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The new “Deus Ex” is a great continuation of the franchise building upon the success of Human Revolution, and continuing the story in a world where humanity is segregated into two different groups (naturals and Augs).

I played “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided” on the “Give me Deus Ex” difficulty with a non-lethal playstyle and I learned two things: Stealth is hard, and this game has some of the best exploration aspects that I have ever seen in an RPG. Playing a stealthy character, I realized it’s very easy to get spotted even with the right augments so there will be a constant level of challenge. And some areas are so crowded that having Glass Shield Cloaking (the invisibility Aug) is almost a must as long as you have enough biocells to power it. The Tesla Aug will allow you to incapacitate enemies so you don’t always have to rely on the boring, short-range and long reload time Stun Gun (for which ammo is hard to find anyway).

Adam Jensen is once again ready to drop bombs in the world of “Deus Ex”, and he does it with great style and finesse in “Mankind Divided.

Nevertheless, I don’t remember having this much fun exploring in an RPG before (not even “Human Revolution” is able to top “Mankind Divided” when it comes to exploration). However, Mankind Divided´s city only offers one city Hub, (Prague). And while it may be a let down that there is only one Hub. Eidos Montreal did make sure to make it as dense as possible with hundreds of secrets to discover. Furthermore, there is also a complex sewer system where desperate Augs try to hide and make a living. Even so, though, there was one particular area within Prague that blew my mind.

And that would be the Palisades Property Bank (which is a 9 level building full of secrets and goodies). However, getting past all the security is the real challenge to be found here. And while there is a quest that requires to you go there. It’s all in the hands of the player if they want to explore the place, break into all the corporate vaults and safes or simply just walk away from the opportunity to do so. I still wish that there were more vendors to be found in the game though. As many of them only sell stuff and don’t buy anything from you, as it resulted in me not being able to sell all the goodies that I´ve found, but I didn´t really need.

You don´t have to become a cyberpunk Rambo kind of person if you don´t want to, live and let live, it´s all up to you.

Visually “Mankind Divided” looks amazing, but I simply felt that way for the only city Hub. As Prague didn’t really impress me visually. Furthermore, in order to move between neighbors you had to use travel back and forth on Metro. And it got annoying after a while. And this game breaking bug can also occur while using the metro. On the other hand, Golem City blew my mind. I truly liked how the city looked and how it´s been designed, especially when it comes to the level of vertically when exploring that area. Unfortunately though, Golem City is not a hub, just an area you visit during the game.

And since the announcement trailer featured a lot of scenes in Golem City. So I figured it would have been one of the Hubs or the Main hub, even the main menu background features an iconic location on Golem City. And in my opinion, I would have preferred for it to be the main hub, or at least instead of focusing on developing Prague so much, split the effort in both Prague and Golem City. Nevertheless, one thing to note is that Eidos Montreal at least tried to add more variety to Prague (such as adding a Day-and-Night state) As you’ll find different business that´s available to you, and the look and feel of the city change a little. However, I still feel that it’s still not as good as having multiple city hubs, I’m afraid.

There are plenty of weapons, augmentations to be found in “Mankind Divided”. There is even a brand-new combat system to be found in the game (including new tactics).

So, what about the plot aspect of the game then? Well, the story can be hard to get into right away if it’s been a long time since you played “Human Revolution” (and even harder for those that never played the game). So a good and quick way to get familiar with the factions and important characters in “Mankind Divided” is to reach the Task Force 29 base (which you do early in the story) and visit a Board showing all the factions such as the Juggernaut Collective, ARC and others, an Agent will even come and give you a short lecture on who is who. And further in the story when you cross paths with any of these factions you know who you’re dealing with.

Nevertheless, the big theme of “Mankind divided” is discrimination. So even if you know nothing of the story, you constantly see augmented people being harassed and oppressed by the State Police. And since Jensen is augmented himself, the State Police tries to harass you too. And from what I’ve seen so far, every single member of the Police that´s patrolling the streets is a one-dimensional ass hole that takes pleasure in tormenting augmented people. Even so, I would still say that most of the characters in “Mankind Divided” are very well-developed and nuanced. And Mankind divided´s story gets more interesting as you advance in the story and try to unravel the conspiracies.

Pros:
+ Builds upon a successful formula
+ Exploration is really fun and rewarding
+ Even with a little to none variety in the visual designs department, the visuals are still outstanding
+ Top notch voice acting
+ An interesting story once you get into it

Cons:
– Story is hard to get into at the start
– There is only one city Hub to be found in the game, and that is not enough variety for me
– Constant Metro Travels get old, and there is a bug there that can prevent you from finishing the game

Gameplay: 4.5/5
Graphics: 4.5//5
Sound: 4/5
Controls: 4/5
Replay Value: 4.5/5

tgg grade 4.5 out of 5

Verdict: 4.5/5
“Deus Ex: Mankind Divided” is a great game. As I believe that the game has been able to take the already successful formula of “Human Revolution” and push it even further. And that´s also why I’m rather curious to see where Eidos Montreal will take the story next in the universe of “Deus Ex”, as for the gameplay aspects of “Mankind Divided”. Well, in my opinion, I think “Mankind Divided” is almost perfect with the exception for some minor control issues (like having you to press the space-button in-order to finish loading while you’re standing in cover, is a great way to get the player killed) so there’s always room for improvement, the music and sound are top-notch and the visuals amazing, but I would have preferred more variety since we spend most of our time in a single Hub.

Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor

***Disclosure***
The review copy was bought by the reviewer.