Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Forced boss combat broke the game's promise to play non-lethally. The original boss battles made players fight even on stealth or non-lethal builds, and the Director's Cut completely redesigned the bosses.

Mark Brown's lesson is that promising 'play it your way' and then removing a style makes players feel betrayed, so every style needs a valid, enjoyable route through each level and the game should be tested in every style to find brick walls. Quote: "until the boss battles which force you to fight".

The Social Enhancer reads a character's personality to make persuasion manageable. This augmentation shows each person's personality and the best approach, for example telling you the guilty cop Wayne will react angrily to talk of the kid who died.

It makes the interplay of conversation options exciting, but handing over the information skips the fun of working it out yourself: "Wouldn't it be more fun if we could learn this stuff ourselves?" Brown imagines an alternative where you break into Wayne's house, find his empty pill bottle and letters about a zero-tolerance drug policy, and use that evidence mid-negotiation, as LA Noire does with clues.

Missing the hostage deadline changes the story rather than triggering a game over. If Jensen waits too long before the helicopter mission, most hostages are killed and his relationships with other characters shift slightly, but the game continues.

Time limits can carry real weight when the cost is missed content or a changed story. Quote: "the punishment for not getting there in time is simply a change in the story to reflect your inaction".

Saving pilot Faridah is a skill test, so the kinder outcome costs effort. Faridah survives only if you beat a group of enemies in record time, turning her fate into a test of skill rather than an explicit moral choice.

With invisible choices the options need not be equal, so players weigh effort against morality and may take the easy path because the better one is too hard. Quote: "you need to put in effort if you want the better outcome."