Okay, you can't actually talk bosses to death in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will offer plenty of flexibility in approach to boss encounters. But no, you can't take them down with pointed debate.

Remember when we reported that you could defeat bosses in Deus Ex: Mankind through dialogue? Turns out there's been kind of a miscommunication.

Speaking to Eurogamer, gameplay director Patrick Fortier said that while there are encounters that can be solved with conversation, they're separate from boss fights.

"There are verbal debates with certain NPCs, [and] classic boss fights are another thing. They're two separate things," he said.

"Through your social interactions leading up to a boss fight you might have talked to people, or you might have explored, or you might have obtained certain elements or means to deal with the boss fight. That's the kind of stuff we're going to support.

"And we're also going to have stuff like debates which there were in Human Revolution, and that you can see in the demo.

"Classical boss fights are another thing, and they will be supported in fully non-lethal ways."

Aww, nuts. Still, Fortier reiterated that there will be stealth options in boss battles for those who prefer the indirect approach, and that all bosses can be taken down non-lethally.

"When we say you can complete the whole game without killing anybody, bosses are people too, so they're included - there's no exception," he said.

"There used to be [in Human Revolution] the achievement Pacifist that said 'don't kill anybody', and then in parentheses 'except bosses' or something like that. And that's not the case any more."

There's much more on this theme in the linked interview. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided hits PC, PS4 and Xbox One in the first half of 2016.