Last month Eidos Montreal appeared to suggest that players would be able to talk their way past bosses in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but it turns out that’s not the case.
Speaking to Eurogamer, gameplay director Patrick Fortier clarified that while you can avoid certain combat situations through dialogue, you actually can’t do that with the boss fights themselves.
“There are verbal debates with certain NPCs, classic boss fights are another thing. They’re two separate things,” said Fortier. “Through your social interactions leading up to a boss fight you might have talked to people, or you might have explored, or you might have obtained certain elements or means to deal with the boss fight. That’s the kind of stuff we’re going to support.”
”Classical boss fights are another thing, and they will be supported in fully non-lethal ways. When we say you can complete the whole game without killing anybody, bosses are people too, so they’re included - there’s no exception. There used to be (in Human Revolution) the achievement Pacifist that said ‘don’t kill anybody’, and then in parentheses ‘except bosses’ or something like that. And that’s not the case any more.”
The important thing is that players who invest all their skills in non-combat abilities like hacking and stealth ”won’t get burnt this time”, according to Fortier. It’s a shame we won’t be able to talk our way out of trouble, but apparently there will still be plenty of opportunity for players to utilise stealth options in boss battles, and you can at least get through the game without killing anyone.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be available on PC and consoles in early 2016.
