Deus Ex: Human Revolution Previews

A couple more GDC-based preview of Deus Ex: Human Revolution have reached the web, and this time they come to us via GameSpot and Kotaku. These two articles take a slightly different approach, though, as they focus on a panel discussion given by Eidos Montreal art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletete. A snip from the former:

Jacques-Belletete began by highlighting the fact that this was the first public showing of the game, and firmly asked for no cameras during the session (hence, no pictures from the session to view in this article). He said that while the entire team at Montreal was big fans of the original, Deus Ex did not have the most fully-realized game aesthetic. Jacques-Belletete wanted the new game to have its own individual voice that was still informed by cyberpunk visual archetypes such as night time environments, fog and smoke, clutter, near future technology, and transhumanism.

For Human Revolution’s high-level visual goal, Jacques-Belletete said the team focused on two points: illustration as opposed to simulation, and that design distinction creating desire. When it comes to illustration, Jacques-Belletete wanted to create a world that wasn’t necessarily photorealistic, but one whose individual pieces looked like they all belonged within the same reality. This aesthetic extended to characters’ faces. Jacques-Belletete said they wanted to avoid any uncanny valley problems, and even singled out recent PS3-exclusive Heavy Rain for some critique. (It (Heavy Rain) is a beautiful game, but those people are so scary! And you look at the teapot in Beauty and the Beast, and that little dude looks alive and he looks like a human being,) he said.

And a bit from the latter:

Ultimately, though, the concept art team refined its vision, demanding that Deus Ex 3’s costumes “look credible and almost wearable today,” fit within a cyberpunk aesthetic, look cool and have a style of its own. That soon clicked with the character design of one female, a sleek, dark futuristic concept that had subtle references to the high collars and balloon sleeves of Renaissance wear. That toned down, 16th century inspired future fashion extended beyond Human Revolution’s fashion, with enemy soldiers sporting high collared armor, extra padding on the shoulders and thighs to allude to the fashion of the day.

Those soldiers even sport Conquistador-like helmets and raised, geometric fabric patterns on their uniforms.

The cyber-Renaissance visual design choices extended to the hero of Deus Ex 3, Adam Jensen. He has a Don Quixote-style goatee, for example, and wears a sleek, slightly puffed coat. But he also has augmented cybernetic arms, spindly mechanical limbs that the player will see in first-person view. Adam, Jacques-Belletet said, must “look like someone who can kick your ass, then go home to read a good book.”