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).
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!
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