One of the greatest tragedies of gaming is that this game will never get the sequel it needed.

The immaculate atmosphere and soundtrack return from Human Revolution and the stealth-action gameplay is the best it's ever been. Prague is a wonderfully detailed and dense hub and developers could really learn from it instead of making everything open world. The side missions are just as good as the main story missions and really make you explore all of Prague. The graphics are also spectacular even now. This is one of the most incredible looking games I've ever played.

Unfortunately this time around the story isn't quite as captivating. It attempts to capitalize on the real life social issues that were happening when the game came out, but the clunky writing makes the racism allegory a bit ham-fisted and gives the impression that the writers weren't confident enough in the game's own world. And once again, augmentation is the only issue that's ever on anyone's mind.

Adam Jensen also doesn't really carry the story on his own and needs other characters to bounce off of. One of my favourite parts of Human Revolution was interacting with Pritchard and Malik, but in Mankind Divided the only ally filling their role appears a mere handful of times and just isn't quite the same.

The story does technically have an ending, but it's rather unsatisfying as your job isn't really done. There's clearly still more to unravel, but sadly it looks like we're never getting the answers and this will be Adam's swan song. A tragedy indeed.

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.

I don't have a term of comparison, this being my first Deus Ex, but I enjoyed this game, especially its gameplay.
I like that you can go about missions several different ways, from guns blazing to full stealth. Personally, I prioritized stealth (that was until being spotted and ultimately resorting to shooting everyone) and found it to be very well done. There's quite a variety of augmentations to choose from, so you can adapt Adam to fit your gameplay style easily.
Prague is fun to explore with plenty of side missions to do besides the sadly unfinished main story. The DLC are solid too.
It's a real shame Square Enix cut Mankind Divided short under the pretense that the story would continue soon in a future game (clearly to milk the consumers too). 7 years later and we're still waiting.

Deus Ex Mankind Divided suffers from the same narrative problems as its predecessor, it's all about augmentations all the time. This is in stark contrast to the original game where it grounded all of its societal issues in actual real-world issues,which I think helps future proof a game cause I don't think I'll see human augmentations anytime soon. Really the only thing keeping me going is Adam Jensen’s story line, I’m invested and I want to see it end. Naturally the game abruptly ends at the halfway point on cliffhanger ending. What the fuck? Seriously, the first time I played the game I thought it was a joke. Just as plot points were finally beginning to unravel and you were really about to make sense of the story the game rolls credits.

I seriously hope for another instalment in the series. The gameplay was solid, the side missions were really good, and the visuals hold up surprisingly well, but seeing as this came out in 2016 I’m not holding my breath. I may not agree with the narrative choices made, but I atleast want to see the series end and not have it stuck in this weird limbo where we might not ever get another game.

I seriously cannot overstate how abrupt the ending is. It’s like you're driving down a road and you're gaining more and more speed only for a wall to pop out of nowhere leading you to crash into it

I think people overstate how "unfinished" the game is. Don't get me wrong, you get the feeling that there are some loose threads and that a portion of the game got cut in the making but what's there is 100% polished and well worth playing though. Prague is beautiful, climatic, dense, with some side stories to uncover and many apartments to break into. The story is nothing to write home about, but it's fun to go through the city uncovering conspiracies, exploring abandoned buildings, knocking out cops, messing around with the environmental interactibles, and finding your way around locked doors and security devices.

That being said there's less variety in locations than in Human Revolution, while the gameplay is dumbed down comparatively at the same time. Yes, you have more augs and many more weapons to choose from, but HR's more open approach to quest and level designs took 2 steps back, which is a trend since HR already took 3 steps back in that regard from the original Deus Ex.

Despite this, this is clearly a game made by people with passion who deserved better, but sadly they got Square Enix'd.

'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."

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.

Mankind Divided is a downgrade from Human Revolution in terms of its characters and writing, but a noticeable upgrade in terms of gameplay, emergent gameplay, side quests, and especially level design. That latter element in particular is probably this game's biggest strength, and it stands out considering how this was one of Human Revolution's weaker aspects. The game does feel rushed near the end, but my experience with Mankind Divided is one of love. I love this game so much, and wish Square Enix didn't blunt the game's critical reception with the preorder bullshit it pulled.

Mankind Divided is a step up from Human Revolution in just about every way. The most important area of improvement is undoubtedly level design. The levels in MD are much closer to the original Deus Ex than HR’s are in terms of openness and room for player creativity. In Human Revolution each level has maybe two or three infiltration routes. The levels in MD give you the feeling that the options for tackling them are basically limitless. This was one of the great strengths of the original and is mostly replicated here.

Story here is a bit stronger than HR’s, which is to say a pretty decent take on the themes and tropes of Deus Ex. The premise of an augmented apartheid being manipulated and taken advantage of by various parties is definitely more interesting and feels more grounded here than the anti aug bias in HR. In HR the anti-aug factions mostly appealed to ideas of human purity in a philosophical sense, which was a pretty weak and boring argument considering much more compelling material arguments against augmentations that the game didn’t really tackle e.g. hardening class boundaries, mandatory augmentation for certain jobs, etc.

The anti-aug violence in MD feels much more grounded and realistic due to the aug incident and the way those in power paint augmented people as dangerous and deviant. This groundedness causes the players actions and choices in the game to hold more weight. Instead of being asked to stop a Luddite holding people hostage you’re being sent to arrest a peaceful leader for aug rights that your corrupt bosses want you to get rid of. This sense of working for the bad guys but trying to somehow do the right thing or at least minimize the damage you’re causing is very much present in the original deus ex and it is here as well. The same can’t be said for Human Revolution.

The only step down from HR in my opinion is probably the visual aesthetic. HR had a very unique and striking cyber renaissance aesthetic, which MD replaces with a drab world in collapse saturated with greys and blues. While this change makes sense and I’m glad they didn’t just keep the same aesthetic from HR, this new aesthetic doesn’t really do anything interesting or creative to stand out.

The length was also a bit of an issue for me. MD is on the shorter side, the 2nd shortest DE game after invisible war, and I wish it was longer and had more levels outside of the Prague hub world which takes up most of the game. Some of the best levels in the game, like the London and Golem levels involve you traveling to a new visually unique area, and I wish there was more of that.

Overall this is a really enjoyable game and the first in the Deus Ex series to feel like a worthy follow up to the original. It doesn’t have anything really special to elevate it to the level of the original, but it’s a quality game nonetheless.