Eidos Montreal has announced via Twitter that the upcoming Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will have a New Game+ mode. What specifically that will entail wasn't revealed—it's hard to get into a lot of detail in just 140 characters—but in a new edition of DXTV, Executive Game Director Jean-Francois Dugas and Gameplay Director Patrick Fortier said that New Game+ will let players discover "even more about all the maps and the secrets" in the game.

The pair also touched on a number of other changes to the DX: Human Revolution sequel as well. The experience system will be better balanced by awarding experience points for combat actions, which they said will eliminate the feeling "that there is a 'right way' to play." Adam Jensen's Smart Vision has been upgraded to reveal loot as well as characters, and his weapons, including ammunition type, can be modified on the fly—even, apparently, in the middle of combat. The cover system has also been enhanced, enabling Jensen to quickly and accurately move between locations, and he'll also be back to hack from remote.

The best part about it (at least to me) is the news that Australian actor Vernon Wells will voice one of the game's characters. Wells is a stalwart sci-fi villain, probably best known for playing Wez in The Road Warrior and Bennett in Commando. He also seems to have something of a dire view of the future, saying that Mankind Divided "is like something that could actually happen in the maybe not-so-distant future."

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is slated to come out in early 2016.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Game Director Jean-Fran ois Dugas said in April that the entire game, including the bosses, will be "ghostable." But in a more recent interview with Eurogamer, Gameplay Director Patrick Fortier clarified that while players won't necessarily have to kill the bosses they meet, they will have to fight them.

The concern about Mankind Divided's boss encounters stems from its predecessor, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which allowed (and even encouraged) non-combat augmentations—hacking, stealth, social—and then threw players into boss fights in which those augs were entirely useless. Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that It was not fun. That's why it was so pleasing to hear Dugas assure everyone that the same mistake won't be made in Mankind Divided.

But Fortier said that the new game will in fact contain "classic boss fights" that players won't be able to dodge. "There are verbal debates with certain NPCs, [and] classic boss fights are another thing. They're two separate things," he explained. "Having said that, in a classic boss fight we will support combat, stealth, lethal, non-lethal, in ways we didn't necessarily manage in Human Revolution."

While he wouldn't offer any specific examples, he said that events and actions leading up to an encounter with a boss could influence how it unfolds, or how the player is equipped to handle it. It will be possible to deal with bosses in non-lethal ways, and Eidos Montreal is also working to ensure that boss fights are a "logical" fit in the game world, and that "no matter who you are, a bullet to the head is a bullet to the head." But one way or another, they will have to be overcome.

"In the classical sense of the boss fight, it's not a debate, it's not an opportunity to have the same mechanic, the debate mechanic that we have using your CASIE [Computer Assisted Social Interaction Enhancer] augmentation to read the body language and the heartbeat and all of that—that's not happening in a classic boss fight," Fortier said. "Having said that, if you've equipped yourself in a particular way then maybe specific solutions are offered to you and that will result in some dialogue of some sort, but it's not debate gameplay."

The full interview goes into considerable depth and is definitely worth a few minutes of your time if you want an idea of what's coming. But the bottom line is that you won't be able to avoid every boss fight, but you will be better equipped to handle them, even if you've focused on non-combat augs. It's too bad in a way—I think a Fortress of Regrets-style chit-chat with The Bull would make for a very interesting bit of play—but I'll take it.

You can count me among the vocal majority who loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution but absolutely hated its boss battles. Thankfully Eidos Montreal heard our cries, because the studio is approaching bosses differently in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. While it's previously been hinted that boss battles won't rely on violence, new details suggest you'll be able to negotiate with them. Better still, you might choose to keep them alive.

"It s all about supporting all the different play aspects," said gameplay director Patrick Fortier, when asked by OXM (via GamesRadar) how the new instalment will differ from Human Revolution in its approach to boss battles. "That was the main thing that was missing from the boss fights. Thematically, I think they were interesting, but certain players found a challenge there that wasn t really catered to them."

"There are ways to stealth them, there are ways to beat them in combat and there are conversations you can have that maybe give you a different means of dealing with the situation altogether."

Narrative director Mary DeMarle added that choosing whether to keep bosses alive or to kill them will affect the overall narrative. "For Human Revolution, because of the way we designed it, [the bosses] always died in the cutscenes," she said. "You had no choice. But we rectified that in the Missing Link DLC, and we ve rectified it in this game."

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided releases early 2016. Here's 25 minutes of gameplay to whet your appetite.