Adam Jensen was created as the lead protagonist of
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, developed by
Eidos-Montréal as their debut project.
Human Revolution acted as both a prequel to the original
Deus Ex (2000) and a new entry point for players. Adam was created by
Mary DeMarle, lead writer for
Human Revolution. DeMarle described him as a medium for the game's theme of
transhumanism, being forced to confront the issue through his unwilling augmentation. He was also made a security chief for Sarif Industries to show the outsized power of corporations in the game's world and offer an easy view into the augmentation issue, contrasting him against
Deus Ex protagonist
JC Denton who works for a military group. While much of the game's narrative was choice-driven and player-directed, Adam had a defined personality which needed to be maintained and balanced with the gameplay design. The writing team used in-game elements, including character dialogue and in-game news, to reflect the approach players took during missions. DeMarle's early script drafts ended with Adam's death, which prompted protests from staff. Explaining this initial plan, DeMarle noted there were no plans for a sequel, and she felt "tragic heroes are always the best." She reconsidered and ended the storyline on a key choice due to positive feedback on his character. Adam 's character design was a collaborative effort across the game's art team, taking two years to finalize. The team looked at multiple protagonist from cyberpunk fiction for inspiration, from
Blade Runner to the original
Deus Ex. Their main wishes were to incorporate sunglasses and a trench coat. Developers wanted his design to reflect the transhumanist themes, showing both "the physical and aesthetic results" of his heavy body augmentation. A notable contributing artist to Adam 's design was Jim Murray. His face was unintentionally modelled on art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletete. Needing a model for a piece of art, Murray asked Jacques-Belletete to pose, with Murray incorporating elements of Jacques-Belletete's features into Adam's design. Adam's character model, with a thin face and
goatee-styled facial hair, were inspired by the
lead character of
Don Quixote and acted as a reference to the game's
Renaissance aesthetic influence. He was given a slimmer build to avoid being a "big brutish dude" in the vein of characters like
Gears of War protagonist
Marcus Fenix. The initial wish to have a single design for the character caused problems, with many of the early designs being described as "extremely bad" by Jacques-Belletete. Among the early designs were a combat-focused one dubbed "douchebag Adam", and a version with flesh-colored arms codenamed "Pinocchio Adam". The initial wish was for his mechanical arms to be exposed, with the amount of visible augmentations varying during the design process. The team ultimately settled on a design that combined cyberpunk elements with the game's Renaissance aesthetics. In the final game, Jensen has two looks: his civilian trench coat, used for "urban exploration" and "social missions", and a commando suit used for infiltration missions. Having two designs was a late decision, both impacting production and solving a number of aesthetic issues with the character. While a short coat was suggested so as to avoid cliches of the cyberpunk genre, a long coat was chosen after a studio-wide vote. For the sequel
Mankind Divided, the staff wanted Adam to return, with producer Olivier Proulx attributing the popularity to the character's "badass" persona. Contrasting against his reactive actions in
Human Revolution, DeMarle wanted Jensen to be proactive, though the team needed to work around the character's role as a TF29 agent and the game's mission-based structure. Adam's casual design used the version in
Human Revolution as a starting point. After initial in-house drafts, the team decided to collaborate with an external designer. The coat was created in collaboration with Errolson Hugh of German design house Acronym. The coat was intended to be "complex, yet functional" while retaining a distinct aesthetic. Acronym were given design material from
Human Revolution to inform their designs, with a real-world model being created to test the coat's real-world functionality, and a Renaissance-style pattern put in the lining to reference the first game's designs. Adam's combat suit was also adjusted while retaining the same basic design. It was intended to have a more military style, reflecting his current profession. Both games contained references to the myth of
Icarus, with Adam taking on parts of that symbolism. Jensen was intended to return in a third
Deus Ex title. According to writer Mark Cecere, as the Illuminati would persist by necessity until the original
Deus Ex, the team wanted to answer the question of what Jensen could have done in the face of that. There was a planned Illuminati member about whom Jensen could have "done something", but his actions would have led to the events of
Deus Ex and tied into the actions of original antagonist Bob Page. Cecere ultimately described Jensen's intended role as a tragic one. A third game was in development, but did not involve Jensen or the original creative staff, and was quietly cancelled in 2024.
Portrayal DeMarle described Adam as being driven by forms of love and loyalty to his colleagues and friends, with his main drive in
Human Revolution being making up for his mistakes rather than revenge. The game's director Jean-François Dugas describe Adam's hostile manner as "not mad or really angry", but unhappy at having augmentations forced on him, working to make sure he is not denied choice again. His views on augmentation in
Human Revolution are described as ambivalent, with his uncertainty about the future and his own situation reflecting the player's perspective during the game's opening. DeMarle recalled that a journalist classified Jensen as a potential
sociopath based on context clues and available in-game actions in
Human Revolution, something she never intended. In
Mankind Divided, Adam is portrayed as having embraced his new nature as a living weapon, with his acceptance of this reflected in both his manner and the in-game mechanics. Due to his lack of side-effects from augmentation, he also stands in a unique middle ground between augmented people and the rest of the population. Across his voiced appearances, Adam is voiced by Canadian actor
Elias Toufexis. Principally working in film and television with limited video game credits, Toufexis was surprised and pleased when he got a lead role. When he was auditioning, Adam was described to him as "kind of a
Clint Eastwood character". Adam's distinctive voice is close to Toufexis's own, using a lower monotone style to both allow easy player identification and as a homage to
Deus Ex protagonist JC Denton. He recalled that using his own voice for Adam was partially responsible for him losing the role of
Far Cry 3 protagonist Jason Brody after
Human Revolution was released. A challenge playing Adam was performing lines differently depending on potential player choice. One line where Jensen coldly describes Megan's presumed killing shocked him. DeMarle pushed back against Toufexis during some sessions where he performed based on his interpretation rather than the script directions. While he had to vary Adam's tone for different choices and conversation-based confrontations with other characters, for the main story path he was able to use his own interpretation of the character. Another memorable scene was the late-game confrontation between Jensen and Megan, who was played by Toufexis's wife Michelle Boback. The two had been arguing the day of recording, causing the two characters' argument to sound very realistic. A line he regretted not rerecording was one of his earliest sequences when he was still finding Adam's voice, a confrontation with a former SWAT member. Comparing this early result to a poor "
Bronx accent", he was upset that it remained in the final game. Returning to voice the character for
Mankind Divided, Toufexis described it as easy since he knew Adam's character better. His main difficulty was the player-tailored portrayal in-game. Toufexis needed to have several versions of the character in memory, so he could change his voice accordingly. While he had limited contact with staff during
Human Revolution, for
Mankind Divided he was able to be more involved across the production team so he could refine Jensen's character and movements. The writing team members under DeMarle would come to him and ask his opinion on proposed scenes, allowing Toufexis to portray Adam as a more relaxed character. Speaking in the wake of the third
Deus Ex title's cancellation, Toufexis stated he had not been asked to reprise his role, and that Jensen's story seemed to have finished with
Mankind Divided. While Toufexis did some basic facial motion capture for
Human Revolution, he was unable to do
full performance capture due to budgetary limitations around adjusting his height to match Adam's. The character's combat takedowns were choreographed and motion captured by
Shawn Baichoo. For
Mankind Divided, Toufexis was able to portray Jensen through full performance capture, allowing him to better match his voice performance to the cutscenes. Performance capture for
Mankind Divided was relatively easy due to his voice and general build matching Adam's. Toufexis has called Adam one of his favorite roles. When
Human Revolution and
Mankind Divided released in Japan, Adam was dubbed by
Hiroki Yasumoto. ==Reception==