Deus Ex: Mankind Divided received at launch many negative reviews for its lack of a clear cut conclusion to a plotline that definitely couldn’t end with this game – as the first Deus Ex in 2000 still exist apparently – and because of Square Enix egregious policy of shipping the game with an online mode nobody asked for, which turned out to be another cash grab for people with money spending disorders. Also, the onetime use only DLCs. These two latter are probably the worst offenders, as the lack of definitive conclusion could either be justified on the developer part as an intentional choice to respect the series canon or to make Mankind Divided work as a middle chapter much like Mass Effect 2 did already for its own saga. Sure, there are enough reasons to call out on Square Enix for being a greedy company that preys on its brands’ legacy, let’s not push too much stress on the guys at Eidos.
I digress.
Mankind Divided works as a direct sequel to Human Revolution, more or less. What happened in the two years gap between the games is never fully explained, and suddenly the series shifted from being a cyberpunk spy story about mega corps and their wrongdoings to a tale about the problem of racism and social acceptance in the modern and futuristic society. Considering the sci-fi setting, this new premise works beautifully intertwined with renowned cyberpunk thematic, especially in our modern times where it is apparently important to remind people what bring racism to arise and why it is important to actively argument against it. Or maybe, more simply, Square Enix ordered Eidos to remove any reference to massive corporations being evil and all since they have become one themselves in the last decade.
I digress again.
The plotline is more of the same from previous games and the characters aren’t much different or interesting either, they are actually quantifiably less memorable than any previous major titles of the series since there is a lack of significant development for any of them, nor the charisma previous casts had. The gameplay also is almost identical to Human Revolution, except for some new augmentations which are funny to play with but rarely really useful on the long run if the players liked the series for its stealth approach rather than the ability to use a massive plasma cannon or firing explosive blades. Especially since the game actually rewards players the less they raise alarms and kill anyone, so it would be counterproductive to use most of these new destructive gadgets. Shame tho.
What makes the game shine and be worth the purchase, especially now since the prolonged negative responses to it made it terrific cheap to buy, is the magnificent and vast hub of Prague City, full of secrets, quests to be discovered and it generally makes the game into a glorious cyberpunk sandbox stealth game. That’s where hours will be spent, choosing different routes to same objectives, trying to unlock everything before the player is even able to reach that point and just getting lost in the massively and detailed world of the Czech’s futuristic capital. If you think this kind of freedom united with the renowned stealth mechanics are enough to interest you, then the game will be a blast, albeit the replay value will probably be mostly lost if the challenge of higher difficulties or the storyline aren’t of interest, since doing everything from the top again will prove to be quite tedious without the incentive of interesting collectibles, aside from lore related e-books and scarce achievements from doing random stuff and side quests.
These side quests are often times smartly written and integrated with the setting, but many times are either completely disjointed from the plot or feel pointless and just a massive waste of time considering the backtrack involved. They are however a nice distraction and incentive to further explore what might have been missed in the giant hub.
Mankind Divided is on many levels a great upgrade to its previous iteration, for what concerns the technical department – graphic, music, some gameplay mechanic, – but on many others it feels surely incomplete and missing the gripping storytelling the series is famous for. It is still one of the best and rare examples of a modern well-done cyberpunk video game, or a first-person hybrid RPG-stealth video game for that matter.
I digress.
Mankind Divided works as a direct sequel to Human Revolution, more or less. What happened in the two years gap between the games is never fully explained, and suddenly the series shifted from being a cyberpunk spy story about mega corps and their wrongdoings to a tale about the problem of racism and social acceptance in the modern and futuristic society. Considering the sci-fi setting, this new premise works beautifully intertwined with renowned cyberpunk thematic, especially in our modern times where it is apparently important to remind people what bring racism to arise and why it is important to actively argument against it. Or maybe, more simply, Square Enix ordered Eidos to remove any reference to massive corporations being evil and all since they have become one themselves in the last decade.
I digress again.
The plotline is more of the same from previous games and the characters aren’t much different or interesting either, they are actually quantifiably less memorable than any previous major titles of the series since there is a lack of significant development for any of them, nor the charisma previous casts had. The gameplay also is almost identical to Human Revolution, except for some new augmentations which are funny to play with but rarely really useful on the long run if the players liked the series for its stealth approach rather than the ability to use a massive plasma cannon or firing explosive blades. Especially since the game actually rewards players the less they raise alarms and kill anyone, so it would be counterproductive to use most of these new destructive gadgets. Shame tho.
What makes the game shine and be worth the purchase, especially now since the prolonged negative responses to it made it terrific cheap to buy, is the magnificent and vast hub of Prague City, full of secrets, quests to be discovered and it generally makes the game into a glorious cyberpunk sandbox stealth game. That’s where hours will be spent, choosing different routes to same objectives, trying to unlock everything before the player is even able to reach that point and just getting lost in the massively and detailed world of the Czech’s futuristic capital. If you think this kind of freedom united with the renowned stealth mechanics are enough to interest you, then the game will be a blast, albeit the replay value will probably be mostly lost if the challenge of higher difficulties or the storyline aren’t of interest, since doing everything from the top again will prove to be quite tedious without the incentive of interesting collectibles, aside from lore related e-books and scarce achievements from doing random stuff and side quests.
These side quests are often times smartly written and integrated with the setting, but many times are either completely disjointed from the plot or feel pointless and just a massive waste of time considering the backtrack involved. They are however a nice distraction and incentive to further explore what might have been missed in the giant hub.
Mankind Divided is on many levels a great upgrade to its previous iteration, for what concerns the technical department – graphic, music, some gameplay mechanic, – but on many others it feels surely incomplete and missing the gripping storytelling the series is famous for. It is still one of the best and rare examples of a modern well-done cyberpunk video game, or a first-person hybrid RPG-stealth video game for that matter.