Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Terrible Boss Fights Were Outsourced

[radio667]

from gameranx.com .............. The terrible boss battles in Human Revolution were outsourced to a third party studio.

To say no one enjoyed the boss fights in Deus Ex: Human Revolution would be an honest assessment. They're abysmal experiences that manage to throw you out of your play style, forcing you to resort to spamming grenades, bullets, and in the case of the final boss, make no logical sense whatsoever.

The characterizations—or lack thereof—of each of the boss characters certainly raises questions, especially when compared to the fleshed out personalities you encounter throughout the game. It's fair to say that a down-and-out man on the street in Lower Hengsha has more character than any of the big badasses flaunted throughout the game's pre-rendered cinematics.

It should be no surprise then, to discover that all of the boss fights were not developed in-house at Eidos Montreal, but rather outsourced to a little known studio called G.R.I.P. Entertainment, which might as well be a reference to GIRP given how poor the boss fights are in comparison to everything else in Human Revolution.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution; Behind the Scenes:...

[JoystickMonkey]

Why would your outsource arguably some of the most memorable parts of your game?!?!
Unless you're calling in a ringer, you want to do the most important things of your game in-house.

[Creeper]

True JM.. but the boss fights honestly weren't built up well either. They kinda appear, are weird, and you move on. Although the final boss was *SO* weird.. I had to google wtf was supposed to be going on. It was far more "confusing" than "challenging" or "memorable".

[Manticore]

I'm glad I haven't bought this game... now I probably won't.

[JoystickMonkey]

To quote an accomplished designer's gamasutra article:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur..._structure.php

One of the first questions I like to ask myself when beginning a design is this: "What are my goals?" Essentially, I try to make it clear to myself what my design needs to accomplish so that every decision I make can hearken back to my goals. For boss battles, my goals are typically something like this:

The boss should feel like a reward.
A boss battle is a reward from the game designer to the player. For a short time, the player gets to take a break and do something new!
Boss battles tend to be intense and feel "larger than life." Players look forward to boss battles, and getting to them feels good.
The boss should feel like a goal (or milestone) for the player.
Like chapter breaks in a book, players reach a goal (minor or major) when they reach a boss battle. The anticipation leading up to a boss battle and the feeling of having attained a goal when the boss is defeated provide tangible story and emotional milestones for a player.
By fighting the boss, the player can demonstrate his mastery of my game.
A boss battle is a good place for the player to demonstrate the skills he has learned so far by playing the game. In that sense a boss battle is both a test of the player's abilities and a chance for the player to feel like he has mastered the skills you've taught him so far.
A boss fight can help build and release tension in a satisfying way.
Like a good book or movie, it is important for a boss battle to have good "pacing," which is to say it's important for the game designer to build up and release tension and difficulty (or, in other words, intensity) over time.
Good boss battles not only contain good pacing within the fights themselves, but also help to pace the entire game.
The knowledge that a boss battle is approaching is a great excuse to build up intensity over the course of a series of levels. The closer the player comes to the boss fight, the more his anticipation of the fight grows. A clever level designer can use this to their advantage (as seen in the chart below).
Boss battles are a great way to release the intensity you've built up over the course of the preceding levels. After finishing a boss, the player can expect to coast for a little while and feel good about his accomplishments.

I haven't played the game myself, but I feel like they didn't really adhere to this valuable advice.

[Manticore]

I think I'll stick to the Lonesome Road...........

[Creeper]

Boss fights aside (all.. 4? of them?) it really is a good game. Not buying it because the boss fights suck is kinda like not going to a movie because you heard bad things about the ending credits.

[Manticore]

Originally Posted by Creeper

Boss fights aside (all.. 4? of them?) it really is a good game. Not buying it because the boss fights suck is kinda like not going to a movie because you heard bad things about the ending credits.

I'll wait until it's discounted...........

[JoystickMonkey]

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/15/st...volution-load/

Deus Ex: Human Revolution plays host to a wide assortment of advertisements for fictional future-products (like robot eyes and face-installed sunglasses) -- but the game now sports a promo for a real-life, purchasable thing. The game's loading screen occasionally includes a tiny banner announcing the launch of the Star Wars Blu-ray trilogy, as seen in the corner of the image posted above.

Some of the billboards built into the game's environment are equipped to sport dynamic advertisements, but we haven't noticed anything as unsubtle as this. We suppose it could be worse! The advertisement could just pop up during a climactic boss battle. Or Darth Vader could just make a totally out-of-place cameo in one of Detroit's seedy alleyways. Actually, no, wait. That would be rad.

Now with in-game advertisements!