Deus Ex director Warren Spector is a bit concerned about the reveal trailer for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (opens in new tab). The video, which premiered along with the game’s official debut earlier this month, introduces Adam Jensen’s new occupation as a cyborg terrorist hunter, and shows off his expanded capacity for augmented asskicking – that last bit Specter wasn’t so enthusiastic about.
“I thought the Mankind Divided trailer was pretty violence-o-rific, which bugged me a little,” Spector said in a Reddit ask-me-anything thread (opens in new tab). “I mean, [Deus Ex] was never about killing stuff. It was about picking your own playstyle, which MIGHT involve killing stuff.
“Given how well [Deus Ex: Human Revolution (opens in new tab)] did at the whole choice and consequence idea I’m hoping – and have confidence – the actual game will be a little more in the playstyle matters mold. In trailers, you just have to give people the most action-packed stuff you can, I assume. I’ll definitely be playing Mankind Divided. Ask me then.”
He later added that the Human Revolution team made a few decisions that differed from his own tastes. For instance, he doesn’t see the point of “modular cover systems”, and he thought the enemy AI made it too difficult to start sneaking around again after getting caught.
Spector’s most recent game was Epic Mickey 2 (opens in new tab), which released in 2012. Disney shut down Junction Point Studios in 2013, and since then, Spector’s helped to instruct a new generation of game creators as director of the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy at the University of Texas at Austin.