How Fashion Designers Improved Deus Ex

The latest addition to Game Informer’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided hub is an article about the collaboration between Eidos Montreal and Acronym, a Berlin design agency. Working with fashion professionals was apparently something the team had wanted to do since Human Revolution’s development, and it helped solidify the look of Adam Jensen’s new coat:

As Dubeau says, the new coat design isn’t a shocking departure from the one in Human Revolution, but it definitely builds off the ideas that Eidos Montreal introduced. Some details are more noticeable than others. (Inside of his coat there’s a Renaissance pattern,) he says (It’s like the Renaissance is still close to his heart, but he doesn’t show it to anyone.) It’s not entirely clear in the image above, but you can catch a glimpse of the golden fleur-de-lis pattern in the lining. Jensen had a more subtle pattern in his Human Revolution coat.

Overall, Dubois says they were looking for more of a military look for Jensen this time around, since the character is working for an antiterrorist group instead of a Sarif Industries. Acronym added a strap into the design, which is something that many of its real-world designs incorporate. The coat is also secured by magnets, rather than a zipper, so Jensen can just rip it off if it’s getting in his way.

Jensen’s arms provide a design challenge, since they become larger as they transform to accommodate various blades and pneumatic weapons. He’s not going to wear a sleeveless jacket (even for 2029, that would be absurd), so the elbows and sleeves have been modified to accommodate his augmentations.

(We had to think about a real way to remove the sleeve to unfold the arm,) Dubeau says. (And it works. Even at Acronym, they really thought about it. ‘How could we remove that sleeve?’) As you can see in the series of images above, the sleeves can retract and unfold as warranted.

([We] approached Adam Jensen as if he were a real person and built a coat that would meet his needs to real-world specifications,) Hugh says. (Rather than imagine his coat, we prototyped it and made it. It exists, and if you try it on you’ll see that it fits and works beautifully.)