Ion Storm, one of the most influential game companies of all time and one that I believe will never be forgotten. Originally founded in 1996 by people such as John Romero and Tom Hall, Ion Storm put as much effort as they can into every game they made. Eidos Interactive would help publish the games made by Ion Storm, and sadly unlike most game companies at the time Ion Storm was struggling to make the games they had envisioned. Their first two games, Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 and Daikatana, received a heavy amount of negative reception by the general public and failed to meet the sales numbers Ion Storm hoped for. At that point Ion Storm could have stopped making games as a whole, until one developer came up for an idea that he originally called Troubleshooter. Inspired by popular games at the time like Half-Life and Goldeneye 007, Warren Spector would soon go on to assemble a team of up to 28 members to work on his biggest project yet. After months of work and preparation his original project soon turned into what would become one of the greatest games of all time, Deus Ex. With its cybernetic dystopia-like atmosphere, mind bending story, and gameplay focusing around the player creating their own playstyle while exploring open ended levels, Deus Ex would become one of the best selling games Ion Storm has ever made. It even donned a sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, which gained as much praise and attention as the original but failed to understand what made it so memorable. Along with other games released around the time that followed a similar game design like System Shock 2 and Thief: The Dark Project, Deus Ex would help kickstart an entirely new genre of games, the immersive-sims. You think Ion Storm would go on to expand the universe they created by developing more entries, but unfortunately after several of its major members left the company Ion Storm ended up shutting down, leaving the Deus Ex franchise to be forgotten over time.
However Eidos, the publishers of the first few Deus Ex games, formed a new development team known as Eidos Montreal and together they would go on to bring the Deus Ex series back to life. Eidos Montreal eventually got bought out by Square Enix and published Deus Ex: Human Revolution in 2011, a prequel to the original Deus Ex. Human Revolution not only became one of the most important titles in the series, but also became one of the best games Eidos have ever released. Fans praised the reimagined world of the game, how they were able to tell a pretty effective narrative without the characters of the original, and how they stayed true to the immersive-sim formula while introducing new and modern ideas. It wasn’t as good as the original , but it added a lot more personality to the world everyone loved. Now flash forward a few years later and Eidos Montreal is hard at work for the next biggest entry in the Deus Ex series, a sequel to the highly acclaimed Human Revolution which was set to be released the same day Human Revolution originally came out but in 2016. During that set day, Square Enix published the highly anticipated Deus Ex: Mankind Divided which garnished almost as much attention as Human Revolution.
It improved a majority of the problems Human Revolution had, but the game also garnished a bit of controversy during its development and marketing. One of these controversies were the developers using political related phrases during the games trailers, but for those who actually played Human Revolution and knew the context and political philosophy, the world of Deus Ex is a world about mankind hating one another and separating themselves into different groups. Hence the title of the game, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Another controversy was how they handled the pre-order bonuses which they soon limited to the basic version of the game. And finally the most important controversy about Mankind Divided, microtransactions in a single player game. (Cause Square Enix tried to find a way to scrape a few extra pennies. Too busy rendering the faces of Kingdom Hearts 3 I see?) Besides these minor controversies that made some people cancel their orders for the game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided did very well, much like Human Revolution. There were a fair amount of people who praised the game and another group of people who said it was quite a let down.
Personally I really enjoyed Mankind Divided, which is surprising because I haven’t played Human Revolution yet. I ignored the microtransactions, sat down, played the entirety from beginning to end, and you know what it isn’t actually that bad. It’s a really well designed immersive-sim! I spent an entire weekend playing this game and I really enjoyed it. It follows the immersive-sim formula of the original game and if it’s anything I love immersive-sims. Two of my most favorite games that are probably in my top ten list of favorite games of all time are actually immersive-sims. Dishonored 2 and Prey which are developed by Arkane Studios who took inspiration from classic immersive-sim titles. While this is mainly a basic review of Mankind Divided you can probably view this as a defense. My defense about why I thoroughly believe Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a good game and why it deserves your attention. So power up on biocells, stretch out your augmented limbs, and prepare to cloak back into the world of Deus Ex.
Story
The world of Mankind Divided is heavily influenced by the idea of segregation, mainly between average human beings and augmented human beings. Ever since the rise of technology people have begun to use augmentations, otherwise cybernetic technology that not only provides robotic limbs to replace old decapitated ones but also abilities no normal human being can genetically possess. These augmented people are then labeled Augs and are praised as the higher class of society due to how they can afford such expensive equipment. Things take a sharp turn when riots against augmentation begin to break out. One day augmented individuals hacked into and they begin to attack normal civilians. What was once the high class of society have turned into outcasts. Augmented people are feared by the public, and some of them are even tortured and sent to concentration camps or ghettos. Hopefully to never be seen again.
Standing between these escalating conflicts is Adam Jensen, a human being who was given special augmentations that turned him into a cybernetic super soldier. He was given these enhancements when he decided to one day visit his ex-girlfriend Megan Reed at her workplace Sarif Industries. The building is bombed during a terrorist attack leaving Adam heavily wounded and Megan dead. Sarif Industries takes Adam in and begins to operate on him, giving him the augmentation he has today. Sarif strikes a deal with Adam telling him that he can get revenge on the people who murdered Megan. They’ll train him to become a cybernetic super soldier and make full use of the super soldier enhancements they jacked into him. Seeing how Adam has previous experience through the Detroit SWAT Team and the person who loved him died right in front of him, he accepts the offer and now works for Sarif. Sarif is a secret agency that works behind the scenes to prevent further conflict between the human race.
During one of Adam’s most recent missions in Dubai, Adam is attacked by an unknown augmented terrorist group and blacks out afterwards. He wakes up in his apartment in Prague after fully healing and soon discovers that the terrorist group might be related to ARC, a group of augmented people who wish to fight back against the human race to ensure proper treatment and domination of augs. Adam soon learns not everything is what it seems, and that ARC has some deeper secrets lying within it. Working with your partner Alex Vega, it’s not only your duty to bring peace but also to figure out the truth and the real mastermind behind it all. Good luck agent, we’re counting on you.
Gameplay
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided follows the exact same format as games like BioShock, Prey, Dishonored, etc. The same exact format that I really like and wish more games would try to approach. One of my most favorite genres out there besides metroidvanias and open world. That genre is in fact called System Shock li- just kidding they're called immersive-sims you dinguses. Christ, I need to stop mentioning immersive-sims to people, because this is what is going to turn them away from them.
Each area in Deus Ex seems to be interconnected to each other through a miniature hub area you can explore, and seeing how several missions throughout the game requires you to backtrack through these areas you’ll have to constantly explore each nook and cranny to figure out what to do. Mission design really isn’t that simple, like sure it’s either get certain info or kill a certain target, but getting towards that goal with the simplest solution isn’t always the easiest option. Areas marked in red tell you what are restricted areas, meaning if enemies catch you in these areas they’ll begin opening fire. Luckily the level design of Mankind Divided is made so that any scenario can be approached in multiple ways. That’s what I like about these types of games, you can take an out of the box solution that will take longer and is probably more crazy, but as long as it works I think that is all that matters. Maybe you can find hidden vents that you can crawl through to access shortcuts to other areas, or you locate the security room and disable a good chunk of the cameras and alarms within an area. With careful planning and analysis any difficult scenario in the game can be easily overcome.
However, if an enemy does spot you and you are then thrown into a heavy gunfight then you can equip one of the many weapons that you have stashed in your inventory. Each weapon is simple and has their own pros & cons and you even use them while hiding behind cover. So the combat in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is your stereotypical cover based first person shooter. If you take too much damage you die, which is obvious and should be the thing to avoid. You have a pistol, machine gun, sniper rifle, shotgun, and these weapons also have different ammo types.
One of the most important aspects of Deus Ex are your augmentations, which can be upgraded to gain new capabilities. You can increase your health, reflexes, strength, and other basic stats, but there are some abilities that actually give you cybernetic powers. You can turn invisible making sneaking through heavily guarded areas much easier, encase yourself within armor reflecting bullets, have a zip ability similar to Dishonored’s teleportation powers which allow you to travel long distances within a second, and there’s an ability that turns you into a living weapon by scattering multiple pellets everywhere that explode people into bits. One trade off to this wide selection of powers is that if you have too many augmentations activated at a time your systems will overload. You’ll have to sacrifice some unlocks for the rest of your playthrough if you want to have more. I like this idea, because it tells the player that they can become stronger but they can’t be too overpowered. It prevents them from finding easy exploits, breaking the game entirely, and tells them to invest in a playstyle.
I can’t really think of anything else to say about Deus Ex; Mankind Divided. The gameplay works perfectly and there is a considerable amount of depth to build variety. Yet I never paid attention to certain systems, because I was too busy getting invested in the immersive environments and having a good old time. Maybe that's a good thing, because if I’m having fun getting lost then it means the developers did a good job making an immersive experience. Hopefully you can stop the augmented terrorists who stand in your way and bring peace back to a mankind divided. A society torn apart.
Thoughts
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is not a bad game, it’s really f*cking good actually. This is my first time playing a Deus Ex game and I’m already loving it. Some of you may complain that it’s not as good as Human Revolution or that it’s a much shorter game due to how Square Enix cut some of the developer’s budget to pour the money into other anticipated projects that they hoped would perform well which is a very scummy move now that I write that out loud, but I think Eidos Montreal did a good job continuing where they left off from last time. Following up an interesting story.
The level design sprawls around like crazy, providing players with multiple paths and opportunities, but not so open that you feel overwhelmed or you ask yourself where the hell you are going. It’s a tightly made world with side stories to tell around each corner. The way the game handles equipment and augmentations helps balance the player’s power so that they never cheese their way through every scenario by blasting every single person in sight or going out of bounds. The environments are more vibrant and don’t possess the visual golden glare that Human Revolution had, from what I have seen from screenshots. The story was pretty good and kept me engaged, although to a majority of gamers it’s forgettable to video game standards. I actually liked how Adam was stuck in the conflict of proving the truth while the weight the world collapsed onto his shoulders. Sounds like another game published by Square Enix that talked about human nature and will to live. Cough cough, Nier: Automata, cough. It shows that he’s willing to try no matter how much pressure is forced upon him. There’s the political themes about segregation, drive for political power, and much more.
The controls are tight and gunplay felt great with each gun being satisfying to weild, even though I went for a heavily stealthy playstyle. If it’s anything Dishonored has taught me it’s to knock a guy out unconscious and then tuck them into a corner for a good old afternoon nap. The powers you unlock are very cool and fit right in with our character. The story had a good beginning, middle and end as you saw the main hub world change around you as the story went on. I like some of the details they add in on different playthroughs depending on the actions you make in the world. If you blow up a shop then when you revisit it later you find it covered in police tape. There is a new games plus mode which allows you to replay the game using the powers you unlocked before, and much like any ordinary immersive-sim Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has a lot of replayability. I love Mankind Divided a lot, coming from someone who didn’t play the last game, and I can confirm it as an easy recommendation.
It does suffer from a few problems. While the graphics and artstyle are pretty good, character animation can be lazy at times as they all look like lifeless animatronics mumbling their mouths and sometimes the game tends to lag if too much stuff is going on screen. I guess that’s a problem with so many immersive-sims these days. They need a week or two of patches before they properly work, but that’s fine with me because the core product is so well put together. Finally and most obvious, why are there microtransactions in this game? Why are microtransactions in a single player where you grow stronger by doing quests overtime that give you hefty amounts of experience points to level up? The microtransactions provide upgrade points and cash to the player just in case they need an easier time or purchase items they need earlier in the game, but this breaks the balance the game was trying to set up. Why do you even need all those extra abilities so early when the game is still warming up to the player? If you play the game normally you should unlock a decent amount of the upgrades and equipment in the game and upgrade points aren’t even that hard to get from just playing. So Square Enix added a pay to win system that the player can just ignore entirely. It’s kinda pointless, especially since this not only sets a very bad image for Eidos Montreal and the love they put into this series, but also shows how greedy Square Enix can get with some of their franchises. I wish the money that was cut from this game would have stayed there to make sure this was a tenderful twenty hour game like the last one, but somehow I’m fine with this because Mankind Divided doesn’t overstay its welcome and the time spent with it was worthwhile.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided aged better than some of us have anticipated and it’s a worthy sequel to the well acclaimed Human Revolution. A majority of the complaints I have aren’t major issues towards the design or story, just minor bugs. It’s a real shame of what happened to Mankind Divided, but maybe that can change now that the game goes for a cheaper price these days. Go and support this game and show Square Enix that immersive-sims still have a place in the market. We may never get a third entry to the current Deus Ex storyline, but show them anyways! Tell them to bring Deus Ex back. I am going to give Deus Ex: Mankind Divided an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.
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