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Deus Ex: Human Revolution's executive game director Jean-Francois Dugas and game designer Emile Pedneault have been speaking to our good friends at Eurogamer about the forthcoming Wii U port of the title, and have been quick to point out that Nintendo fans will be getting the "ultimate" version — their reward for patiently waiting two years to actually play it.

Co-developed alongside Australian studio Straight Right, Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut on Wii U boasts a list of improvements so long, you'll probably need to have a rest after you've finished reading it.

Here's a short summary:

  • Boss battles have been overhauled to make them less annoying. Certain bosses can be killed without firing a single bullet.
  • Graphics have been improved, with anti-aliasing making the cut — this was missing from both the PS3 and 360 versions. Shadows are also better on the Wii U.
  • Enemy AI enhancements included in The Missing Link DLC have been retrofitted to the entire game for the Wii U, which will mean that AI is more consistent and convincing throughout the duration of the adventure.
  • Swipe controls are mapped to the GamePad screen, allowing you to quickly perform in-game moves — such as throwing back a grenade — with the flick of a finger.
  • All existing DLC is included, but has been intelligently slotted into the main narrative.
  • An eight-hour director's commentary is included, which can be listened to as you play the game.

That's a pretty impressive list of features, but possibly the most exciting enhancement is the Neural Hub, which utilises the Wii U GamePad. Interestingly, by bringing the game to Nintendo's system, the developers have been able to revisit one of their original ideas — as Dugas explains:

One of the first CGI trailers we did in 2010 showed Jensen's vision turning into Smart Vision, and you saw an enemy with all this information. Now it gets closer to that feel, that wasn't present in [the original] Human Revolution.

We used the GamePad to improve the immersion of the game. We found that this touch-screen, the GamePad and everything, is closer to the vision of Deus Ex, where you are someone who is augmented and you have systems implemented in you that give you the edge in combat in all situations.

All the systems are now linked to the Neural Hub. All your maps, your inventory, your augmentation menu, your mission log, are now systems in Adam Jensen.

You have the impression when playing that the Wii U GamePad is part of Adam Jensen and one of his useful augmentations. It doesn't break the pace.

As we discussed yesterday, recycled ports of old games tend to leave a bad taste in the mouth, so what justification did Square Enix have for producing this conversion?

Dugas again:

It's a new console. It has a lot of new interesting features in terms of the controller.

But also in terms of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, we had been talking for a long time about creating this ultimate edition where there would be new content and we would have a chance to revisit some of the aspects of the game. We thought with the release of the Wii U it was a great opportunity to do that, to take advantage of this new console but also create the ultimate package for the game.

We really did quite a lot to make this package very unique, and give the old fans who already enjoyed Human Revolution a new purpose to enjoy it again.

Are you one of those fans? Will you be picking it up again to experience the fresh content, new styles of play and the mercifully re-jigged boss battles? Or will you wait for the (almost inevitable) re-release on the PS3 and 360? Drop a comment to tell us what your thoughts are on Deus Ex now you've had time to digest all of this new intel.

[source eurogamer.net]