Mary DeMarle, narrative designer and lead writer on Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, and on the more recent Guardians Of The Galaxy, is now senior narrative director at BioWare. The switch comes just a couple of months after Embracer Group bought Eidos Montreal and said they saw potential for Deus Ex spin-offs, sequels and remakes.
The news was spotted by ResetEra forum members, based on a LinkedIn update by DeMarle. Although there’s no word on what DeMarle is working on, five months ago BioWare were advertising for a narrative director to work on the Mass Effect series.
Whatever project DeMarle will be working on, it’s probably good news for BioWare fans. DeMarle most recently led the writing team on Eidos Montreal’s Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy game, and the chatter between its spacefaring team was praised in almost every review – including our own. That bodes well for her involvement with any future RPG.
It’s also, I think, explicitly bad news for Deus Ex. Human Revolution and Mankind Divided both have great quests, particularly side quests, and some great characters, for which DeMarle deserves at least partial credit. She’s also left Eidos Montreal just at the point when there seemed like potential for further Adam Jensen adventures. I can’t begrudge someone looking for a new challenge, but I’m less confident in any future Deus Ex game without DeMarle’s involvement.
We spoke to DeMarle back in 2011 in the run up to the release of Human Revolution, about Adam Jensen’s motivations, the benefits of conversational duels, and the fun of crafting an asshole like Frank Pritchard.