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Oh how times have changed. Once upon a time – back when Facebook just sounded like some sort of incredibly painful mishap and people still ventured outside on rare occasions – Deus Ex was considered the pinnacle of everything PC gaming aspired to be. Yet here we are, slightly more than a decade later, living in a very different sort of dystopian future – one in which, at least, in the eyes of triple-A publishers, consoles are at the tippity top of the priority totem pole. And the kicker? As it turns out, the latest Deus Ex revival isn't exactly exempt from that rule.
"No. Well, it was done in-house, but with a partnership,” game director Jean-François Dugas replied to Shacknews when asked whether or not the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution had been developed in-house.
On the upside, the team that's handling the port – Netherlands-based Nixxes Software – has quite the track record with this sort of thing, having previously worked its technological wizardry on the PS3 and PC versions of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light as well as the PC port of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days. The studio's billowing resume also includes porting duties on Tomb Raider Underworld and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
"All the design and changes to the design has been done in Montreal and sent to [Nixxes]," Dugas explained. "We review the builds. We review and then give comments about what works and what doesn't. It's the same process. It's the exact same process, except that the programmers aren't in the same office. It's the same game and the same creative team taking care of it."
Granted, all the stability in the world doesn't mean jack squat if the game's a Deus Ex sequel in name only. Fortunately, what we've seen and played of the game seems to suggest an almost religious devotion to the source material. Basically, Invisible War can go choose between, like, one-and-a-half options to find its way to a corner, and then it can stay there. Human Revolution's the complex, interesting experience you've really been waiting for. And who knows? If it takes off over in Console Land, maybe we'll see more games like it all around.
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