It's been 7 years, we're closer to the date Deus Ex Human Revolution takes place, 2027; than 2016. Yet no Deux Ex game seems to be coming soon. Deep inside me there's my inner child BEGGING for a sequel, but a more mature self saw the mess that was Cyberpunk 2077's launch alongside many licensed "games" this year and simply wishes the Devs a prosperous life.

Deux Ex Mankind Divided on the other hand is actually a good game to rely on while we wait in vain. With an awesome hub system and a city that looks perfect, Prague has cemented itself inside my mind as one of the best videogame cities I've explored.

Story-wise, blame Square Enix for everything that's wrong basically, but really praise both the writers and developers for making such an interesting and immersive game. Each mission gives you a THOUSAND ways to complete it, playing this game twice feels like playing two different games. Not to mention how well done the imagery and social critique is in this game (makes Detroit Become Human look like a children's game in comparison). Sadly it does end abruptly because of SE cutting it in half, as many people said it does feel like I'm playing Chapter 1 of a bigger game which prevents Mankind Divided from being perfect, but with how much Content there is I still am not bored of replaying the story missions I know lead basically nowhere.

Gameplay wise, there is a LOT to talk about. Gunplay is smooth and fun, both while in cover and in first person; there is very little to criticise if not that it eventually has to end because the game can't let you shoot people forever. The stealth gameplay is also great, basically the same as Human Revolution but if it ain't broken, don't fix it. The way this game let's you play with physics is also to its favour: as everything is becoming more and more static in today's games, with props interaction barely being a thing anymore, it's refreshing to play a game where you can move boxes and use them as cover, throw toasters at enemies and all those gimmicks. The hub system I already mentioned might be overshadowed by newer immersive sim games from today's era, like Cyberpunk's Night City, but I will always defend it. Every area of the game is HIGHLY detailed, with each district giving a different vibe and view of Prague, to the point I think this wouldn't have worked if it was a big city with less detail. Instead, what we have is a lively and realistic depiction of an European capital full of things to explore despite having to see a 5 second cutscene in the metro every now and then. Sounds fair to me.

Overall, this game might not be a perfect 10/10, but it's still a unique experience and is a joy to complete. Recommended to everyone.

It's hard to make conversations between characters captivating, and I felt like the game wasn't able to. When the gameplay loop is mostly jump from dialog scene to dialog scene, it just kept me losing my interest.

The production values are high and the environments are very well realized, some of the themes are fascinating, but were also covered in the previous game. The combat and stealth are pretty good although hampered by a weird decision to limit everything by the battery cooldown. It's just that the story could not grab me.

The main story of Mankind Divided begins in 2029, two years after the events of the previous game Human Revolution. After the catastrophe with the bio-chips that cause enhanced humans to attack everyone, societies have split into pro- and anti-enhanced humans. The former groups began to congregate in ghettos where crime increased and the police became accustomed to abusing their powers. In an atmosphere of widespread social unrest, terrorist organizations claiming to fight for equal rights for empowered people began to emerge.

In the game we again take on the role of Adam Jensen. The heavily augmented hero works for Interpol as part of the anti-terrorist group Task Force 29, and also collaborates with a group of hackers called the Juggernaut Collective. Jensen's ultimate goal is to solve the mystery of the sinister Illuminati. In subsequent missions, the two allies often have conflicting goals, forcing the player to play a game in which dangerous decisions will be made that will affect the fate of all humanity. Similar to previous games in the series, Mankind Divided gameplay is non-linear and offers a variety of approaches.

The developers allow players to play in two main core ways: One is focused on action and open combat, while the other is sneaking, infiltration and silent elimination of our enemies. Enemies are now much more dangerous thanks to improved AI and the ability to work in groups. Rarely do we see a situation where the Guardians are on their own. They act in pairs against Jensen, even when patrolling nooks and crannies. On top of that, the developers have made sure that our opponents are significantly more diverse, and so we'll face opponents who use power-ups and exoskeletons as well as mechs. Much attention has been paid to improving the fighting segments against powerful enemies. During battles can now take place in a variety of ways, including sneak surprise attacks, full frontal attacks or a combination of both.

Adam Jensen has also gained a number of completely new skills. The upgrades in Mankind Divided are about twice as many as in Human Revolution. The hero can now remotely hack turrets, robots and cameras, and can also almost instantly leap meters upwards over short distances. The knife on his forearm can be used for direct melee attacks or for throwing smaller projectiles. There's also a power-up that incapacitates our enemies with electricity. As we progress, we unlock access to new skills that can be used during combat, sneaking, or both. But using them drains our energy reserves. Although they partially regenerate themselves when Jensen doesn't use his enhancements, their full regeneration requires special bio-cells.

Depending on our choices, the game's story can take unexpected turns in the long run. For example: In the beginning we encounter some criminals and if we choose to kill them you can be subjected to their revenge later on. Not everything is limited to this, though. The events of Mankind Divided are also influenced by the conversations we have with other characters, which allows us to resolve some conflicts only through diplomacy. This part of your gameplay becomes more detailed when you get the implant CASIE, a perk that analyzes the psychological state of the NPC during a conversation.

Even though Mankind Divided has great improvements compared to Human Revolution, it was much less liked and criticized by players than Mankind Divided. While the gameplay is very enjoyable, it has to be admitted that the ending is extremely weak. The game offers an average of 25 hours of gameplay with all the side content and if you don't do the side interactions, it will be very short. Mankind Dived has the technical infrastructure to be a standalone game.

But it also has a rather abrupt and uninspiring finale, more like the first episode of a game as the main story. This was one of the biggest reasons why it received negative reviews. Because according to many people, Adam Jensen's story was already completed in the previous game. The 2nd game just left more unanswered questions and ended without tying it up. Regardless, it was one of the best series I've ever played and I'm looking forward to Eidos Montreal wrapping up Adam Jensen's unfinished story with a satisfying finale in the years to come.

Siempre me cuesta una barbaridad hacer click con los immersive sims. Piden mucho del jugador con la promesa de ofrecer una enorme variedad de opciones a cambio. Sin embargo, en muchas ocasiones la curva de aprendizaje resulta abrumadora. En este caso siento que te sueltan en su mundo de una forma demasiado abrupta. La escena de infiltración inicial parece anclada en mecánicas de hace 20 años, con una animaciones de noqueo muy ridículas y una IA completamente idiota. El doblaje tampoco ayuda y el setting, tanto de la historia como de los personajes, tampoco invita de primeras a adentrarte en su mundo.

Más allá de mi experiencia, he leído que la historia del juego no mejora con las horas y que termina de una forma demasiado abrupta e incoherente. Más motivos para no continuarlo.

'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' is a significant step up from 'Human Revolution' in the ways that will count for most, but this game makes some serious blunders.

First, let's address the elephant in the room, this game is unfinished and has very problematic microtransactions. 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' ends abruptly with a jarring lack of consequence for a lot of the revelations and choices made, it's jarring and weird. Unsurprisingly, lead writer Mary DeMarle has said in regards to the unresolved nature of the many thematic and plot threads in 'Mankind Divided' that "if we had more time then perhaps we would have dealt with some of them differently". The flaws of this game's narrative, however, are so obvious and foundational that I don't feel my commentary on it will be impeded by this, but for sure it is a shame that Eidos Montréal did not get to finish the game they wanted to, it need go without saying but, yeah, fuck Square Enix and their undying priapism for profit margins. Speaking of which, the in app purchases, I have no patience for this stuff in full price games when they fall under the mantra of "it don't affect gameplay"—a total misnomer anyway, but I digress—let alone paying for mechanical upgrades and in game money which this game has. Obviously you can just ignore them but it's pretty insulting, and needless to say do not buy them, you will literally do nothing but destroy the balance of the game and deepen the pockets of some execs at Square. I can't believe I even feel as if I have to remind people of this but apparently, if the current suffocating trend of game business is anything to go off of, some of you aren't very good at this shit.

It might sound like I really don't like this game, but this is not the case at all, in terms of design this is a much smarter game than 'Human Revolution'. For one, levels play themselves quite a bit less, don't expect to be easy vents leading straight to objectives with obviousness so absurd that it defies all architectural reason. While retaining objective markers, automaps, and the streamlined progression system not present in the original 'Deus Ex', 'Mankind Divided' isn't as creepily handhold heavy as most mainstream games of its gravity while still being very accessible. It's not as stimulating as the original, or even contemporary immersive sims like 'Prey', but Eidos Montréal respects the players intelligence far more here, with open levels grown in sophistication; With more routes, more options, more augment opportunities, plenty more to discover and sometimes varying outcomes. This game really is super fun to play. I completed the game as a pacifist—nice to see that being an option again—and had a blast soaking in these detailed, well thought out levels and experimenting with the new, far more exciting augments. On augmentation, the system is far better in 'Mankind Divided', not just owing to the new additions—of which inspire much more potential to some emergent gameplay, Icarus Dash is amazing for finding new vantage and entry points, a real traversing treat—but also to the need to balance them with your energy levels so Adam doesn't overheat and melt his bum off. Sadly, most augments power usage is too low for the system to be nail biting in any capacity, but it's still nice to have the extra layer of things to consider when character building. The game plays just a smoothly as 'Human Revolution' with clean animations and responsive controls, as well as having some new base mechanics to make things feel much more consistent, such as mantling, a less scarce energy metre—no more sitting around like a twat waiting to clap someone across the bonce with your robo-arms while doing stealth!—and being able to run for more than two seconds before needing a take a break for a twix and a bottle of water. Balancing is all around much better, there's not really that many 'use this or you are stupid' augments other than maybe the conversation enhancer and Icarus Dash—I'm serious it rules so much—and the economy isn't as comically dire as 'Human Rev', meaning you'll actually have ammo for your guns most of the time! Without breaking the game! Lol!

So, this sounds like a wicked immersive sim, maybe not as mind blowing and bursting with emergent gameplay as an Arkane title, but still pretty great, right? Yeah! In a vacuum, this game is mechanically and systemically sound, but unfortunately it's the framework for what is a pretty woeful story.

I scolded 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' for being shallow in my review, for being nothing more than a pretentious posturing on transhumanism that didn't really create a great ground for debate. It was a game which vaguely criticised the augmented future in ways that were either totally incoherent or just flat out reactionary on what could barely be called philosophical ground while being ignorant of its immediate relation to other potential elements of our current society. To me, it's been a guidebook on how to not write speculative fiction, which is a shame because the characters and dialogue were totally solid. You know what's nuts? In a lot of ways, 'Mankind Divided' is way more thoughtful, has even better characters, dialogue and pacing, and yet has a premise which is such a deep conceptual failure that it overshadows everything. If it wasn't for the embarrassing screed that is David Cage's 'Detroit: Become Human', I'd consider this the worst allusion to the civil rights movement in science fiction. The ludic elements of the idea, with the being repeatedly stopped at train stations for excessive id checks or shot on sight by police if you stand too close to them too often, come across as silly when conscious of how poorly the topic is being handled across the whole experience, there's so little ways I can say it, This is so bad. The augmented oppression becomes an inescapable theme which makes the game impossible to take seriously, it fails as an allegory due to the obvious incongruities between the affording of agency, economic position, and physical capability the augmented poses in the game's narrative and the lack of which black people and immigrants in real life have historically received due to systemic racism, and beyond that, Eidos Montréal doesn't manage to say much about the idea or the events it is smashing together in it's metaphor. I do not believe 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' has anything valuable to say about the South African Apartheid, Civil Rights Movement or Post 9/11 Islamophobia it is so heavy-handedly interpolating and the writers should genuinely not have bothered. Truly embarrassing, utterly crass, from a series which once cut deeper than most were brave enough to on societal issues. Weirdly enough though, in spite of this excessive and misguided theme weighing over everything, 'Mankind Divided' at the very least mentions more societal issues with greater success than it's core thematic ambition, such as when a conversation with Chikane has the potential to have Jensen ask about his "honest" limp, where he speaks of the woes of a new workforce where augmentation becomes a necessity, suggesting a new horrifying, physical implication about worker exploitation in the transhumanist future if it continues to be dominated by those without the interests of the people in mind. That's great dystopian writing! That's an example of the kind of shit that would have made 'Human Revolution' amazing, an actual thoughtful comment about our society's direction! This, alongside another dialogue option with Delara where Adam speaks to the nature of how current governing infrastructure contributes to the synthesis of terrorism, is 'Mankind Divided' making Ion Storm's 2000s classic proud, they are the most politically charged things Adam Jensen says or witnesses in the whole game that actually have something insightful to say. I wish they weren't so few and far between, they make me wish that these writers—conscious of how dumb and disrespectful the whole 'cyber-racism' shit was—could get another shot, get to make another game where they investigated issues as fervently as they're clearly capable of!

But, well, that's just it isn't it? Will they get to? None of us know. As much as this game had massive problems I am truly saddened that it marks the end of 'Deus Ex' as of now. The Adam Jensen saga seems to me like a person standing up real tall but sporting really bad public speaking skills, with their heart being in the right place but ultimately being too incoherent and sentimental to say anything of value. But you can hear where there's something possibly great! You can tell they're getting somewhere, that maybe given another moment they could have said something brilliant, but before they could finish, they stuttered a bit and was suddenly shot by a Square Enix executive using the BestBuy preorder exclusive Silenced Longsword 202 ERASER Sniper Rifle.

That last description of 'stuttered' is entirely intended to be characterising the series as skittish in it's statements, not at all to suggest 'Mankind Divided' runs poorly, on PS4 it was technically flawless and apparently it can run on a Mac so it must be optimised by the god of the machine itself. Presentation wise, much like 'Human Revolution', 'Mankind Divided' is beautiful. It's gorgeous, lacking that charming 7th console generation piss filter, but still brilliantly composed visually. Sonically, too, mind, with Michael McCann, Sascha Dikiciyan and 0edit making a clean, mystifying and melancholy ambient score. The atmosphere is so enamoring that it kinda hurts, looking up at the daunting cyberpunk scapes, the story etched into every inch of crevice upon every surface, finally reminded after so long that 'immersion' isn't a made up thing. so utterly lost in the vibe that you can almost feel the wind, it’ll all keep your gaze helplessly locked as you think to yourself "ah, style over substance again."

An insanely good sequel to an already insanely good game. On paper, it's better than the first in just about every way. However, with a few things holding it back like lost voice actors, mysteriously missing characters, and a couple flat new characters, this game falls a bit behind. However, it was still on track to be one of if not my favorite game of all time. And yet, when you reached the ending, you were left mouth-agape. This game was NOT finished. To this day I am waiting for the series to wrap up somehow.