I went back and played the original Deus Ex awhile back. It’s certainly up for debate but I distinctly remember feeling like it hadn’t aged very well. The first mission alone has a map that’s probably close in size to the entirety of the hub world in some modern games and after awhile wandering around aimlessly I eventually got bored and quit the game to go do something else. So I have a bit of a renewed apprection now coming into Mankind Divided, the latest game in the Deus Ex series and the second to follow everyone’s favorite robot boy with the most generic white guy name imaginable: Adam Jensen.
Yes that’s right, Adam Jensen is back, and more milquetoast than ever before! After the events of the previous game, Human Revolution, Adam has left the United States and gotten himself a job with Interpol in Prague. The world climate has changed significantly since the events of Human Revolution, the most noteworthy of which are humanity’s new attitude towards augmented citizens. That is to say they don’t like them very much. In fact a huge portion of unlucky augs have found themselves relocated to a ghetto in the desert known as Golem city, while the ones left in Prague are in constant fear of either being sent away or just harmed by the general population of the city. The game goes a long way to tell a complex story with some obvious nods to everything from racial discrimination to police brutality. Heavy stuff, and not really the kind of thing I think the writers at Eidos had the chops to pull off effectively.
Some folks around here subscribe to the belief that Mankind Divided’s story couldn’t take place because augmented people would be too difficult to repress. I can see the point, it’s hard to think of people who are strong enough to effortlessly throw vending machines around as vulnerable. I do however think that Human Revolution did enough to setup the downfall of the augmented, and Mankind Divided builds on it further, particularly in how it depicts drugs and a lot of the dependancy issues that people are now facing after having augments installed. Either way I think it’s inarguable that the overall tone of the game’s story isn’t exactly a home run. I’m not asking for a comedy here but there is absolutely no levity to be found, and the writing just isn’t strong enough for all of this to be played with the perfectly straight scowl Adam Jensen has on for the entire game.
I suppose your experience and pleasure derived here could wildly deviate from my own depending on how you like to play RPGs like this. I find that I enjoy these types of games best when I’m focused on speech and charisma, I’m always much happier navigating a dialogue tree or hacking a security panel than I am shooting grenades into crowded rooms. From that perspective Mankind Divided does a fine job accommodating my silver tongued desires, although I will mention that I was a bit disappointed to discover that after you invest in the conversation augs there’s almost zero challenge in winning the game’s debates.
I picked the game up on the Xbox One with the intention of loaning it out to some others who I knew would be interested in trying it out but not so interested they would purchase it. I’m happy with my decision to purchase the game on a console insofar that I was able to complete it without too much pain but if you’re the type of person who’s even mildly concerned about performance you really need to steer clear of the PS4 and Xbox releases. Lucio completed his playthrough on the PS4 and wanted me to make sure I mentioned he encountered several crashes, something I never encountered on the Xbox. It’s anecdotal but maybe you can use that info regardless.
I did a full pacifist run for my playthrough of the game, and while I don’t have any major complaints regarding the game’s stealth I will comment that I’m often not very good at it. As a result I find the game’s “save anywhere you like” philosophy to be an incredibly valuable one. Alas though once again I paid the price for picking the game up on console as loading saves produces some agonizing load times. The same could be said of your frequent rides on Prague’s subway, which always feature the same animation looping over and over again for way too long. To make matters worse the game seems to revel in asking you to ride the subway back and forth as often as possible. The most heinous moment came towards the game’s end where I was asked to go wait in my apartment for further instructions, after a long subway trip I found myself at home only to be told to immediately head back to the station and go right back to where I had been. Maybe it’s trivial on the PC but on consoles these moments do a lot to dissuade you from completing the game’s bonus content.
By the way what is it with Deus Ex games and their inability to stick the landing? Mankind Divided does a lot to combat the failings of Human Revolution’s “choose your own adventure” ending, but at the same time it also veers completely off the road with its own new problems. Those problems are mainly related to closure, by the end of Mankind Divided you will likely feel like, in spite of all your actions, almost nothing has changed from the beginning, in fact the game even makes things worse by teasing you with the “true villains” that you’ll surely be looking for should Square Enix see fit to give the series another sequel. I’ve heard it suggested that this game was possibly split into two parts and that’s why it feels so hacked up. If there’s any truth to it I do have to pay my compliments because the game is already plenty long without an entire second half tacked onto it.
Much has already been said about Square-Enix’s decision to sell Praxis kits (the game’s XP basically) in their online store. I won’t spend a lot of time here but let me just echo that it’s a shitty business practice, but thankfully it’s one that Eidos seems to have pretty much mitigated through their game balance. By the end of the game I found myself with more than enough points to build out Jensen the way I wanted to, and at no point was I ever tempted to spend any more money on the title. Nevertheless if you’re the type who’s offended by this kind of cash grabbery I certainly wouldn’t blame you for ignoring this game entirely. Good on you Mr. Conviction.
In spite of some occasionally hefty issues I enjoyed my time with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and I applaud it for offering me the kind of RPG experience that a lot of other games aren’t interested in doing anymore. I came really close to giving this one a four and a week from now I may regret my score but from where I’m sitting at the moment the game’s goofy story and lackluster ending make it difficult to dole out a sweeping recommendation. If you’re a fan of the series you certainly could have gotten something a lot worse, but ultimately I think Mankind Divided might be better fished out of a Steam Sale.
