One Of The Many Messages In Deus Ex: Human Revolution

For Golden Week we have a week long special on the goldest game (in terms of color palette) from Square Enix. Jonathan Jacques Belletete, Art Director on Deus Ex: Human Revolution, had a candid chat with Siliconera about Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the third game, which is actually a prequel to Deus Ex.

You’re talking about the message and the trailer hints at the Icarus myth. What do you think the message is in Deus Ex: Human Revolution?

Jonathan Jacques Belletete, Art Director: Umm… there are a lot of messages in Human Revolution. [Laughs.] There are a lot of things like one of the main overarching messages is who we are today. That’s what it says in the beginning of teaser, “who we are today is just a stepping stone of what we can become.” We have this fantasy of thinking that where we are at today, in terms of evolution, is the end of the line, this is it right, just get out we’re not going to evolve into anything else. Maybe it could naturally, hundreds of thousands of years or whatever it is. But, it actually isn’t because now the technology we can really manipulate our evolution and it is not the end of the line.

It’s like this really great cartoon that I saw at the beginning of the project. Actually it’s in one of the books we bought. There is a little staircase, you know, and then you see on each step, one of the first steps is like a monkey. The second is like a monkey on two legs. The third step is like a caveman. The fourth step is someone like us, but then there are all of those steps left. And it’s like what is going to fill those steps, right? And it’s probably going to be with technology.

That’s one of the main themes of the game, but then there are all sorts of things because the license is so deeply based on choices, in terms of gameplay and everything. If you listen to the teaser when Adam gets up and looks at his hand he’s like “I never asked for this.” What does that mean in the story? It’s up to you guys to figure this out. But, if he never asked for this obviously there is an element of choice in that statement. We do a lot with that with the game and the story. So, it’s not just if the player decides if they want to be stealthy or they want to take that route or the other route or whatever. It’s also Adam has some big choices, definitely. And it’s not just Adam, a lot of stuff of the game is based on choices and freedom and that kind of stuff.

You mentioned choices, and choices were a key element in Deus Ex 1. What kind of choices is Adam (the main character) going to face?

Ahh… that’s a really good question. Wow. A lot of things, a lot of things. Obviously, the gameplay elements of the player deciding what they want to do and how they want to play the game. Without getting into any details, there are a couple points in the game where Adam is faced with like an increasing level of importance based on his choices. Towards the end of the game the player or Adam has to make choices that might affect, you know, stuff at the humanity level and things like that. It’s entangled with the story and all of that kind of stuff so I’m not going to say anything specific.

Adam has a personal take in the story. There is something, based on choices, there is something he wants to make sure will never happen again. And also there are all of those things with the conspiracy and everything that ends up with Adam, the player, making very, very important choices.

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This concludes Deus Ex: Human Revolution week. Thanks for reading! Missed any posts? Here’s a flashback of what we covered.

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