[Adam Jensen] Sometimes, you just have to let go
and embrace what you've become.
[Title theme]
[Narrator]: Adam Jensen, the cybernetically-augmented security expert
and trenchcoat enthusiast from 2011's Deus Ex: Human Revolution is back.
Set two years after the events of Human Revolution,
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes place in a world where
augmented people find themselves increasingly marginalized and dehumanized
and the game couldn't be more explicit about drawing connections between
the oppression they're experiencing and actual historical situations
in which entire populations have been systematically oppressed.
Unfortunately, the game lacks any moral conviction and ultimately doesn't
have anything to say about the very serious issues that it raises.
[Jensen] If the augmented are behind this,
maybe they felt it was their only recourse
or maybe terrorism would stop if the
ruling class realized how often their own actions contribute to it.
[Narrator] But before we dive too deep into the game's themes
of oppression and discrimination,
let's talk about the experience of playing Mankind Divided.
Much of the game takes place in Prague, and despite the tension in the air
between police and augmented people,
the streets of the city have their charms.
There's a subdued beauty to the architecture
and the advertising and street art lends the city some life
as you make your way around,
talking to characters to complete side-quests and advance the story.
However, the core stealth action of Mankind Divided
actually feels like a step back from that of Human Revolution.
In Mankind Divided, you have even more augmentations to choose from,
but that doesn't translate to a greater,
more enjoyable sense of freedom in gameplay.
You only have so many points to spend
activating and upgrading your augmentations
and you may find that you don't get many opportunities to put the ones you choose
to good use.
Where Human Revolution was focused on letting you use it's more limited assortment
of powers effectively, Mankind Divided is spread a little too thin,
trying to accommodate too many abilities,
and as a result, most of them don't end up feeling as useful as you'd hoped.
On top of that, the game doesn't always function that well.
Enemy AI sometimes doesn't react appropriately,
waypoints don't always clearly tell you where to go,
and if you ever agree to knock a particular person unconscious
and deliver him to a storage locker,
let's just say,
you may run into a few problems.
Issues like this, though, can be altered or fixed with a patch.
The issues with Mankind Divided's story run much deeper.
Adam Jensen's flat, one-note delivery
in every situation is tiresome.
[Jensen] You're not talking about protein bars, are you?
[Narrator] This guys sounds so grim and grizzled, it's as if just cracking a smile
would be enough to shatter his cybernetic sunglasses.
A story like this
that acts as if it's interested in exploring real issues of humanity
would have benefited from a protagonist
who shows a little more humanity himself.
Additionally, the game's plot just doesn't work on the basic level
of being an engaging story with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
[Man] Interpol will be confused for weeks,
and with our continued guidance,
people will come round eventually.
[Narrator] Rather, it's an incoherent mess of shadowy conspiracies
that feels incredibly unresolved when it arrives at its abrupt ending.
Ultimately, Mankind Divided's story feels entirely like setup for the next game
rather than a story that's worth telling on its own.
However, the most significant problem
with Mankind Divide's narrative
is the way in which it fails to take a stand on very clear issues
of moral principle.
The big question looming over humanity in the game
is whether or not the UN should pass the "Human Restoration Act",
a piece of legislation which would lead to the global segregation of augmented people.
Some countries have already started relocating augmented people
into ghettos, and those that remain in cities like Prague
are now asked to "Show their papers",
while cops can be heard talking openly
about their desire to kill augs on sight.
[Cop] I wish we could just shoot any aug we see.
[Narrator] The game is explicit, even heavy handed,
in it's attempts to link the oppression faced by augmented people
in its fictional setting
to the oppression and violence that some populations have faced
in the 20th and 21st centuries.
[Man] It is a war of us on every augmented human.
[Narrator] But these parallels are tremendously misguided
for a number of reasons.
Within the world of Deus Ex, augmented people are feared
by many of their fellow human beings because of the "Aug Incident".
The "Aug Incident" occurred when
Hugh Darrow, the antagonist of Human Revolution,
broadcast a signal that forced augmented people around the world
to lose control and attack others,
resulting in the deaths of 50 million people.
So on one hand, Mankind Divided wants us to consider a scenario
about a fictional population of cybernetically augmented people
who actually do represent a threat to the safety and wellbeing
of all of humanity.
Within the confines of this fictional scenario, one might reasonably ask
how humanity should confront that danger.
But then, on the other hand,
it wants us to see echoes
of the treatment of actual oppressed populations
in the plight of the augs.
Populations whose humanity is stripped from them
not because they choose to undergo some procedure
or because they represent a threat to others
but because of their race or religion or sexuality or gender identity.
And there is absolutely no moral ambiguity
with regards to the treatment of any of these real world populations.
[Man1] You can't tell me you're comfortable
forcing people out of their homes and into that ghetto.
[Man2] I'm comfortable enough if it means we're safer here in the city.
[Narrator] Emblematic of the game's unwillingness to take a stand
is the way it positions a group called ARC
or the Augmented Rights Coalition.
Posters in the game that include the words "Augmented Lives Matter"
explicitly link ARC to contemporary American civil rights movement
Black Lives Matter, which arose in response to the very real, widespread,
systematic dehumanization and murder of black people by police.
It is simply outrageous for Mankind Divided
to appropriate the language of this
vital and necessary social justice movement
for its own narrative which has no moral backbone whatsoever
and to apply that language
to a fictional organization that, like everything else in the world of Deus Ex,
is neither just nor unjust
but resides somewhere in between.
[Woman] The Augment Rights Coalition was started with the best of intentions,
as a non-violent way to confront injustices
and advance the cause of augmented rights.
[Jensen] OK. But in my experience,
the best of intentions often go awry.
[Narrator] ARC presents itself as an organization
that strives to push back against systematic oppression
and assert the basic human rights of augmented people.
But is ARC really a nonviolent human rights group?
Or is it a terrorist organization?
Of course, in Deus Ex, it's both. Or neither.
[Jensen] Think ARC is dangerous?
[Woman] Might be.
Shit. Probably.
[Narrator] The game raises real-world issues about which there are
very clear things to say
and then it refuses to say anything about them.
It has to take place in an entire world of moral ambiguity
where everything is painted in shades of grey
Where the oppressors and the oppressed
are all bad and neither side is entirely wrong or right.
To be clear, the problem here is not that the story incorporates issues
of systematic oppression.
Some of the best science fiction ever written
engages in serious explorations of socio-political issues
that have a real impact of how people live their lives.
Games can do the same.
The problem is that Mankind Divided layers these concerns onto its surface
presenting a grim, gritty sci-fi world in which these issues exist
but rather than actually exploring them
and coming to the conclusions that doing so would demand,
the only response it can muster
is a shrug.
[Fanfair]