Anatomy (A Kitty Horrorshow Game) Review. *Light Spoilers*.

Indie horror games are not usually my thing mostly because they suck.  They usually follow the same cliches, the same premise, the same settings, the same eight million jumpscares, and the same doofy looking monster.  There are exceptions of course but even with the better ones do I rarely feel all that scared.  They're just too predictable.  So for this indie horror game, I went with an unusual developer.

I'm not sure why, but I've always heard of Kitty Horrorshow without actually playing any of her games.  Again, I have no idea why.  Maybe she was brought up in articles or videos discussing other horror games and I just remembered the name for some reason?  I dunno.  Looking at other reviews and videos of her other games make me think....okay, do you remember a game called LSD Dream Emulator for the Playstation?  Of course you don't really remember it since nobody played it but you've probably heard of it.  Her style is almost like she took LSD Dream Emulator and decided to make it purposefully scary and not accidentally scary like the original game.  LSD Dream Emulator is a shit game though and Anatomy, which isn't really like that game but maybe some influence here and there, is great.

I think that plum has a lazy eye.

Yeah I know that title is bleh.  I'm pretty sure there are 2,000 pieces of media titled "Anatomy" without even including actual anatomy textbooks.  Most are horror and/or thriller stories, many are zombie and/or evil doctor related, and a handful are porn....don't ask why I know that (or do I don't care).  This Anatomy is about a house.  A very, very, dark house that the player goes into for some reason and collects tapes in which a narrator gives a philosophical treatise on what is, a house.

For a game built on the Unity engine, it is fantastic.  The atmosphere is superb even if it might be a little too dark at times (mainly the basement but I think that may have been on purpose?).  Anatomy is a horror game that uses more psychological horror and that never ending sense of unease.  If I could describe this game in one word it's "dread".  You walk through a very dark house seeing through a VHS tape (you get the tracking lines and everything) with almost no sound.  You collect tapes to play in a old school tape player in the kitchen while constantly feeling like something is coming after you, or something is wrong with this house, or ghosts or something.  It's set up SO WELL that you are not sure why you are afraid....but you are, and that deep dread sinks in.  This game is intriguing and a game I'm afraid to ever play again.  Its horror is that good.

You also can't see shit.

Everything other indie horror games get wrong are not here.  The cliches are mostly absent but if they are used, they are used ONCE and only after you've had some time to get a feel for the house.  The premise and setting is similar to other games, a haunted house, but this has a major twist on that idea.  There are almost no jumpscares* and no monster whatsoever.  There is nothing chasing you.  There is nothing to run from.  You are dead the moment you start this game, maybe.

*There are only two "jumpscares" but neither are traditional.  One is a game breaking glitch, the other is a pre-ending.  They are used rarely and thus far, far, FAR more effective than the run of the mill indie horror games that jumpscare too often and get predictable.

This is a game you absolutely have to play repeatedly.  3 times just to get one real ending, possibly several more for the "true" ending.  I'm not sure but I think they are random or dependent...on....some....thing I can't find out.  I even read a goddamn NeoGAF thread and nobody there seems to know what causes what ending.  There is a read me file that says one ending is the "true" ending so ehhhhhhh???

When you open the game a 2nd time things change.  The horror intensifies and other Kitty Horrorshow tropes (?) start happening.  The game uses glitches to add to the unease.  The second playthrough alters enough that you start to think the house is infectious, actually altering the code of the game.  It's fucking bizarre and also one of the best jumpscares I've seen in a long time at the end.  You know you've finished an act when the game just hard quits.  It just crashes.*

*This is a small spoiler but right before the crash, the door to the basement opens on its own and I nearly shit myself.  Unlike every other indie horror game that uses opening/closing doors 15 fucking times, this is the only time it happens in Anatomy and is far more effective.  It's really the only time anything moves on its own.

....I'm sorry?

The third time you play it is out of this world.  The deep dread is realized in this final act.  You start out on the top floor in one of the bedrooms instead of the entryway.  The glitches are out of control.  Objects in the house will have doubles overlapping or be placed where physics says no.  And even though I knew what the house WAS after the first playthrough....this act was still terrifying.  The ending in the basement got me good too.

It's amazing that somebody can make a Unity Engine game feel this wrong (in a good way).  The game is very, very, very quiet....which makes every stupid little sound dreadful.  They aren't bombastic in a jumpscare way, but you hear a slight...thing in the distance and it's THE WORST.  You can check.  Nothing is there.  Yet there is a primordial instinct that good horror uses and Anatomy uses it so well.  There was a sound where there shouldn't be.  Be afraid.

I can't stress enough how great this game is and a true horror classic that almost nobody has played.  It is certainly more accessible than a normal Kitty Horrorshow game (I don't want to dig through folders to find your game) but that new age meta horror is all the rage right now and this one hit.  It hit hard.  It's available for 3 bucks on Itch.io if you wanna give it a go.  Almost all of her other games are free.

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I recorded video of my play through but it's of poor quality and there is no way I can edit it into something decent before the spooky month is over.  Here is a good spot in the game about the door and the hard crash.  Or, you can watch the whole video for the full effect.  

VA-11 Hall-A Cyberpunk Bartender Action Review

Yet another game (and genre this time!) that I take a gamble on because I have a little bit of money left on a gift card.  It was recommended by Steam due to Deus Ex being a cyberpunk game and this is a cyberpunk visual novel/bartender sim.  The full name is VA-11 Hall-A Cyberpunk Bartender Action.  I like cyberpunk stuff, I liked my bartending jobs, and I love me some action so...why not? That mouthful of a title will be referred to as Valhalla for the rest of this post just like the characters do in the game....."game"?  AH YES, am I going down this road again?  No.  I'm not.  Just, let me call it whatever.

Valhalla is a bar the protagonist, Jill, works at as a bartender.  Over the course of the game you mix drinks and talk to guests, most of which become regulars or already are regulars before the story starts.  The game has a bunch of anime style storytelling (it's a slice of life story...more on that later) and light anime art style.  I say light as it's more in the style of Cowboy Bebop than Sailor Moon with many western influences.  It also kind of lacks a main story, kind of, and instead focuses on character driven sub-stories that sometimes intersect with one another as they meet each other in the bar.

Sometimes you meet a ghost....don't question it.  

I have NEVER played a visual novel before and after playing this I can say it's not really my thing but....I LOVED this one.  I'm willing to check out more but I know this style of....uh....game will be really hit or miss for me, mostly leaning on miss.  I think what helped this particular game is that I personally have worked several bartending jobs and there is just so many relatable moments to my personal experience in those jobs that I honestly think the creators of the...uh...game (two of them) worked as bartenders in real life.  It's spot on capturing that vibe, the lifestyle, the interactions with guests, the closeness with co-workers, and the bizarre moments that every bartender has been a part of.  It's magical.  

Jill was a great character to play as since she is kind of the same bartender I was.  She can barely make ends meet, she has a high tolerance for the shitty parts of her job, is really close to her co-workers, sometimes wants to go to work because she is bored (and her friends are there), likes and befriends some of her clients, has this dry wit that she can unleash on guests she doesn't like*, and can almost do a different personality depending on the person she is serving.  Also, not really like me, but kind of if I go back far enough, she has a deep regret about her non-breakup with her ex-girlfriend.  That story is this...uh...game's main story even though that barely qualifies.

This is me.  

*This is not a humble brag.  Every bartender ever has a dry wit they can turn on after enough practice on the job.  It gets to a point where you can insult a guest or regular you don't like without them even realizing it.  Sometimes the guest will double down and say something even shittier only to make the insult funnier.  

Most of the character sub-stories are about guests overcoming something, having a fun story to talk about, worrying about another character, and some have no story at all.  They just come into the bar and chat about whatever, then move on.  The...uh...game uses a ton of humor for every sub-story and can dip into sadness from time to time.  It's like working as a bartender.  One moment you have people who wanna have fun and party, the next you get somebody depressed who wants to drink their life away.  

The characters in Valhalla are solid.  Jill's boss Dana is apparently a badass and who I think Jill has a crush on.  Your other co-worker is Gillian and he is a fuckboy* who has some sort of mysterious past that seems mostly fake.  Guests include a douchebag newspaper editor, a weirdo who hates the bar, a pretentious snob who orders drinks cryptically, a shy white knight (sorta police officer) who is also a badass, a cat lady, a robotic pop singer, a robotic sex doll, several others, and talking dogs.......

And one Twitch Streamer-like character is obnoxious....but kinda funny.

*It's a running joke in the game since Jill and Dana constantly prod his personal life.  This too is true to bartending jobs.  

Oh yeah, the cyberpunk stuff.  

The bar is in a city called Glitch City (fucking christ that name is awful) where crime is rampant, AI robots called Lilim are everywhere, a super hacker is causing a ruckus, white knights are deployed as police/paramilitary, augmentation is a thing (Jill's boss has a robot arm plus some guests have robot parts) and the city officials are corrupt.  There is a super corporation who secretly controls everything and nanomachines are used to try to control people but that is important cause ghosts.  Yeah.  That part is weird.  

Most of the world building happens in Jill's apartment where you can read the newspaper and a 4chan clone*.  Other than that, everything else happens in the bar where characters may or may not have anything to do with anything.  All those stories in the world have little or nothing to do with the characters in the bar.  Some of the guests can give insights, but that is usually it.  Only a handful of times do the overall world building stories effect anything.  I like this about the game but it does leave me wanting to learn more.  More I know I will never learn.  

*There isn't that much honestly, but there is some 4chan humor in the game which was eye roll inducing.

Reading 4chan memes.

The slice of life style story is why that world building, with no conclusion, is okay with me.  This...uh....game is a snapshot of these peoples lives.  We learn some backstory, but not much.  We see what happens at this particular time and that is it (December).  You don't see this kind of snapshot storytelling very often and I enjoy it even if it feels non-conclusive.  But hey, these stories resonate because they are more true to life.  Life isn't a 3 act arc.  There is no happy ending here.  Just, an ending to this section, and a new one about to begin.  

As for the bartending sim part?  It's kinda lame.  Somebody orders a drink, you look it up in a recipe book, then pour with the right amount of ingredients.  Sometimes you need to age the drink, put it on ice, mix really well, or sometimes make *GASP*, two drinks at once.  I got bored with it.  Occasionally a guest will ask for something vague by style, taste, or literally ask for whatever.  One character will ask for specific things only as cryptically as possible and fuck that guy.  These shenanigans only pissed me off because I remember REAL people who did this shit and they can go fuck themselves.  However, just like in the...uh...game, those people will usually drink whatever you give them even if it's wrong.  

Before every shift in the bar you can set the jukebox and I gotta hand the game credit here in the "rarely talked about music part of any...uh...game review I write" section.  There are a lot of great tracks on this game.  In fact, I'm listening to it right now as I write this.  

Again, I loved Valhalla, but there are a couple of dumb points.  Two characters are more Sailor Moon than Cowboy Bebop in cat lady and robot sex doll.  Cat lady is fine as a character but her mere design is dumb (she is half cat).  The robot sex doll is actually a really, really, really good and funny and happy character that I liked even when she sometimes crossed the line into annoying comic relief.  But....why does she have to be modeled like she is 12 years old?  The game brings this up, she knows she looks like a 12-14 year old yet her mind is 24 years old-ish but come on.  It's that part of anime that creeps me the fuck out.  If you wanna have a robot sex doll character, fine, GREAT, just make them look of age for fucks sake.  And no, there isn't any sort of social commentary here that could justify it.

Why?

The other dumb point is with a character only Jill sees.  It isn't fully explained but something, something, nanomachines.  It's weird, especially because it's ALMOST explained in one of the endings but it feels like a scene got cut.  There was a build up and a resolution, but no reveal.  It's just weird.

That said the....UGHHH I'll stop this running joke...."game" is pretty great for a very specific reason.  Wanna watch a story with a little interactivity and drink some alcoholic beverages?  This is perfect.  The beginning of the game actually recommends grabbing some snacks and some beers before playing.  It was chill dudes.  Chill as fuck.

So that is VA-11 Hall-A Cyberpunk Bartender Action.  I had good times.

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I had no idea how to end this post.  

The SQUARE ENIX of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

So after the very good (gameplay and level design), the good but parts are iffy (story), we now get to the ugly.  This game has so many DLC, mircotransaction, freemium bullshit hidden I have no choice but to call it out.

Way back in the spring, I never finished a potential blogpost about the "augment your pre-order" thing Square Enix launched about this game before even announcing...the game.  Before any details whatsoever about Mankind Divided was released, Square Enix wanted us to pre-order for a bunch of horrendous shit.  Expendables, different jackets Jensen can wear, weapons only available for pre-orders and of course, a day one DLC.  The public overwhelmingly called them out on their bullshit so they dropped the pre-order advertising (they just re branded it) and made the day one DLC free.

Day one DLC is my most hated video game thing on this or any planet.  I have a hard time believing any worthwhile DLC came into being post-production on a game and hurried along for the day of release.  Desperate Measures, the day one DLC for this game, almost looks like a post-production DLC as it's only ONE HOUR long.  It's just a side quest loosely based on the main story.  However, the game recommends playing the DLC at the end due to spoilers but this side quest takes place about one third of the way into the story.  I smell bullshit.

Why Am I Here?

This side quest makes no sense to play after completing the game.  It deals with an event that happens at the beginning of the game and after learning who the villain is later in the story, makes this entire side quest a waste of time.  I know it's supposed to be a little side story that happens during the right time in the side story but that just begs the question, "Why isn't it THERE?"  Why is it separate from the main game?  Also, why do I have to re-spec my character?  My skill tree is empty at the start of this.

Desperate Measures is in a section called "Jensen's Stories" on the main menu.  It's where one more DLC as of this writing has come out, the one featuring Pritchard that I referred too and no, I'm not the least bit angry about that.  This one is 12 dollars and I'm sure this side quest could have been in the main game.  And apparently, you need to re-spec your character again.  What?  Why?  Ugh.  My head hurts already.

Also on the main menu, is a game mode called Breach.  This mode, you'll be surprised to learn, is garbage.  Why is this shitty free-to-play mobile game included?  I only played about an hour of it but it's so, so bad.  The controls feel like they should have been done with a touch screen and the difficulty of the levels went up astronomically fast.  Why?  You know why.

Microtransactions!

Game developers have gotten kind of smart about them since Dead Space 3 as you kind of have to look for them.  They aren't in your face in AAA games (mobile games though, sure).  And, just like in Overwatch, the games balance didn't feel like it was necessary to buy them.  The problem though is that this game sets a precedent on how they can sneakily make their way into games in a way they feel mandatory, eventually, in future games.  It's like Square Enix turned the douche nozzle up one notch just to see what they can get away with and if successful, they could turn it up another notch in the next game and so on.

A co-worker* of mine complained that a lot of the cool late game guns from Human Revolution are not in Mankind Divided, not in the game world anyway.  He browsed the mircotransactions for the hell of it and what do you know?  You can buy them there.  I only barely noticed as I played the game the right way, unlike my co-worker peasant, and only looked for those guns to resell in in game shops.  I didn't think much of it and just assumed I didn't find them for whatever reason. He wanted to use them because he plays Deus Ex guns-a-blazin lethal style like a lowly serf.  He looked for them with purpose and they are not there.

*This is unrelated but today I was talking with him about Dishonored 2 and he said he wasn't a big fan of stealth games.  BWAH?  How is he a big fan of Deus Ex and NOT a big fan of stealth games?????  Deus Ex is very stealth heavy.  Jesus man.  Ya think you know a guy.......

The most egregious change I saw was with the Praxis Kits.  Praxis Kits are this games ability points for your skill tree.  In Human Revolution, you get them from leveling up, found hidden in the world, or bought from in game shops.  In Mankind Divided you still get them from leveling up but if you can find one in the world, I'm still looking.  Okay I lied a little.  I found one...after looting the body of the final boss.  You know?  When ability points are super useful!  The end of the game!

This Asshole Has One.

In Mankind Divided, about half way through, Praxis Kits do appear in in game shops.  Here is where Square Enix gets tricky.  They now cost 10,000 credits.  In Human Revolution, they are 5,000 credits.   I know there is an in canon reason for the price hike as Limb Clinics closed down after The Incident and they are now rare but Hmmmmmmmmmmm........

For perspective, Deus Ex has always been stingy with credits.  I get excited finding a credit chip with 50 bucks on it, for example.  I didn't get over 10,000 until late in Mankind Divided so I bought one whole Praxis kit.  Not very convenient.  You know what is though?  You can buy one as a mircotransaction for 2 dollars of real world money.  Just 2 bucks.  You think maybe, just maybe, that price increase had little to do with lore and more to do with enticing people to buy the microtransaction?  I dunno......Buuuuuut, of course it fucking did and there are reports that Eidos Montreal, who actually made the game, didn't want to do any of it.

And what's really sad is that Square Enix has largely stayed away from this bullshit, instead opting for other bullshit.  Instead of DLC, they made two whole sequels for the worst Final Fantasy ever.  They then sold out the protagonist, Lightning, to appear, in...Louis...Vuitton...ads what?  They also claimed that the first Tomb Raider reboot was a failure despite selling 3.4 million copies NOT including digital sales (this was in 2013 too, not 2003), then deciding the way to fix that is make the sequel an Xbox One timed exclusive (it still isn't available for PS4 and PC).  Hell, this is a company who only recently decided remaking their biggest game of all time, Final Fantasy VII, might be a good idea while also being hellbent on fucking it up.  Seriously?  Making the combat system "modern" and going episodic is the dumbest idea ever.  Just make the exact same game as the original, step-by-step, with current gen graphics....you morons.

 For a second, you thought I was joking about the Louis Vuitton thing huh?

Unfortunately, Square Enix has always had a bit of envy towards the bigger publishers.  What's that Dark Knight quote? "You either die a hero or you live to see yourself become Activision"?  Just look at their super bizarre and woefully prepared 2015 E3 conference which happened to be their first ever.  They got embarrassed I guess and didn't bother in 2016, instead opting for the Nintendo Direct route by streaming stuff.  Wow!  That envy runs deep.  Even Nintendo Squeenix?

This guy happened in 2015 and honestly, I miss him.

As for Deus Ex, we need to call out this DLC/pre-order/mircotransaction bullshit when it happens even in an otherwise great game.  When we let this go and say "ah, it's no big deal" publishers are going to get more gutsy.  They have tried to emulate GTA/Skyrim, they have tried to chase the sweet COD dollars, they are currently trying to cut themselves a pie of Overwatch, but the worst is chasing Angry Birds/Candy Crush/Clash of Clans/...uh...World of War probably (the Kate Upton one?  Is that the one?).  Those mobile games nickel and dime massive profits for companies in a way that actually destroys the integrity of the game.  It brings the media back to toy status.  A cheap toy.  That feels awfully regressive.  So much for those "are games art?" debates.

Then again, Square Enix published this game.  They're usually good at the art part.  Terrible at the business part.

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Okay.  No more Deus Ex posts for a while.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Story Review.

Spoiler alert for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.  I did my best to write this for people who have never played the games and don't plan too as well.  

Played on PC.  Overall review is here and I refer to things I said in that post so read that first if you haven't.  

I will not be discussing the Icarus symbolism everywhere because I have no clue.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a superb story.  What starts as a basic corporate security revenge story against some terrorists with a dash of missing person mystery (You: "....what?") turns into a world wide danger conspiracy theory story with the Illuminati (You again: "....WHAT?").  Underneath this is a treatise on Transhumanism* that really puts this games story into all time classic territory.  It's this meta narrative that really helps this games' universe by using real world analogues to flesh out its augmentation discussion.  The game doesn't fully take a stance, although due to the nature of the main story it does lean pro-augmentation, so that the player can decide literally in a final choice at the end of the game.  The ending choice deals exclusively with the events at the end and lets the player, aka Adam Jensen, decide what message the media will tell.

*"Transhumanism" for lack of a better term.  For those maybe new to the term, the game has nothing to do with Transgender people.  Transhumanism is basically the term for cyborgs.  Someone with a prosthetic leg could be considered Transhuman.  In Deus Ex, they are referred to as Augmented, or "Augs" for short.  I know the use of the prefix "Trans" for this fictional world can be pretty insulting to Transgender people out of context so I thought I should clarify.

As the game takes place at a time when people are not quite sure what to think of this new technology, you are exposed to the pros and cons of augmentation.  Pro: It can give a war veteran a robotic leg/arm/eye/whatever.  Con: People need a drug called neuropozyne so that their bodies don't reject the augment (that corporations charge an obscene amount for).  Pro: They can push humanity into a level of awesomeness unachievable with our ape limitations.  Con:  Many are expensive and the rich just stay richer.  Pro:  They basically cure every disease.  Con: That neuropozyne dependency has some nasty side effects in some users.  Pro: They have uses beyond the ordinary like robot hands to be a great pianist or personality reading mind augments for the autistic.  Con:  Their price and demand leads to a black market.  Pro:  They make super soldiers!  Con:  They make super soldiers!

Pro: You get a skill tree...?

By the end, you have to decide between a world that, A. has unchecked augmentation research and a world that is very pro-augment, B. outlaws augmentations, or C. allows some augmentation but it is heavily regulated by the UN (Illuminati).  It ends up not mattering because Deus Ex: Mankind Divided retcons all three and opts for the hidden 4th ending which is fuck it.*  Yes, the hidden (barely) 4th ending lets Jensen not control the media narrative and let the world decide what happened.....but since the impetuous of what is known as "The Incident" had no media at Panchea (The secret facility in the arctic that lead to the whole thing), the thing is shrouded in mystery.

*Technically, Jensen dies in this ending but they just leave that part out for Mankind Divided.

The only people who know what really happened is Adam Jensen and David Sarif in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.  Sarif is relegated to a game long side quest about Jensen's missing two years of his memories and it's not resolved.  Sarif does research on your behalf to find the person who likely put in the new augments* but it turns out that dude is dead.  The trail goes cold and the player is left with questions.  Nice.

*It is cool that the game tried to give a story reason for your new augments, aka, new skills the designers added to this game.

Despite how Sarif dresses, he is not an Illuminati member....OR IS HE?

With Sarif neutered, the only other character who knows the truth is Jensen. (There are other survivors at Panchea, but none appear in Mankind Divided, so they're pointless).  Jensen can't really go public with his information as nobody would believe him and The Illuminati wants his ass dead.  So we are left with a world that doesn't understand what "The Incident" was and a deep fear that augmented people may flip out and start indiscriminately murdering again.

By choosing the non-ending, Mankind Divided does not continue the great conversation its own world built up.  Now it's a warning about police states. Augmented people are oppressed, many are forced into ghettos, only two businesses still make neuropozyne (both of which the Illuminati control) and are frequently the victims of violent crime the police don't bother to investigate.

Why did a franchise, that wanted to be a cyberpunk discussion of transhumanism, that even tested the waters with heady philosophical discussion on what it even means to be human, turn into an allegory for apartheid?  Am I still playing the same story, or a spinoff?

Augs, are, aliens?

Don't get me wrong.  I like the fact that a big budget AAA title is willing to talk about modern social issues.  It's just that this came out of nowhere, doesn't fit the main story, and its real world references are bad.

Okay....I've been delaying this while writing this very post.  I didn't want to talk about this because it diverges into the political but it needs to be said.  About the real world references....

Deus Ex: Human Revolution used arguments that were.....lets say "inspired" by real world arguments about gun control, gay marriage, and even abortion.  These worked because it helped the meta narrative by relating the fictional (for now) social issue of transhumanism to something the audience knows about.  I liked this in Human Revolution as it made its universe feel more alive.

Mankind Divided also uses real world analogues for its story but take a wild guess what it uses for being oppressed by a police state?  The Black Lives Matter movement (and to some degree Muslim oppression vs ISIS as the game has an all augmented terrorist group as the main villain).  #Augslivesmatter.  Oh my.  This is not a 1 to 1 comparison.

First of all, augmentations are expensive.  There are socio-economic underpins to #BLM.  And yes, while even affluent African Americans are also subject to discrimination (don't get me wrong, it's more racial than social), the poor communities are hit hardest.  I have a hard time thinking the Deus Ex society suddenly turned on these rich cyborgs because of The Incident.  If a bunch of rich people suddenly started going crazy and murdering people, do you really think they would be oppressed afterward?  They can control the narrative, just like what Jensen was given the ability to do at the end of Human Revolution, then I guess, didn't?  Also the Illuminati is a thing in the Deus Ex universe, some of its members ARE AUGMENTED, and why are they even doing anything?  Seriously.  I don't know what the Illuminati are doing in this universe.

Bob Page is augmented Illuminati member code named "Douche-nozzle"

Secondly, augmentations are usually a choice.  You do run into people where it was forced by necessity, like war vets and cancer victims, and some where it was FORCED forced like a mercenary and even player character Adam "I didn't ask for this" Jensen, but really?  Nobody was born an augment.  Unlike race, gender, sexual orientation....I can't think of one person born with a plasma cannon as a right arm.

Using Black Lives Matter, and the hints to Muslim discrimination, is a disservice to both the game and the real world issues.  So the question is, what is the purpose of them?

If it's to flavor your own fictional story, like Human Revolution does with its real world references, then it's sloppy.  It doesn't really relate and feels forced in this case.  The story is no longer a discussion on Transhumanism.  If it was, maybe using bits and pieces of BLM would be alright and add context to that discussion.  Mankind Divided however, is overtly pro-augment in its now direct story of police states and shadow governments.* The universe is no longer taking the middle ground on augmentation.  The discussion is gone.

*There isn't much, but there is some real world references to way too powerful corporations influencing governments and the UN.  These I liked better despite it all existing in the vague Illuminati plot.

If the game really is an allegory to real world issues, then it's insulting.  The apartheid story comes from the non-ending to Human Revolution and is comparing apples to oranges.  I honestly don't think the game meant to be this though.  I'd hope a game that was purposefully an allegory to real world issues, with a writing staff this good, would do a much better job.  But, it is an unfortunate accident that the story could be portrayed this way, even if that wasn't the intention.

That said, I still really liked the story.  The villain, Viktor Marchenko, has a pretty blah motivation as being a radical pro-aug terrorist while also being an Illuminati agent, so what his TRUE motivation is is sort of unknown but maybe a paid shill...????  Also, his past is mysterious and not well known either so who the fuck knows.  Other new characters are really solid.  I particularly like Alex Vega who is really Jensen's only real friend and confidant.  She is also one of the few characters you actually learn a lot about.  Elias Chikane, the new helicopter pilot character, is okay but I miss Faridah Malik.

Miss you. (She can actually die in Human Revolution but I refuse to fail that part.  She lives.  This is my canon).

As the kids would say, I ship Jensen and Malik.  Well, I did.  Vega sorta took her role over despite not being the helicopter pilot and instead being a cool hacker aug, so I ship Jensen and Vega now.

Bae.

Weirdly, only two major secondary characters from Human Revolution return, one being the aforementioned David Sarif.  You can ask him about Megan Reed, which who cares she shouldn't be here anyway, and Frank Pritchard.*  I miss the banter between Jensen and Pritchard.  That relationship dynamic was so good.  What starts as two characters unsure of if they can trust each other and trading witty barbs, become trusted friends who still throw witty barbs.  It was great.  I guess Chikane tried to fill that role but he was too much of a hard ass means business dude.  He literally tells Jensen he doesn't want to be his friend.  Jensen may have robot eyes Chikane, but do those eyes still not cry????? (They do not).

*Oh?  Oh what's that?  Pritchard is back!  In a DLC mission?  Thanks Square Enix!!!!!!!!  Oh.  Sorry.  I meant, go fuck yourself Square Enix!

Eliza Cassan also returns but the news anchor feels off.  Who is this lady on the news?  That is NOT the Eliza that helped me in Human Revolution.  Well.....she isn't!  There is an excellent side quest that starts with a glitching ad at a subway station asking for help.  You go place to place eventually connecting to one of the precog women from the end of Human Revolution (the ones with their minds attached to a super computer, The Hyron Project).  But THAT is because her memories are fuzzy and when you find her a "memory fragment" (on a floppy disk lol), the real Eliza returns!  Well, real being the previous AI that Eliza was, aka, my buddy!!!  She helps you later and just sorta hangs out in the ether as she can't exactly usurp the fake Eliza, but it's a nice change of pace to see a rogue AI story line where the AI is GOOD.  I love, love, loved this side quest.  It truly caught me of guard (I raved about it on Twitter) and it's just a great example of a side quest with a great story.  I'm....also a Deus Ex fanboy so YOU may not think it's as cool but hey, give me this.

She is kinda creeping me out though.

Finally, the ending.  Please put in a patch that lets people know this is the last mission because that was unexpected.  I was warned before hand so always did everything before every main story mission anyway but we should have more of a warning than the SAME warning every other main story mission gets.

Other than that, yay for using a Witcher 3 style ending where choices earlier in the game matter!  No pick three options.  You do have one final decision which seemed possible to save everybody if you do it lightning fast but it was my first playthrough so of course I failed.  I don't know how an augmented person saving a building full of people from an augmented terrorist made the world worse for augmented people but....oh yeah the Muslim references.  But still, this game literally wants you to save a few dozen pro-aug politicians instead of hundreds of innocent people for the better ending which LOLZ.  I get it, I do, but why again am I saving the rich people?  Your message is cloudy Mankind Divided.

Also in the ending, you learn the office psychiatrist Delara Auzenne is an Illuminati spy (Jensen doesn't learn this just the player) so that's a thing.  Jensen and Vega also decide to figure out who the leader of the hacker group Juggernant Collective, Janus, really is.  I'm assuming this is going to be a plot in the next game.  My guess, Janus is Bob Page.  He has a few cameos in this game and is the villain of the original Deus Ex.  Also, he's augmented and seems to be going off script with the rest of the Illuminati.

The fantastic story of Human Revolution still feels like a one off and not part 1 of a trilogy.  Mankind Divided puts a good amount of effort into continuing that story while also taking a sharp left turn into other themes.  This is a game I will likely playthrough another time and the world is deep enough that I may find new insights (I did not hack every computer and read every e-mail).  Just like Human Revolution, it may jump to classic status on that 2nd playthrough, but I kinda doubt it.

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Review

Played on PC.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of my favorite games of all time.  It's in my top 10!  It's a prequel to "every media outlet everywhere poll for the best PC game of all time", the original Deus Ex.  While I've played the first Deus Ex and thought it was great, DE:HR felt far more in tune to modern technology, modern society, modern politics, and skirted those just enough to be its own thing.  Deus Ex: Mankind Divided tries to be those things soooooooo hard, but it doesn't match up.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has a massive problem from the start.  Human Revolution had 3 (technically 4) endings that were at odds with each other.  Mankind Divided decided to make one canon and ret-con the others.  What feels weird here is they decided to make canon the ending, which was in my opinion, the worst.  Why?  Well Square Enix decided their money makers are in places that isn't obvious (Like another Chrono Trigger sequel you assholes. Hell it took them years, YEARS to realize a remaster or remake of Final Fantasy VII would make them ALL THE MONEY.) and so they decided Human Revolution is part one of a trilogy retroactively! This has disaster written from the start but I hope Eidos Montreal, who actually makes the game, is up to the task.

Spoiler.

So a game that is part two of a trilogy where part one was never intended to be the start of a trilogy feels disjointed and weird, which is not the least bit surprising.  Its story is still really, really, REALLY good considering most game stories are usually god awful and Deus Ex is a try hard, but wow did this just feel wrong.  It has an abrupt ending, a pretty major side quest being unsolved for either game 3 or DLC, and there are other side quests with no resolution.

Or hell....the MAIN STORY has a sort of resolution.  I.....

....Okay, I got the worst possible ending and I wasn't trying to get a bad ending.  I'm a little bitter.  The ending is much more like Witcher 3 as choices in the game determine the ending rather than a final "choose 3 options" choice, but I picked the wrong thing every time apparently.  This is due to my play style (more on that later) but I feel cheated.  I tried, I FUCKING TRIED, and I know that the best endings aren't that happy, but this was abysmal.

The story of Mankind Divided is good, but after Human Revolution, it's kinda garbage.  Protagonist and player character Adam Jensen suddenly works for Interpol and has no memory of the last 2 years because why the fuck not?  Yeah.  Sure.  Whatever.  But, Jensen is a double agent, working for the Juggernaut Collective (basically white hat hackers ala Anonymous)  and is spying on Interpol, while Interpol is kinda right about stuff too sooooooooo ahhhhhhhhhhhh ACTUALLY.  That's a good part. I'm complaining about and complementing the same thing.

Also the Illuminati are back.  I still don't know what the hell they are trying to do.

The ending to Human Revolution is referred to as "The Incident".  It's when Hugh Darrow decides to make every Augmented human (basically cyborgs) go crazy and start killing everything in their path due to some control switch because Sci-fi trope.  This leads to a world where Augmented humans are an oppressed minority (something like 88% of augmented humans are wiped out during or after The Incident which feels absurdly high) despite the fact that only rich people can afford augments in the first place.  Match this, with the REAL WORLD PARALLELS that the game tries to draw and I'm at a loss for words.....

....Actually, I'm not.  Human Revolution does it far better and you came here for a review so I'm going to continue this in another spoiler filled blogpost.  I just want to make it clear, that the story, world building, and references to real world issues is what put Human Revolution in my top 10.  Mankind Divided tries so goddamn hard to be that, but it seems to miss the very reason for its own existence.

Spoiler free, let me leave the story like this:  If you want to discuss Transhumanism, then do so like Human Revolution.  If you want to DECIDE what Transhumanism is, in a fictional universe, with almost insulting real world parallels that don't match up, then you need to be a different game.  As Adam Jensen would say, "I didn't ask for this."*

*I will write a second post in detail about the discussion this game desperately needs about its story.  THE STORY IS GOOD, but its issues are.....I don't know what to say without spoiling things.

The rest of the game though, is really, really, REALLY good.  Borderline great.  It's basically Metal Gear Solid V again.

I haven't forgotten you asshole.  You better believe I'll be writing about you again.

The gameplay, the thing I was the most worried about because every trailer made it look like a 3rd person cover shooter, is fantastic.  It is a carbon copy of Human Revolution only better.  The awkward 1st person to 3rd person in cover shift is still there, but the camera work is improved and no longer jarring.  It's still a stealth heavy game with its highly lethal gameplay (neither the player or the enemies can take much damage)  and while you can go in "guns a blazin", that's actually harder even with new augments.

I, of course, play Deus Ex the way it was meant to be played.  Full stealth, low aggression, non-lethal weapons.....WHICH fucked me on the story as I always tried to minimize death.  Fucking horse shit.  Basically, to get the better endings, you need to let some people die even though the alternative always seems like something you could take care of later.  Well, the final choice has people's lives at risk in both scenarios but the previous ones do not.

Anyway, the stealth mechanics are phenomenal with only Metal Gear Solid V being better.  Cover works well and you are given controls on how and where to be in cover that are hard to explain. It's not a dynamic cover system like The Last of Us or Uncharted, but it does give the player a ton of control and is far more fluid than the sometimes clunky stealth systems in other games. There is a new run/roll to side cover that didn't exist in the previous game that is a very welcome addition.

Augmentations, the skill tree for Deus Ex, is filled with old and new abilities.  There are more non-lethal takedowns as well as stealth skills.  Stealth skills include a cloak, leg silencers, vision that lets you see through walls, and a Dishonored style "blink"- fast dash that can also be used as a non-lethal takedown.  You can also hack things from a distance now, thank the fucking sun god, and also you can craft a multi-tool which is a one use device that can hack anything.  Just point it at the thing you want hacked like a gun and boom. The fancy toys you get are balanced between lethal and non-lethal in the skill tree with many being defensive.  I'm not sure about the more lethal weapons as I play Deus Ex the right way you plebeians, but Lets Play footage shows them being far more balanced with non-lethal weapons.

HACK AT A DISTANCE YES YES YES.  (This is far closer than necessary BTW).

The other half of a good stealth game, the enemy AI, is slightly better than Human Revolution.  Enemies will talk with each other face to face, then walk off to do their normal guard route.  Enemy AI varies from just standing there, back and forth patrol, circular patrols, and even some triangular patrols.  By far, one that kept killing me in the early game, is a new feature where guards will walk in one direction, suddenly turn their head to CHECK BEHIND THEM, and I'd be fucked.  Video Game enemies can turn their head to look behind them while walking in a different direction?  What is this madness?  (I like it.  It killed me a ton until I learned to be more patient).

There is one thing this game beats Human Revolution on and it's Mankind Divided's stellar level design.

It's so goddamn good.  This game is a master craft on level design.  It's open world-ish with most of the missions taking place in the city of Prague.  There are so many different ways to traverse the city I need to replay it to see them all.  You can take the streets, the sewers, or go high up along balconies and vents and holy shit.*  The level of detail is absurd.  This is a relatively small open world so it allows a ton of intricate detail you don't see in large open world games and I NEED THIS.  I hate walking up on another random shack in open world games to find nothing worth while.  Everything here leads to something interesting.

That pill ad's mouth leads to a subway station.

No matter where you need to go, at the very least, there is a second way to get in (many requiring the right augment).  Main story missions have DOZENS of possible paths.  I noticed paths in my playthrough that I didn't use because it was dumb to from my position.  Hell, I brought out old open world gameplay tactics and tried to explore everything only to be put in a poor position compared to where I was earlier.  My advice, play Deus Ex as a real person in the situation would.  Just get to your objective.  The gameplay and level design is perfect for multiple playthroughs as trying to "explore everything" is likely to get you spotted and harder to go full stealth.

I cannot rave about this games level design enough.  You wanna go there?  You usually can.  There is a level of verticality here that is reminiscent of Dishonored here, which was desperately needed in the previous game.  While you still don't run along rooftops too much (a little), there is far more to do above the street than in the previous game.

It's gorgeous too.

Other RPG systems are expanded from Human Revolution but iffy in execution.  Dialogue trees seem buggy at times.  I'll have a character tell me I really screwed things up and that it was "chaos" on that last mission despite performing that mission with full stealth and never being seen.  The hell are they talking about?  They didn't even know I was there.  Rarely, but noticeable, and NPC would answer a question I didn't ask.  It didn't happen often but it was jarring when it did.  Also, you now have a Mass Effect style interrupt that is so sparingly used I usually missed it.  However, the "conversation bosses" from Human Revolution are back but more frequent and harder.  A personality type may flash Alpha and Omega during a sentence.  Just pay attention to what flashes the most for the right answer.  Also, you will run into somebody who knows about that augment :D :D :D :D.  It was amazing.

Speaking of bosses, the TERRIBLE bosses from Human Revolution are gone.  Every boss has a Metal Gear Solid vibe to them as they can be beat with stealth and, thankfully, non-lethal weapons. Unfortunately they are really easy as they couldn't counter my brilliant strategy of 1:  Toss EMP grenade, 2: Use cloak augment, 3:  Run up while invisible and PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE.  End fight.

Even this guy just needs one hard PUNCH TO THE FACE.

So, the gameplay is identical and slightly better, the skill tree is identical but with new stuff ripped from Dishonored, the level design is identical but perfected with inspiration from Dishonored (....huh), and the worst part of Human Revolution, the boss fights, are discarded in favor of Metal Gear Solid style "smart" boss fights.  Why isn't this game an all time favorite?

It's all in the story.  See my next blogpost.

Regardless, I do really like this game.  I, again, really like the story despite its different tone from Human Revolution and appropriation of real world news. It's soooooo nagging being forced into a part two of a surprise trilogy.  The 2nd part is the best in many franchises (see Mass Effect 2, Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2, arguably The Two Towers and the 2nd Hobbit movie whatsitsname) but in others it isn't.  Hopefully, this isn't Back to the Future 2, a good movie that led to an underwhelming final movie.  Deus Ex:  Mankind Divided is a good game.

Too bad I'm too invested to know if it really was.

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Some footnotes that didn't fit into my post.

1.  The hacking mini-game is way better here but with the aforementioned Multi-Tool, which I used a ton, the hacking minigame felt tacked on almost.  Like it didn't need to be there.  Some people love it, I'm indifferent to it.  I rarely had to use hacking software so had dozens of them in my inventory that I should have sold in retrospect.

2.  Oh yeah, crafting parts are everywhere but I mostly just crafted multi-tools.  You can craft ammo too but I never needed too because of my low aggression play style.

3.  This game got Square Enix-ified........OH SHIT.  3rd blogpost!