Mankind Divided takes place two years after the previous game, the end of the past game had almost all augmented people being taken control of and going into an uncontrollable rage, this event caused mass destruction and the deaths of millions, leading to the way augmented people are looked at and previous course of human history to have changed significantly. The game makes slight improvements on Human Revolution, giving you new enjoyable powers to use and allowing you to use some of the old ones in a nonlethal fashion and making improvements and additions to different areas of gameplay. You are given more open environment to explore (though they still really love having the improbable vents everywhere) and branching paths or alternate ending choices for missions. It can be very impressive when you look around and find only the main entrance and one alternate path towards your objective, only to notice that there were three more on your way back out, ones that can require a different use of items or augmentations to access. The environments are also nicely detailed, there are some interesting sights to see, ads, graffiti, emails, notes, and some thought even clearly went into your apartment. You can find parts to craft useful items such as multitools, ammo for your augmented weapons, and you can use parts to upgrade different stats or firing modes on weapons which can make using or ignoring certain abilities a more viable option. One, often amusing, addition is that you can sometimes hack or login to someone's computer and then use their instant messenger to talk to people. In one side mission you can pretend to be a bank manager and if you have gotten the right code and say the right things you can convince guards to turn off security systems. The social enhancer augmentation also has a new feature, in addition to the previous way where you could possible get through conversations by choosing the correct options or using your augmentation to open different conversation paths, now you also have timed moments where you can interrupt people in different ways to move the conversation in your favor. Finding and selling expensive Neuropozyne removes any need to run back and forth selling guns to buy the things that you want. The way that your battery works, which is what powers your active augmented abilities, has been improved from the previous game, though it will still have you managing an inventory of power cells to recharge. Certain areas will have you going up against other augmented opponents who can shield themselves, dash, cloak, and jump to high positions but this won't end up meaning much if you are going for a stealth playthrough. It would have been nice to see the augmented enemies used to level the playing field and make you not feel so powerful, even letting them use abilities to find you when you are cloaked or hiding.
There are areas that have not seen much improvement though or that have the same problems as the previous game. The AI still isn't very good in combat, you still tend to be very powerful compared to the enemies you face (it's best to put the game on the highest difficulty setting), there are some poor character animations, horrible lip sync and erratic body movement during conversations, dragging bodies is still strange and doesn't work well, jumping and climbing doesn't always work when it should, the double take-down augmentation doesn't always work, and sprinting looks terrible and randomly stops working. Even though the AI might not be the most combat effective and they don't always react to things in a way that makes sense, they do tend to respond well in certain situations such as when they move towards the direction a thrown object came from if they saw the path it took rather than where the sound came from when it hit, how police shouldn't attack you if they didn't see you commit a crime or might even attack other people who are shooting at you if they see them being the hostile one, and search patterns can be random. There are some issues when it comes to civilians who don't care when you hack or steal things but will become suspicious and follow you into restricted areas, sometimes even through security systems. A minor complaint is that it would have been nice if they had subtitles for conversations you hear as you pass by people and for TV and radio programs, as they can be difficult to hear over the game's music and other sounds from the environment. Combat is still something that can use some work with the guns themselves not being that satisfying to shoot, although unarmored targets go down quickly and the way targets react to being hit does make gunfights more satisfying than the previous game.
The writing has some good moments and characters, primarily all from exploration and the side quests, the main plot is rather dull, cliche, doesn't explore the ideas of the setting, and ends suddenly. It makes it feel like they might have planned a more episodic nature like Square did with the new Hitman or they need the DLC (there are two story focused ones coming) and/or the next game to finish the story arc. The narrative has a bit of an odd flow to it, things start with a good tutorial that allows you to try out many of your augmentations then resets all of them shortly after the opening, you are then given a good amount of points to invest in abilities again, as well as gaining access to some new augmentations. This is set up well and allows you to pick with more understanding of how things work after getting the chance to test them in action. You will then likely spend hours doing things around the city only to continue the main story where you will be taught how to fire a gun, a thing you might have been doing for the length of some shorter games. In other parts things seem to be left out or it seems like something was changed, one mission has you talking to your boss and your pilot about how you are supposed to bring a guy in alive and in the next cutscene the pilot is acting like he wasn't there for previous conversation and is asking if you are going to kill him. Later you will gain access to another section of the city and you will tell your pilot the name of it, even though I never heard anyone tell me what the area is called. After the opening mission your boss is sending emails about the lives lost after something goes wrong but you are alive, the guy leading the other team is alive, the undercover agent is alive if you rescued him, and no one mentions anyone being hit or killed in the gunfight so I don't know what they are talking about about anyone dying. One of the first side quests you can do (while still in your starting apartment) will tell you what happened to a character from the last game but then a later story mission will tell you again causing Adam to be surprised. Time is also handled in a very strange way when it comes to side quests and the main mission, the main plot seems like it all could have happened in a day or two while certain side quests would likely have needed more time to go by. There is also a short scene during the credits with an obvious reveal.
Augmented people treated more as a race and there being jim crow/apartheid style environments just isn't done well, and really can't be done well as the parallels don't really exist, it also raises a lot of questions about the world that the game can't answer that well or at least ones it doesn't answer unless you go exploring and finding books and emails. Augmented people almost all have obviously replaced arms/legs (they do have some different designs for them at least), which was not a constant thing in the previous game, this odd need to show who is who makes for poor world design and ignores that there are obviously other kinds of augmentations. It would actually make sense if after the disaster that killed and injured so many people that the "natural" people should be missing limbs, paralyzed, wearing cheap prosthetic, etc because after the augmented people attacked everyone they naturally wouldn't be willing or able to receive augmentations, doing something like this would also give them reason to dislike the augmented people, seeing them as the cause of their injuries while augmented people have fully functioning bodies with some things just done for looks or fashion. Not having a focus on the mental state of the augmented people, many who likely attacked and injured or killed friends, co-workers, or loved ones also seems like a missed opportunity (one of the side quests does have you briefly meeting an older man who you can potentially get to admit that he killed one of his grand-kids). The augmented people might be forced into their own line in the subway and their own train car but no one is ever really there, you will just run through through the area with nothing stopping you, maybe upset a guard if you take the wrong train. You might be stopped two or three times in the game while someone asks to see your papers, you says they are wasting your time, you be a smart ass, and then you are on your way in seconds. You might also see posters of movies or magazines trying to market towards people's fears about augmented people in the way you can see media do with Muslims. There's the generic racist politician (the game calls hating augmented people racism even though they aren't a race and augmentations aren't even connected to a culture or ideology normally associated with any race) who hates augmented people, complains about SJWs being the real problem, and says that he has a friend who is augmented. As part of a side quest you find that an anti aug politician has been paying augmented women to have sex with him, like the usual cliche anti gay politician. You have checkpoints that make it difficult for augs to travel, a wall to keep them out of areas, and attempts to relocate them which is similar to Israel. Other things you read are basically just an exact copy of problems another race/gender/sexuality face, as are certain slogans in the game, they didn't put enough effort into creating anything interesting of their own or discussing anything save for a brief generic statement on the state of the world. There are moments in the side quests or in the scattered e-books that work well with this setting, talking about how people live and that can do a decent job talking about militarized police forces or at least the obvious idea behind them at different moments of the game, but so much of it seems like it's done as an afterthought, something that is quickly moved on from, or possibly done more as a joke which doesn't fit with the marketing or title of the game. It's frequently just a missed chance to do something more interesting and an unneeded element that doesn't fit well with the kind of things that you go around doing in the main quests, such as how you will go around looting everything in front of people during normal play or hacking into all your fellow counter terrorism agent's computers with you in full view of everyone. You would also think that people would react to you turning invisible or using your landing system or dashes in front of them, even more so now that so many people hate you or are scared of you. I hope to see a better job done for Mafia 3 where segregation should fit in much more with the narrative and the actual gameplay mechanics of that game.
The newly added Breach mode gives you the role of a faceless VR hacker and has you choosing from different data nodes on a board to attack, once chosen you can choose your loadout and are put into a VR version of how the main game plays. Completing one area will open connected areas. It's an ok mode with the ability to choose different loadouts and unlock augmentations to help you meet different challenges in each area but it is hurt by the lack of personality of the good looking environments of the main game game thanks to the generic VR setting. You can obtain files that give you more information on the world, corporations, and people but none of it is that interesting. The mode is held back by card pack that you need to buy with in game credits or real money. These cards make up your equipment and ammo, as well as random consumables that can do things like make you move faster, do more damage, take more damage, etc. Up to three of these one use bonuses can be applied to each map but it hurts the balance and competitive nature of trying to beat your friends or trying to reach timed goals. You also need to level up to upgrade your augments (or find praxis kits in rare card drops) and your storage capacity, which allows you to equip more augmentations and upgrades at once. It's not terrible but it is much less interesting than the main game and requires grinding.
Preordering the game or getting the deluxe edition came with an extra mission called Desperate Measures that can be started from the main menu at any time and at any difficulty. Desperate Measures starts you with some basic equipment and points to assign to your augmentations. The plot is linear and moves from scene to scene without needing you to travel between areas, this is actually nice as you would just be going through areas you have seen doing things that won't matter since it is only a short side mission, and has you looking into a recent bombing by infiltrating a Tarvos security building, which is a new location. As expected with a preorder bonus, it is a short mission but it is an enjoyable one. The way the previous game added DLC and the way this worked also make it seem likely that the two future paid add-ons will be accessed from the main menu in the same way.
The PC version launched with some performance issues, but they seem to have been fixed and some I never experienced. Traveling to a new area gave very long load times, but the areas are very large and loading saves in the same area only takes a couple seconds and a recent patch seems to have significantly improved the load times. I did run into a problem with one side quest where a character that I should have been in one area ended up in two different places, it's not a problem as it allows you to see more of the games possibilities without a second playthrough but it is an odd moment if you don't know its a bug. The preorder and season pass DLC was also very poorly handled, with many of the items only allowing you to use them one time and then never again if you start a new game, these items also seem to be things the developer didn't even want in the game in order to keep it balanced.
Mankind Divided's sudden ending, weak narrative, mostly poorly used aug vs natural conflict, me missing Faridah, and dull Breach mode all certainly hurt the game but the fun mechanics, large and very well designed environments that supports a variety of playstyles, entertaining melee takedowns, the way the AI reacts to certain situations, sneaking your way around finding information about people and the world, the well designed and written side quests that help to show more human moments for Adam, and different choices in both the side and main story missions make the game easy to recommend if your love of Deus Ex comes more from those areas rather than an interesting main plot and uncovering conspiracies. The game also supports a new game plus option, where you can play through the game again on the same difficult but with all your augmented abilities and equipment that was in your inventory intact, which is always a nice feature to have, beating the game will also unlock the most difficult setting where you only get one life for those that like ironman runs.
In short, well designed areas and enjoyable gameplay held back somewhat by the main narrative.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/770649968902152193?s=20
There are areas that have not seen much improvement though or that have the same problems as the previous game. The AI still isn't very good in combat, you still tend to be very powerful compared to the enemies you face (it's best to put the game on the highest difficulty setting), there are some poor character animations, horrible lip sync and erratic body movement during conversations, dragging bodies is still strange and doesn't work well, jumping and climbing doesn't always work when it should, the double take-down augmentation doesn't always work, and sprinting looks terrible and randomly stops working. Even though the AI might not be the most combat effective and they don't always react to things in a way that makes sense, they do tend to respond well in certain situations such as when they move towards the direction a thrown object came from if they saw the path it took rather than where the sound came from when it hit, how police shouldn't attack you if they didn't see you commit a crime or might even attack other people who are shooting at you if they see them being the hostile one, and search patterns can be random. There are some issues when it comes to civilians who don't care when you hack or steal things but will become suspicious and follow you into restricted areas, sometimes even through security systems. A minor complaint is that it would have been nice if they had subtitles for conversations you hear as you pass by people and for TV and radio programs, as they can be difficult to hear over the game's music and other sounds from the environment. Combat is still something that can use some work with the guns themselves not being that satisfying to shoot, although unarmored targets go down quickly and the way targets react to being hit does make gunfights more satisfying than the previous game.
The writing has some good moments and characters, primarily all from exploration and the side quests, the main plot is rather dull, cliche, doesn't explore the ideas of the setting, and ends suddenly. It makes it feel like they might have planned a more episodic nature like Square did with the new Hitman or they need the DLC (there are two story focused ones coming) and/or the next game to finish the story arc. The narrative has a bit of an odd flow to it, things start with a good tutorial that allows you to try out many of your augmentations then resets all of them shortly after the opening, you are then given a good amount of points to invest in abilities again, as well as gaining access to some new augmentations. This is set up well and allows you to pick with more understanding of how things work after getting the chance to test them in action. You will then likely spend hours doing things around the city only to continue the main story where you will be taught how to fire a gun, a thing you might have been doing for the length of some shorter games. In other parts things seem to be left out or it seems like something was changed, one mission has you talking to your boss and your pilot about how you are supposed to bring a guy in alive and in the next cutscene the pilot is acting like he wasn't there for previous conversation and is asking if you are going to kill him. Later you will gain access to another section of the city and you will tell your pilot the name of it, even though I never heard anyone tell me what the area is called. After the opening mission your boss is sending emails about the lives lost after something goes wrong but you are alive, the guy leading the other team is alive, the undercover agent is alive if you rescued him, and no one mentions anyone being hit or killed in the gunfight so I don't know what they are talking about about anyone dying. One of the first side quests you can do (while still in your starting apartment) will tell you what happened to a character from the last game but then a later story mission will tell you again causing Adam to be surprised. Time is also handled in a very strange way when it comes to side quests and the main mission, the main plot seems like it all could have happened in a day or two while certain side quests would likely have needed more time to go by. There is also a short scene during the credits with an obvious reveal.
Augmented people treated more as a race and there being jim crow/apartheid style environments just isn't done well, and really can't be done well as the parallels don't really exist, it also raises a lot of questions about the world that the game can't answer that well or at least ones it doesn't answer unless you go exploring and finding books and emails. Augmented people almost all have obviously replaced arms/legs (they do have some different designs for them at least), which was not a constant thing in the previous game, this odd need to show who is who makes for poor world design and ignores that there are obviously other kinds of augmentations. It would actually make sense if after the disaster that killed and injured so many people that the "natural" people should be missing limbs, paralyzed, wearing cheap prosthetic, etc because after the augmented people attacked everyone they naturally wouldn't be willing or able to receive augmentations, doing something like this would also give them reason to dislike the augmented people, seeing them as the cause of their injuries while augmented people have fully functioning bodies with some things just done for looks or fashion. Not having a focus on the mental state of the augmented people, many who likely attacked and injured or killed friends, co-workers, or loved ones also seems like a missed opportunity (one of the side quests does have you briefly meeting an older man who you can potentially get to admit that he killed one of his grand-kids). The augmented people might be forced into their own line in the subway and their own train car but no one is ever really there, you will just run through through the area with nothing stopping you, maybe upset a guard if you take the wrong train. You might be stopped two or three times in the game while someone asks to see your papers, you says they are wasting your time, you be a smart ass, and then you are on your way in seconds. You might also see posters of movies or magazines trying to market towards people's fears about augmented people in the way you can see media do with Muslims. There's the generic racist politician (the game calls hating augmented people racism even though they aren't a race and augmentations aren't even connected to a culture or ideology normally associated with any race) who hates augmented people, complains about SJWs being the real problem, and says that he has a friend who is augmented. As part of a side quest you find that an anti aug politician has been paying augmented women to have sex with him, like the usual cliche anti gay politician. You have checkpoints that make it difficult for augs to travel, a wall to keep them out of areas, and attempts to relocate them which is similar to Israel. Other things you read are basically just an exact copy of problems another race/gender/sexuality face, as are certain slogans in the game, they didn't put enough effort into creating anything interesting of their own or discussing anything save for a brief generic statement on the state of the world. There are moments in the side quests or in the scattered e-books that work well with this setting, talking about how people live and that can do a decent job talking about militarized police forces or at least the obvious idea behind them at different moments of the game, but so much of it seems like it's done as an afterthought, something that is quickly moved on from, or possibly done more as a joke which doesn't fit with the marketing or title of the game. It's frequently just a missed chance to do something more interesting and an unneeded element that doesn't fit well with the kind of things that you go around doing in the main quests, such as how you will go around looting everything in front of people during normal play or hacking into all your fellow counter terrorism agent's computers with you in full view of everyone. You would also think that people would react to you turning invisible or using your landing system or dashes in front of them, even more so now that so many people hate you or are scared of you. I hope to see a better job done for Mafia 3 where segregation should fit in much more with the narrative and the actual gameplay mechanics of that game.
The newly added Breach mode gives you the role of a faceless VR hacker and has you choosing from different data nodes on a board to attack, once chosen you can choose your loadout and are put into a VR version of how the main game plays. Completing one area will open connected areas. It's an ok mode with the ability to choose different loadouts and unlock augmentations to help you meet different challenges in each area but it is hurt by the lack of personality of the good looking environments of the main game game thanks to the generic VR setting. You can obtain files that give you more information on the world, corporations, and people but none of it is that interesting. The mode is held back by card pack that you need to buy with in game credits or real money. These cards make up your equipment and ammo, as well as random consumables that can do things like make you move faster, do more damage, take more damage, etc. Up to three of these one use bonuses can be applied to each map but it hurts the balance and competitive nature of trying to beat your friends or trying to reach timed goals. You also need to level up to upgrade your augments (or find praxis kits in rare card drops) and your storage capacity, which allows you to equip more augmentations and upgrades at once. It's not terrible but it is much less interesting than the main game and requires grinding.
Preordering the game or getting the deluxe edition came with an extra mission called Desperate Measures that can be started from the main menu at any time and at any difficulty. Desperate Measures starts you with some basic equipment and points to assign to your augmentations. The plot is linear and moves from scene to scene without needing you to travel between areas, this is actually nice as you would just be going through areas you have seen doing things that won't matter since it is only a short side mission, and has you looking into a recent bombing by infiltrating a Tarvos security building, which is a new location. As expected with a preorder bonus, it is a short mission but it is an enjoyable one. The way the previous game added DLC and the way this worked also make it seem likely that the two future paid add-ons will be accessed from the main menu in the same way.
The PC version launched with some performance issues, but they seem to have been fixed and some I never experienced. Traveling to a new area gave very long load times, but the areas are very large and loading saves in the same area only takes a couple seconds and a recent patch seems to have significantly improved the load times. I did run into a problem with one side quest where a character that I should have been in one area ended up in two different places, it's not a problem as it allows you to see more of the games possibilities without a second playthrough but it is an odd moment if you don't know its a bug. The preorder and season pass DLC was also very poorly handled, with many of the items only allowing you to use them one time and then never again if you start a new game, these items also seem to be things the developer didn't even want in the game in order to keep it balanced.
Mankind Divided's sudden ending, weak narrative, mostly poorly used aug vs natural conflict, me missing Faridah, and dull Breach mode all certainly hurt the game but the fun mechanics, large and very well designed environments that supports a variety of playstyles, entertaining melee takedowns, the way the AI reacts to certain situations, sneaking your way around finding information about people and the world, the well designed and written side quests that help to show more human moments for Adam, and different choices in both the side and main story missions make the game easy to recommend if your love of Deus Ex comes more from those areas rather than an interesting main plot and uncovering conspiracies. The game also supports a new game plus option, where you can play through the game again on the same difficult but with all your augmented abilities and equipment that was in your inventory intact, which is always a nice feature to have, beating the game will also unlock the most difficult setting where you only get one life for those that like ironman runs.
In short, well designed areas and enjoyable gameplay held back somewhat by the main narrative.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/770649968902152193?s=20