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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was released last week. It's the fourth game in the series (not counting the two mobile games), and is set two years after Human Revolution. Two years earlier, augmented individuals around the world went on homicidal rampages during an event known as the "Aug Incident". The reasons for the event are still publicly unknown, and have caused a great deal of fear of the augmented among the rest of the population. In response, countries around the world have instituted enforced registration and segregation of the augmented in an attempt to "protect" their citizens from the augmented. Sarif Industries collapsed, and was bought out by Tai Yung Medical (David Sarif himself is still alive and well). And Adam Jensen has a missing year. He woke up as a "John Doe" in a "recovery facility" for those rescued from the Panchaea facility one year after the Aug Incident.

In the wake of a series of terrorist bombings, the UN established a group called Task Force 29. Jensen was approached by the hacker group known as the Juggernaut Collective, and agreed to infiltrate TF 29 in an attempt to determine whether or not the Illuminati was pulling the strings of the new organization. His contact within the collective is a hacker named Alex Vega.

The world of Mankind Divided sucks and is sliding toward what we'll see in the original Deus Ex. For all of the social problems evident in Human Revolution, it was bright and cheery in comparison to Mankind Divided. Society is turning on itself, Eliza Casan mentions what might be the pre-cursor to the Grey Death, and a the police are present in force *everywhere*.

After you finish the game, stick around for a bit. There's a stinger that pops up a short ways into the credits.


The game's an interesting one. While earlier games didn't really force you to make irreversible decisions until the last level of the game, that's no longer the case here. There weren't many decision points that I saw, but the first of them appeared at what might have been the halfway point. And it was a doozy... Because you can't just replay the last level to see the different endings, I've yet to see how different choices affect the ending. That'll come later, I suppose.

Gameplay is familiar to anyone who's played Human Revolution. Jensen has his augs back... though after an event early in the game, he's forced to reboot his systems (he gets access to enough Praxis to give himself access to roughly 1/3 of his augs following that). And there's a new set of augs that are quite powerful. You can knock out foes at a distance, remotely hack objects (though not a full-on computer hack; you can use it to activate scenery objects, or to temporarily disable turrets, cameras, and robots), and other items. The most spectacular new aug is no doubt the new Titan Shield, which protects the user from all damage while it's up. Energy bars and pills are gone. They've been replaced by a new battery referred to as a biocell. Unlike the energy bars, biocells can also be used to power other objects that appear in the game.

The game still gives an achievement for making it through the game without killing anyone. And the description of the achievement makes it clear that you need to avoid killing the bosses this time around. Note, however, that the achievement does have loopholes. I knocked three guys unconscious, and then inadvertantly activated an electrocution hazard that killed all three of the unconscious men. I still got the achievement.


The stinger deploys some very strong sequel hooks. Expect to see something, though I'm not sure whether the story will continue in an expansion, or wait for a full-on sequel. The game also supports the addition of extra levels in what is referred to as "Jensen's Story". One "story", 'Desperate Measures', was included with the game. It's a fairly short additional level that you can clear at your leisure (though it's recommended that you don't start it until late in the game as it will reveal some spoilers otherwise). Two additional "narrative levels" have already been announced as part of the Season Pass, and I suspect that both of them will use that feature.

Micro-transactions have been added to the game. You can purchase praxis kits or credits within the game by using real money. There are, of course, complaints about this (note that those kits and credits are apparently only good for *one* playthrough). I'm more or less neutral on the subject. I had no trouble making it through the game with the default level of aug upgrades, and I didn't spend all that much money.

Completing the game unlocks a New Game+ mode, and also unlocks the 'I Never Asked For This' difficulty. The latter is basically the hard mode of the game ('I Am Deus Ex') coupled with Iron Man mode.

Scattered around the game are unlocks which are supposed to give you triangle designs (similar to the Deus Ex Universe triangle logo) which, when scanned by the Deus Ex app, will reveal backstory elements. Unfortunately, while I found one of the icons early on, I haven't been able to scan it with my iPad.


The game includes a new mode called 'Breach'. Breach casts you as a hacker using the new NDN holographic communications technology introduced with this game. The background on the levels is that you're hacking a supposedly secure facility called "The Blades", run by a big banking corporation. The NDN allows you to interact with the environment much in the same way that Adam Jensen interacts with his environment in the real world. The primary differences are that the levels in The Breach are much more fantastical looking, and there's a much stronger focus on action in The Breach. Your speed and skill in completing each level is compared with other players who've played through the same level, and you receive a ranking for how well you did. The Breach also supports micro-transactions, though in this case it's for the randomized booster packs that you can acquire by playing.

There's a small level of interaction between the main game and The Breach. I got a Praxis for use in the main game after completing an early Breach goal. And scattered around the world in the main game are thirty pieces of Breach software. Every five that you locate and hand in at a particular vendor gives you a bonus within The Breach game.

I finished the game last night. I have to say, this game changed my view on these prequels. Both of the times I played through HR, while I enjoyed it, I couldn't really immerse myself in the story because, well, I already knew how it ended: Deus Ex still happens, so what difference does Adam Jensen's actions make? With this game, I realized something: these prequels aren't really about Adam Jensen at all. They're about showing us how the world turned into Deus Ex; we're just seeing it through Jensen's eyes. So, now I'm really getting into it. It may also help that there is a stronger connection to Deus Ex in MD than in HR, as more of the Illuminati are featured, names that players of Deus Ex will recognize (I still think one of the best decisions they made was to bring back the original voice actor for Bob Page).

One thing I do dislike is how some possibly very important story elements are relegated to being side missions, some of them almost a "blink and miss it" kind of thing. For example, there's one mission that starts by examining one of the malfunctioning street signs you see scattered around. The problem, however, is that I first noticed them after I had done something in the game that changed many of the street signs, so I didn't think anything of it at first until I happened to get close to one by accident and had the interaction command pop up.

I have to ask why this game isn't getting so many posts in here for some reason. If the game is really that good then what's up?

I still need to get this game on PC but my RAM is far too low (only 6 GB).

 Wyrmalla wrote:

It's why I cancelled my preorder (I normally wouldn't but I have to save money on outrageous Canadian game prices). They want to give us half a game and microtransactions they get my sale when its half off.

The first post-release DLC is out. In 'System Rift', Pritchard makes contact with Jensen and asks him for a simple favor that ends up snowballing into a data raid on the most secure data bank on the planet - the Palisade Blades. Over the course of the mission, you learn the real purpose behind the Blades, and get background on the Breach game that's included with Mankind Divided.

As with 'Desperate Measures', the mission largely revolves around Jensen infiltrating a heavily guarded facility - in this case, a tower that's several stories tall. Late in the mission, there's a change up as you're forced to start dealing with a new detection system - sensors that can detect body heat. It makes for an interesting change of pace, though it doesn't last for very long.


Should you get it?

Aside from the heat sensors, there's nothing particularly new gameplay-wise. And the heat sensors aren't around for long enough, imo. The lore information that I uncovered was closely tied to the setting of DX:MD. If there's information in the DLC on the deep, dark secrets of the Illuminati, I haven't found it. For those who miss Jensen and Pritchard snarking at each other, it's a chance to hear that again (Jensen still doesn't like "Francis").

I found it a decent five hour diversion.


Mid-way through the credits, there's a stinger that reveals how the public sees the events of the DLC.

I finished it last week and quite enjoyed it. Similar to MK its a slow burner at the start but does ramp up nicely.
Having said that, as others have noted, theres nothing particularly new or innovative in it.
Level design, gfx and mechanics are very good however.
Feels like DX 3.5 rather a total reboot of the series ala from DX1 to 3.
I wouldnt (and didnt) pay full price but if you can get a discount or on sale its worth a play. I got 27 hours out of a full playthrough on all side missions.
Also managed all non lethal kills going through it which was a fun personal challenge.

A new DLC has been announced. Jensen is going undercover at an augs only prison in Arizona. Criminal Past releases on 2/23.

No word yet on what the rationale is for Jensen's involvement.

I didn't like it all. I played the origin and the sequel, but this one really left me flat. The story did not pull me in and the game play seemed tedious to me. Traded it in for Horizon Zero Dawn which is AWESOME.