Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

My favorite Deus Ex game. It's a crime what they did with the franchise... I really hope that someday, we can get a worthy sequel to this unfinished masterpiece...
Adam is such an amazing main character... I find that these days it's hard for me to say that about almost any character in gaming, but Adam was truly masterfully written. Every conversation and cutscene with him is badass and his personality gives off an air of security. I will truly miss this character and the world of Deus Ex.

This game is leagues ahead of almost all games released today. And it's from 2016!!!! It's almost ten years old and its insanely better than all the crap coming out. We have gone backwards significantly from here

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an unnecessary game. Eidos-Montreal wrote a self contained banger of a story with the first game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a worthy successor to the original, there was no need to make yet *another* game, especially with Jensen, but they came back to the drawing board anyway, only to have Square Enix pull the rug out from under them. They were told to split the game they were making into two halves, so Square could ship it as a trilogy.
So they released DE:MD, got to work on the second half, were moved from that to multiple other projects, some failures, some not, then sold off to Embracer, where they were supposedly making the third game again, but were then wracked with layoffs when Embracers billion dollar deal fell through. Eidos-Montreal now plays second fiddle to her sister company Crystal Dynamics.
So this game should be bad right? It was quite literally hamstrung during development.
You finish what feels like the end of the mid game arc, and then abruptly, credits roll. Out of everything, this alone is the only jarring part. AND, the only negative thing I have to say about the game.
Everything else is Eidos-Montreal at arguably its strongest. Everything from the first game was improved upon to the nth degree. The movement and controls got a full face lift, the environments are more focused and feel more lived in. The powers actually give you a wide variety of focused gameplay styles now. You can slip through areas completely unknown, or you can blaze through them with modified SMG’s and take shotgun blasts like a wall.
Guns can still be modified with scopes and silencers, but now they can also be upgraded through crafting materials. Damage can be upped, capacity can be upped, etc. Crafting actually isn’t obnoxious in this game, you have one resource aptly named “Crafting materials” that you will find in abundance as you scour through every drawer and locker, and you can use it to craft (my beloved) multi-tools, nano blades, etc. It’s not overwhelming, it’s well implemented and compliments the game well by not getting in your way.
Every limited open world game should take a page out of this game for how the team designed Prague. The city is a character all in itself. There are nooks and crannies and secrets to be discovered everywhere. It’s not a “living and breathing” city like you might find in open world sandbox games, npc’s aren’t really milling about, but it’s a city that engages you like a puzzle. You will find vents that connect you from relevant act 1 areas to relevant act 3 areas. It is the best kind of maze, and pro tip, getting the boosted jump upgrade early lets you bypass SO MUCH.
Prague is truly stunning. The muted colors compliment each other well. It helps that throughout the 3 acts, the city changes in completely different ways and the colors that use wash out the city in a noir kind of way. The game fits a highly specific vibe, it hits the same notes as walking the rainy streets of New Mombasa in Halo ODST. What compliments it the most is the soundtrack. It’s no surprise that you can find countless “work/study/write to Deus Ex MD” playlists and compilations on YouTube. Stand out tracks include “TF29”, “Church of the Machine God”, “Golem City: RVAC Row”.
The side quests are better. Half of them don’t even get a resolution, but they queue up what would’ve been the next portion so well, you can almost anticipate where they were going to go.They feed into the main storyline perfectly, a lot of them end up reflecting either Jensen or add to the core principles of the game.
The main story is exceptional, top notch really. Had Eidos been left alone to make the remaining section of the game, it would’ve been grand. Even better than the first (they have a bunch of teasers in the game about where they would’ve gone with it, and some crazy reveals. Read the theories online after you beat the game to see what could’ve been.)
Ultimately, this is a series about a man on a crusade of one. He’s up against the most powerful individuals in the world, and from the context of the original Deus Ex game, we know he inevitably fails. Adam Jensen is a cog that eventually gets crushed by the machine. And yet, for someone who always has his eyes on the bigger picture, he never misses the forest for the trees. You help so many different individuals in both of these games, especially in the second one. You can definitively say that Adam Jensen is a force for good, and even though his crusade fails, that doesn't change just how many lives he improved along the way. An admirable way of moving forward in life.
I feel like rating this game would almost do it a disservice, but 5/5, easy. A “5” with me telling you that this game, and its predecessor had irrevocably changed me for the better, and will stick with me until it’s my time for the journey into the unknown.
∞/5. Deus Ex: Mankind Redeemed.

While not a triumph, Mankind Divided is an extremely enjoyable cyberpunk adventure with enough content and gameplay options to keep fans of the franchise happy. The main story lacks impact and drops off completely at the end, but the missions are almost universally fantastic, allowing you to flex your cybernetically-enhanced muscles in a multitude of ways.

My feelings for this game are complex and hard to summarize under a "Yes" or a "No". If I could answer the question with "Eeeeeeeh, weeeeelll I guess?" I feel like that would be more appropriate.

If you liked Deus Ex: Human Evolution, you'll like this game. It's a sequel that builds off of its predecessor while also introducing some more of its own. The story continues not too long after the first game and a couple books and side stories released between games helped set this one up. I would say there's a solid 40 hours of gameplay with even more if you play Breach which is an arcade side game that puts you through segmented timed hacking missions and challenges.

From a hub city that slowly changes as the game goes on, you venture out to various locations to progress the story which really leans on the ever growing divide between humans with cybernetic enhancements and those without. The gameplay continues to be solid with encouragement of playing the missions loud and guns blazing or quiet and stealthy. There's lots to explore, characters to talk to, side missions, abilities to level up. Again, it's more Human Evolution, and I liked that game, so I can't complain. Arguably it's Deus Ex by name only, but that's fine if you just think of the original(s) and the new ones as separate things.

But all that is ruined by one thing: Single. Use. DLC. Now if that doesn't already make you vomit in your mouth or make you feel sick, allow me to add some ipecac to the formula and explain the situation. You have your base game, which as I mentioned has more of Human Evolution. You go to various locations, have a choice of how you want to approach the conflict, and finish the game just fine. However there is also the option to buy booster packs that include ammo, armor and weapons that applies to ONLY ONE SAVE FILE. So you spend your real money to buy a win button for a single save.

DLC is already in hot water. In ages past, expansion packs and DLC meant you got entirely new campaigns that added hours to the game. But over the years video games became more expensive, development time took more time, the industry became more predatory, and DLC started to shrink. Now we're stuck with situations like this. Single use DLC. It's not a bad thing to make something extra for your game and charge a few bucks for it. Whether it's extra missions, cosmetics, or a brand new weapon, but making content that is only good once is sleazy to say the very least.

Even though you can play through the game just fine without these disposable booster packs, it just becomes a fly in the ointment and can ruin the experience when you're being reminded of their existence every time you load up the game. So would I recommend the game? Eeeeeeeh, weeeeelll I guess?

I'm giving a positive review in the hopes and prayers that the publishers greenlight another Deus Ex game. Pls boss. I'm fiending over here boss.

A bit shorter, but still great. The world-building and freedom in how you approach missions are top-notch. Wish we’d gotten a sequel.