience. Second, there is no mix [of] solutions to tackle the boss fights, which is not Deus Ex either," he continued. "We knew that before the release of the game, but there had to be some compromise. It [was] our decision."

Yet in spite of the criticism, Anfossi also said that if he had to do it all over again, he'd still include bosses, although presumably with a different approach to their design. "There are two options: no boss fights, or do boss fights correctly," he said. "I'm pretty sure that now we have the knowledge to do it correctly."


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Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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And this is the reason I didn't buy the game. Weak boss fights that completely throw out the build of my character make the game unsuitable for play IMO. Also it loses its place for personal GOTY candidacy since to me a boss fight that ignores your characters traits is game-breaking.
 

Corven

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Sep 10, 2008
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At least they've owned up to their mistake and will hopefully rectify it in any future Deus Ex related content that they release.
 
Sep 30, 2010
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I'ts refreshing to see that they were willing to admit fault even when people were ready to pin everything on Grip. I mean seriously have you seen the interview with the guy from Grip?
 

go-10

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Feb 3, 2010
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well if Missing Link was any indication they learn from their mistake, but still the ending is what sucked the most. Sure you had 3 endings but they were chosen right b4 the end so it didn't matter how u play then ending was based on what button you push at the end
 

Avaholic03

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In fairness to them, the Missing Link DLC boss fight was MUCH better. Most notably, because you actually knew who the boss was and why he was trying to kill you. But also because you could approach it from different ways. I enjoyed the DLC even more than the original game. The level design was great too, even less linear. And I love including an achievement for completing without augs, weapons or explosions. That's much harder than beating the game on "give me deus ex" with no restrictions.
 

SonOfVoorhees

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Reason all these types of game fail in this area. If you chose a stealth build, then you should be able to beat the bosses with stealth. Every game which is a stealth game or gives you the opportunity to play as stealth character always end up with a gun fight with the bosses.
 

NerfedFalcon

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Mar 23, 2011
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You know, I still think they should give the game a patch to fix the bosses. I know it'd be a lot of work, and they still wouldn't make much sense to the plot, but it's better than nothing, right?
 

JesterRaiin

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Andy Chalk said:
Yet in spite of the criticism, Anfossi also said that if he had to do it all over again, he'd still include bosses, although presumably with a different approach to their design. "There are two options: no boss fights, or do boss fights correctly," he said. "I'm pretty sure that now we have the knowledge to do it correctly."
Of course it's not that anyone else included Boss fights in their games. Ever.
Oh well, such is the way of pioneers - to cross uncharted lands...

...Waaaaitaminute ! ;)
 

Atmos Duality

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amaranth_dru said:
And this is the reason I didn't buy the game. Weak boss fights that completely throw out the build of my character make the game unsuitable for play IMO.
As stupid as the boss fights are, they are easily won regardless of your character build.
It's a case of bad logic making up for even worse gameplay mechanics, and this (oddly rare) problem traces its roots back to Diablo 2 of all damned things.

In Diablo 2, one ends up fighting hoards of elemental-immune monsters (in Hell Mode, natch) but neither Diablo (the fire-spewing demon of hell that he is), nor any other act-boss has immunities of any kind.
It always struck me as odd how the end-bosses were much easier than the mobs of baddies that preceded them, but I digress.

In a similar vein, each boss in Human Revolution can be made easier via certain builds, but they all have a gimmick (and weapons) in their environment which you can exploit for an easy win.

Damning the entire game for such a small portion of its gameplay seems silly to me, but that's your loss. I enjoyed most of it.
IMO, if there is any part that should call its "GOTY status" into question, it's the god-awful endings.
It's a tragedy to create such a great game only to end it in the laziest way possible.

Remember, people are most likely to remember the very beginning, and the very end of any story. If you're jockeying for accolades like an Oscar-fisher, make damn well sure that you end your story properly. It's been three years since my experience with Fallout 3, and the part I remember from that most are its pretty cool intro, and its godawful ending.
 

GaltarDude1138

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Jan 19, 2011
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You know what I hope this means?

SEQUEL.

And if it's as good as HR except with good boss fights, then more power to them.
 

Prof. Monkeypox

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Mar 17, 2010
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As much as I'm loath to request sequels- I'm really hoping that the team gets back together to make another Deus Ex game which irons out these problems, because that would truly be a great game.
 

ckam

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Oct 8, 2008
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OK, this is how developers or just people are supposed to be. Humble and apologetic when needed to be.
 

Blunderboy

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Apr 26, 2011
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EverythingIncredible said:
Is there a patch to remove the boss fights yet?
This was exactly my fault. At least I got it on PC so there's a chance of a mod for it.
 

The Wykydtron

"Emotions are very important!"
Sep 23, 2010
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So any sequel to HR is gonna be even more awesome?! Hell yeah!

Now issue another apology for the ending just so we know you know it was bad...

Also this