[typing]
Has it really been five years since Human Revolution? Wow!
All right, well it's about time for another Deus Ex game from Eidos Montreal,
and it's finally here in the form of Mankind Divided.
I've been anticipating this one like crazy because Deus Ex: Human Revolution was
a genuine pleasure that left me salivating for more.
And while the Director's Cut was even better in some ways,
the drip feed of mobile games and spin-off properties since then
have not exactly satiated my desire for cyberpunk awesomeness.
So, yes, I absolutely asked for this.
Start a new Mankind Divided game and you're greeted with a similar difficulty selection
to Human Revolution.
And if you're curious about whether or not you can jump in without having played the others,
you absolutely can.
Especially with the 12-minute intro video that catches you up on the story.
But even without that, Mankind Divided stands on its own,
thanks to an almost entirely new set of characters,
environments and convenient plot developments.
This time around, it's the year 2029.
Since the events of the previous game where some Illuminati crap happened
that made augmented humans go crazy and murder millions,
many quote-unquote "normal" humans have understandably started to mistrust them.
But this has gone too far and augmented rights are quickly being stripped away,
and there are talks of rounding them all up into what are effectively concentration camps.
This has led to an increase in augmented extremist terrorism, so it's all up to you
to navigate the sociopolitical nightmare by punching out green-haired people!
[punching sounds]
You still play the role of Adam Jensen,
and he is once again played by a man who seemingly gargles with concrete,
Elias Toufexis.
Except this time instead of being shot and tossed through a bunch of glass,
you've been blown up and tossed under the rubble of a train station.
This conveniently damages many of your biomechanical abilities
known as augmentations,
giving you a fresh start and the freedom to rebuild your augs piece by piece.
It also lays the groundwork for the story this time around,
which mostly takes place in a futuristic version of the city of Prague.
And, man, I am getting some Half-Life 2 vibes here.
I absolutely love the look and feel of this place.
I also appreciate that there are quite a few sections that actually take place during the daytime
instead of the eternal midnight of games past.
That said, there's still plenty of darkness, both literally and figuratively,
along with brooding about your existence while moping around in a smoky haze,
shirtless, drinking whiskey.
But there's more of a variety in aesthetics this time around
with parts of the Czech Republic, the Swiss Alps, Dubai and London to visit throughout the campaign.
Also, as a recovered graphics snob,
Mankind Divided had me relapsing pretty hardcore while playing this on PC.
I ended up just ogling the details in each level before I did anything else.
While this stuff is by no means necessary for making it a good game,
I still want to give props to the folks behind this
because they did some fine work indeed.
And while I haven't had any technical problems since I optimized the settings for my system,
I've seen some major issues reported with frame rate and crashes by other people,
and it doesn't even have DirectX 12 support at the time of this review, so
pay attention to the state of things if you're looking into the PC version.
Otherwise, it's also available for PS4 and Xbox One.
Anyway, let's get right into the gameplay,
now that I'm done geeking over screen space reflections and parallax occlusion mapping.
Mankind Divided plays almost exactly like Human Revolution, and I'm okay with that,
with a delectable mix of action, role-playing, first-person shooter
and stealth gaming elements,
blended together in an effort to try and appease multiple play styles side by side.
And for what it's worth, I think they did a stellar job in improving the potency of this mix
without sacrificing what made HR so captivating.
For one thing, it seems to reward each action more fairly than it used to,
so you're not given way more XP for taking the stealth approach instead of guns blazing, for instance.
It also has a familiar yet revamped cover system
where you zoom out into third-person when you hit the cover button
but get an improved set of interactions that let you move around from cover to cover more precisely.
It's also less annoying to keep your augmentations going,
with a power meter that recharges completely this time, but
certain augmentations that will lower the capacity of that meter,
requiring a battery cell at that point.
Yep, this means no more munching on dozens of candy bars
just to smack a dude around.
[grunts]
Another win for accessibility is the tutorial system,
which is crazy for me to say since I'm usually not a big fan of them,
but this is one of the best I've seen.
Not only is it completely optional,
but instead of forcing you to go through an area how it wants you to,
you're given a separate instance within that area.
This makes experimenting with new stuff actually fun
without affecting how you want to play the game for real.
And the new stuff is quite awesome, indeed.
Since Jensen is equipped with new experimental augmented doohickeys,
like shooting stun bolts and super-heated metal shards from his arms,
activating a ridiculously powerful but power-hungry nano shield or TITAN skin for defense,
and the Icarus Dash that basically lets you teleport over short distances.
Your weapons have been made more flexible as well,
with the ability to craft items and upgrades,
alongside a customization system seemingly straight out of Crisis,
letting you swap parts, firing modes and ammo types on the fly.
I'm also happy to report that the boss battles can be completed
in much that same way as the rest of the game:
lethally or non-lethally.
I'm just glad it gives you some choice this time around,
instead of just shooting at a bullet sponge with a bunch of weapons you may or may not have.
And somehow they've managed to make the levels more intricate, too,
while also staying easy to navigate.
Prague may be the only hub city this time around, divided up into two parts,
but it's packed with far more detail and exploration payoff that works in logical ways,
making it seem more like a living city,
compared to the ghost town effect of HR.
Sadly, you don't get another entire city to explore, though,
and that sucks because I was really looking forward to another Hengsha experience.
While you do get to check out other parts of the world for certain missions,
most of the time that's indoors anyway, so it doesn't feel terribly different in practice.
But the sheer number of ways to enter even one room
is what makes all of this so engaging to me.
For just one room you could, say,
hack the security systems,
break down the door, steal a key card,
climb onto the roof or through a window,
break through a weak point in the walls,
read someone's email and get the door code,
or when all else fails, there's probably an Adam Jensen-sized air vent nearby.
And if that doesn't do it, there's the dialogue and conversation system,
which makes a return almost completely intact from HR.
And again, it's precise with no guess work.
You know every word of every line option before you say it.
Not only that, but you frequently will have conversations that are genuinely unpredictable,
and have notable immediate consequences to the game's world.
And maybe it's just because Fallout 4 was so bad about this stuff last year, but
it was insanely refreshing to play a game that treats its conversations with such respect again.
It's entirely possible to say one wrong thing or take too long getting to a certain person
and the story will take a significant turn,
often cutting you off from completing a string of missions
and giving you ample reason to play through again.
Having said all that about how the story changes,
the story is also the biggest reason you may lose interest in the game beyond one playthrough.
As well-rounded and enjoyable as the game mechanics and the environments are to explore and manipulate,
the story stands out just as much, but for the opposite reasons.
The plot is a big letdown compared to previous games.
It just didn't pack nearly the punch I expected.
Yeah, it's full of global conspiracies and tales of injustice that parallel modern society, but
it's also full of villains out of a third-rate Metal Gear fan fiction and
lead characters that I couldn't care less about.
There was nothing much about the story that stood out to me at all,
except for the very end
when things seem to be heating up and then... that was it.
It just ended.
Not even a push-button multiple endings thing,
just one lackluster final chapter.
All that build up and it ends with a whimper,
promising much but leaving me with narrative blue balls.
And I would say this is pure sequel bait,
but it makes me wonder if the full ending was
chopped up to be added in as paid DLC later on.
And maybe this is just because I've played fifteen hours of a conspiracy game just now,
and it has me thinking strangely, but
I'm worried that the Season Pass contains the real ending somewhere.
Speaking of which...
What the nuts is going on with this game's microtransactions and downloadable content?
You can buy Praxis Points and in-game currency for real money from the main menu,
which to me is completely ridiculous,
seeing as it ruins the pacing of the game entirely.
And it's so well done, why would you want to screw with that?
Thankfully, it doesn't pull a Dead Space 3 and bug you about it during actual gameplay,
and it's totally optional, so I kind of don't care, but
its mere presence is still irksome to me.
So that's, you know, whatever, but the real crap is the fact that
consumable items you pay for through the Season Pass and whatnot
are one-time use only,
meaning that if you start up a save file and use them,
that's it! They're gone forever.
Who ever heard of self-destructing content like that, you know--
Makes sense in some cases, maybe, but this? No.
Anyway, beyond those stupid things detracting from what is otherwise a fantastic game,
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a fantastic game.
It has all the enjoyable augmented gameplay I hoped for and then some,
and it has an environment and a soundtrack and a look
that made me feel like I'm in a cyberpunk world that I never want to leave.
And despite the story kind of sucking,
the actual gameplay was so enjoyable that I immediately started New Game Plus
and played another four hours without skipping a beat.
I'd absolutely say it was worth my own $60.
Although I would say if you're playing this to be told a great story first and foremost,
you may want to wait for a sale.
[moody electronic music plays]
Oh, yeah, and I forgot to mention there's also a tacked on mode called Breach
that's sort of, but not really, multiplayer that I don't care about.
It's almost fun, except that it's not.
And that's all I have to say about that.
But yeah, if enjoyed this video, why not click some of these here?
I've got other reviews on related things and such,
and other videos coming out every Monday and Friday
here on LGR.
And as always, thank you very much.
My videos are augmented.