Deus Ex: Human Revolution animator shares behind-the-scenes clips for its 10-year anniversary

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Former Deus Ex: Human Revolution animation lead Jonathan Cooper shared some cool making-of clips to celebrate the game's 10-year anniversary. 

As Cooper explained in a Twitter thread, he "didn't stick around for the whole project," but was on the animation team long enough to accrue some interesting behind-the-scenes snippets. The few he shared were "created for the successful greenlight pitch" and demonstrate how the abilities of protagonist Adam Jensen were pitched and how they evolved.

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The Strength augmentation reel, for instance, is an early look at the game's x-ray vision and how it played into stealth – that, and snapping a dude's neck after punching a hole in the wall behind him, which is still cool 10 years later. 

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The bit about hacking is especially interesting. Cooper explained that, even very early on, the team at Eidos-Montreal "wanted hacking to be in-game rather than just a UI so the player had to consider their surroundings." This made hacking feel like more of a risk and less of a minigame, and this is reflected in the blurbs for its early reel. 

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I also love the bit on dialogue – not just for the detail about Human Revolution's first-person conversations, but because Lara Croft herself makes an appearance in this old video. Cooper explained that, because Human Revolution used the same engine as Tomb Raider: Legend, the team was able to use assets from the latter as stand-ins when needed. But as much as I love the idea of Lara randomly popping up during internal playtests, Cooper confirmed to me that Lara only ever appeared in that one video. It's still a fun not-crossover to see, though. 

"I really enjoyed playing the game on release," Cooper concludes. "[Deus Ex: Human Revolution] and Mankind Divided are two of my favourite games (along with the original Deus Ex) and the team made many smart art and design choices to bring the series to a AAA level."

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Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.