The Perfect Crime

The making of DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED’s best and most formidable level, the Palisade Bank.

- Andy Kelly

Reading the reviews of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, I noticed a trend. Almost every one of them, including my own, mentioned one level in particular: The Palisade Bank. This dense, complex map is arguably the highlight of the game, and a neat microcosm of everything I love about Deus Ex. It’s an intricate web of security systems and shortcuts, with severe brutalist architecture and gleaming marble floors. And the first time I set foot in it, the urge to cause trouble and test the limits of the security was irresistible.The design of the Palisade Bank level was led by Clémence Maurer, who worked on it from the earliest concept to its completion. “It was always planned,” she tells me. “We have a high level story document called the blueprint, which details all the places the player will visit during the game and the most important branches of the story. And the idea of breaking into a highly secure data haven was a core part of the game from the early stages of development.”

The initial pitch was simple. Jensen has to break into VersaLife’s vault and get something. They didn’t know what yet. And that’s all it took to fire Maurer’s imagination. “I used some concept art depicting the exterior of the bank to inspire me,” she says. “Then I started working with this shell, testing various gameplay spaces within it. It was still pretty organic at this stage, as I didn’t know exactly how the space would function. Everything in Deus Ex must have a meaning and must feel plausible, so I couldn’t just place random objects everywhere. The layout had to make sense.”