Deus Ex: Human Revolution may be one of the best-reviewed games of the year, enjoying almost universal acclaim. The game does a wonderful job of reminding us why we loved Deus Ex, while updating both the graphics and the mechanics of the original. There is one sticking point that seems to be annoying some critics, however: the forced battles that take place when you encounter a boss character.

"Here all illusion of choice is gone. All playing styles are abandoned. Playing as someone killing no one, learning that the first fight at least, early on in the game, forces me to kill a man almost put me off the game entirely," John Walker wrote in the wonderful Rock Paper Shotgun review. "Despite only using stuns, EMPs and tranqs on him, I was still treated to a cutscene of a man covered in bullet wounds and blood, gasping his last words as he died." Not having a choice in this matter is annoying, but it may also be the point of these boss fights. Allow me to explain.

It's impossible to do everything. You should be reminded of that

In Human Revolution you're almost always given multiple ways to deal with each mission and situation, but you'll also run up against the limitations of your character. If you can't hack well enough, you won't be able to able to open certain safes or doors. If you don't have power in your arms, you can't find some shortcuts hidden behind large, movable objects. If you build up your social and hacking skills, large gunfights could be the death of you. The game does a wonderful job of playing to the strength of each character, while at the same time passively reminding you of your limitations.

In fact, characters that have been created with combat in mind will be limited in the early portions of the game. They won't be able to jump high, move objects, or hack into computers, and they're not going to be given much guidance when working through the game's conversations. What they can do is shoot and kill. Getting through missions using force and bullets is a valid strategy, but you'll be missing much of what the early levels have to offer.

With every decision to build up a part of your character, you limit your ability to explore other options. This isn't as important later in the game after you gain more Praxis to spend on augmentations, but for the first half of the game you'll know that you're often limited in how you can deal with certain things. You have to choose what skills you'd like to improve, and adapt to them.

The world of Human Revolution is violent, and you play the head of security for a very large and controversial corporation. You find yourself going against powerful enemies who would very much like you dead, and while you may be able to slide around most scenes of violence, the way the first boss battle is set up makes it hard to justify a stealthy approach. Imagine the scene in The Phantom Menace when Obi Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn finally face Darth Maul directly. There will be no conversation. There will be no sneaking into a heating duct. They can not go around the Sith Lord, they must go through him. No matter how often a Jedi practices his meditation, there may come a time when the lightsaber has to be his method of communication with an enemy.

And yes, I am aware of how nerdy this conversation is becoming.

Just as characters created with a gift for violence can't open every safe, characters aimed at stealth or social skills will have more of an issue getting past this boss. To the game's credit, that's realistic: the designers clearly want to put you in a situation where you're backed into a corner and have to fight your way out, and no matter how smart or sneaky your character may be; that's bound to happen every so often in his line of work. Sometimes your luck runs out, and you have to fight.

Forcing violence on the character, and pushing his hand until the battle ends in death for you or your opponent, is an interesting decision in this game, and it could make you second-guess your decision to play the game a certain way. You have no way of knowing when another encounter like that is coming, or how many will be in front of you. The next time you are given Praxis, you may spend more time thinking about putting it into a combat skill... just in case. In a game that does very little to control how you approach the world, that first boss battle grabs your head and forces you to deal with the reality of your situation: people are going to die.

While I understand the frustration people feel at not being able to play every situation the way they would like, this is a pretty good lesson in a game world that, up until that point, allowed you that freedom. Sometimes you have to deal with another person on their terms, and not yours. Human Revolution defies many of the conventions of modern games, or at least adjusts them to create something special. The visible bullet holes shown in the cutscene even after you use nonlethal means are sloppy, but overall these boss encounters are simply another tool the game has to keep you guessing, and that's a good thing.