The Art Direction of Deus Ex: Human Revolution
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The game's concept and its art stand for both the potential and the danger involved in human augmentation and as such, blends beauty and unseemliness in almost equal measure. The characters in Human Revolution were the first big challenge, especially the main character, Adam Jensen. His two mechanical arms cry out to be seen, but creating a sleeveless default costume that didn't make him look, as Jacques-Belletete said, (like a douchebag) proved to be nigh impossible. The art team began with Renaissance fashion, co-opting the ruffled collars and puffy breeches of that bygone era wholesale, only to realize the resulting characters looked utterly ridiculous. The goal then became to create a hybrid of Renaissance clothing and present-day fashion and to that end, the art team drew inspiration from many far-out fashion designers. It was this approach that finally worked; the mixture clicked, and the result is truly spectacular. Both main and incidental characters are sexy, believable and fashionable and Adam Jensen is well, cooler than hell. Really with his sunglass implants and Don Quixote goatee, if he doesn't become a automatic entry in the game hero pantheon, I'll eat my big velvet hat.
Anyway, in addition to the characters, Jacques-Belletete and the Eidos art team is also incorporating the Renaissance ideal into all aspects of Human Revolution's art direction. The Renaissance was all about investigating how things work, figuring out how to upgrade systems and this sensibility is being infused into all elements of the game from characters to environments to presentation. Enemy designs especially armored ones have a vaguely conquistador look to them and environments look like something out of Minority Report, with more embellishment. One of the coolest insights into Human Revolution's environment construction (as seen in Adam Jensen's own apartment) is that the team took elevations (top-down floorplans) of Baroque churches and used these elaborate outlines to create things like doorways and windows. It's a subtle thing that creates a design unity felt on an almost subconscious level. Even on this low-frequency level, every element of the game's design is completely intentional and the team never scrimps; witness the fact that every one of the game's 1100+ props, no matter how common an object, is concepted and created from the ground up, the better to suit the world it lives in. The team also created over 100 logos, signs and phony corporations just to add to the game's overall flavor.
