Deus Ex: Mankind Divided won't force you to kill its bosses

You can count me among the vocal majority who loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution but absolutely hated its boss battles. Thankfully Eidos Montreal heard our cries, because the studio is approaching bosses differently in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. While it's previously been hinted that boss battles won't rely on violence, new details suggest you'll be able to negotiate with them. Better still, you might choose to keep them alive.

"It’s all about supporting all the different play aspects," said gameplay director Patrick Fortier, when asked by OXM (via GamesRadar) how the new instalment will differ from Human Revolution in its approach to boss battles. "That was the main thing that was missing from the boss fights. Thematically, I think they were interesting, but certain players found a challenge there that wasn’t really catered to them."

"There are ways to stealth them, there are ways to beat them in combat and there are conversations you can have that maybe give you a different means of dealing with the situation altogether."

Narrative director Mary DeMarle added that choosing whether to keep bosses alive or to kill them will affect the overall narrative. "For Human Revolution, because of the way we designed it, [the bosses] always died in the cutscenes," she said. "You had no choice. But we rectified that in the Missing Link DLC, and we’ve rectified it in this game."

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided releases early 2016. Here's 25 minutes of gameplay to whet your appetite.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.