Time Magazine's Techland has an interesting take on the character of Letitia in the recent Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Techland describes the minor character as representing "a strain of racist stereotype that renders black people as less than human, as the worst that society has to offer."

The game's developer, Square-Enix, responded by saying, "Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a fictional story which reflects the diversity of the world's future population by featuring characters of various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. While these characters are meant to portray people living in the year 2027, it has never been our intention to represent any particular ethnic group in a negative light."

In our OXM review, we pointed out the game's less-than-stellar voiceovers, saying, "You’re practically guaranteed to roll your eyes any time you have to engage some random dingbat in wordy conversation, but don’t despair: the remainder of Human Revolution’s gameplay is so adroitly tuned, so exceptionally flexible, and so deliriously addictive, you’ll have no trouble seeing past the flaws of the tissue-thin narrative."

Having not played through the game, it's personally hard to make a fair assessment, but this doesn't seem like a case of something being taken out of context. And Square-Enix's response doesn't really satisfy. For instance, yeah, we know Deus Ex is a work of fiction, thanks, but for a game portraying characters living in the future, why is this conversation conjuring such ugly memories, intentional or not? 

 Judge for yourself.