A smaller scale follow up to Human Revolution that while not reaching the same heights in terms of story, the gameplay is a mark improvement. Mankind Divided fixes a lot of the problems I had with the previous game by allowing more ways to tackle mission objectives and also making a non-lethal playthrough viable and enjoyable.

I personally have no qualms with the story being a lot smaller and scale as I felt it was a logical follow up to the monumental ending of Human Revolution. What I will criticize is how short it is with there being only four levels outside of the hub with one of those being the tutorial. I'm all for shorter games but I felt here it does the story a disservice by not fleshing out certain plot points and characters as much as I wish they did. What makes up for this is the hub setting of Prague is a lot of fun to explore and the side quests are interesting and often pose interesting moral dilemmas.

I think what interests me the most about this game is how immersive sims have evolved since its release. The indie scene has evolved the genre to new heights so I think we are all due for a new entry in the series. The world is utterly fascinating and I really like Adam Jensen as a protagonist, now if only Square Enix would stop being so screwy with the franchise.

Purely from a gameplay standpoint, Mankind Divided makes the necessary strides from Human Revolution in terms of building upon its established stealth mechanics and presenting more options to the player in how to tackle objectives. I like that, and this is a great game to play. It terms of its story however, it's disarmingly small in scale. I miss the grandeur of Human Revolution's narrative. That game felt like it took you on an odyssey through a dark, dystopian world. Mankind Divided by comparison feels like an ambitious DLC expansion.