It’s been exactly five years since the release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Eidos Montreal have returned to bring us a sequel that takes a few steps forward while also taking some backwards.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Developer: Eidos Montreal
Price: $60
Platform: PC/PS4/Xbox One
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS4 code for review
Mankind Divided opens up two years after the events of Human Revolution and we see the return of main protagonist, Adam Jensen joining Interpol as a way of tracking down the shadowy organization behind the events of the previous game: The Illuminati. After the brief tutorial you’re introduced to members of the Illuminati and this is where the game captures that conspiracy spark that was in the original game. Unfortunately, the bulk of the game decides to focus on the terrorist attack that threatens to divide the augmented and natural communities instead of the conspiracy angle the series is known for. The game touches on the conspiracy stuff a bit, but doesn’t go into it as hard as I would have liked. I’d be okay with this if the rest of the plot made up for it, but the game fails to deliver on its big sell of an “augmented apartheid.” The marketing of the game and characters you meet all tell you about this massive event that’s ready to shake society but you never really feel invested in it. Jensen himself is augmented but it never felt like he was dealing with anything grievous apart from the occasional snide comment. Jensen strolls wherever he pleases and does whatever he wants. This also bleeds into supporting characters, who are introduced and quickly shuffled aside just as fast. There isn’t a single character in the Mankind Divided cast who reaches the growth you saw characters go through in Human Revolution. Instead there are various characters that inhabit qualities of past NPCs like Pritchard or Malik but are never given the time to actually become anything other than a quest giver. The game tries to sell you on what’s supposed to be this big event with a wide cast of characters, but it feels more like I’m an outside observer instead of an integral participant.
The sidequests more than make up for the lackluster main plot. I don’t want to go into even the tiniest, sliver of detail because they’re best experienced without any spoilers, but almost every side mission was infinitely more engaging and entertaining than the main story path. You can easily drop hours combing through the city to see what it has to offer and that’s per phase. As you progress through the game you’ll leave Prague to complete a mission in a single, linear area and upon returning to Prague you’ll see the city go through visual changes and new side quests will open up. Prague itself is fairly large, several times larger than Detroit or Hengsha from Human Revolution, but the downside: it is the only hub, and is lacking in visual variety. The art design is on point in the environment, dripping with world building items such as ebooks or posters, but that’s all slapped on top of your regular, old European city. Location variety is something I really admire about the series, not getting that with Mankind Divided feels like a step backwards which, once again, would have been fine if the main plot hadn’t been severely lacking. Prague itself also suffers from some pretty noticeable framerate drops; simply walking down the busy streets will cause the game to drop to a stutter. I was playing on a PS4, but if the earlier build I played a few weeks ago is any indicator then the Xbox One version will run similarly and PC running much smoother. This is an issue exclusive to Prague though, with the one-off areas you fly to playing smoothly, but considering how much time you spend in Prague, it struck me as a major offense.
If you’re hoping Mankind Divided plays differently than its predecessor prepare to be disappointed because this is still a mostly stealth focused game and you’ll be crawling through a lot of ventilation shafts throughout it. While the game still controls primarily the same, it does feel a whole lot snappier. Jumping from cover to cover is easily done with a simple button press and shooting actually feels somewhat viable now. The gameplay also feels more balanced towards both stealth and shooter focused playstyles but this is still a stealth game at its heart. There’s just no better feeling than wandering into a building and scouring every inch of it to steal anything that wasn’t nailed down while making note of locations of possible loot that I should return to get later.
Early in the game you come to find out that Jensen was retrofitted with new augs in the time between both games where he was conveniently in a coma. This is the game’s way of both introducing new augments, and taking away older ones Metroid style. Most of the newer abilities, such as the always entertaining projectile nano-blade (Jensen’s retractable arm blades are now exploding projectiles), are locked off in a section called “experimental augs.’ Equipping these augments will cause Jensen to overheat and can lead him to experience glitches if he doesn’t cool down. To do so, you’ll need to disable one of your regular augments to lower his body temperature. It’s a neat idea that’s immediately made pointless when a major character tells you in the very first mission that there’s an item that will nullify the overheating issue. Now to be fair, you won’t be able to actually install this upgrade until the story progresses quite a few hours after this point, but it is a moot point to introduce a risk/reward mechanic like this and then immediately mention you can easily eliminate the risk. New to the series is a crafting system. Now you have no reason to worry about being low on typhoon ammo or hating yourself for not holding on to that multi-tool. There are crafting parts scattered everywhere and I felt like the game drew a good line of giving me just enough parts to feel comfortable knowing I could make whatever I want whenever I wanted, but not so much where I had a crazy amount of multi-tools.
When you need a break from sneaking through vents in the main campaign, you can try out the new Breach game mode. Breach is a mode where you play as a hacker tasked with infiltrating the servers of a corporation to steal data that will blow the lid off all the conspiracies. Hearing the characters talk about it is super campy and keeps teetering dangerously on the line between it being too much and just enough camp. Unlike the main game, Breach is separated into dozens of individual levels that can be completed in just a few minutes, if not a few seconds. In most of these levels your goal is to simply capture a necessary amount of data nodes but there are a few that will have you killing a certain amount of enemies or collecting hidden data fragments. Breach takes the Deus Ex formula but focuses on a more action approach to the combat while challenging you to beat your friends on the leaderboards. I wasn’t really expecting much out of this mode but once I saw I was #3 on the leaderboard for a level I instantly got hooked into getting that #1 spot.
If you want to stay competitive on the leaderboards you’re going to need better gear and to do this you’re going to need booster packs. Some are acquired automatically as you progress through the game but most of them are going to need to be purchased from the store which uses in-game and real world currency. These packs will reward you with tiered items such as guns or ammo, but the meaty items are the modifiers than can change elements of a level. Each stage allows you to permanently add three modifiers that do a variety of things like increase your speed or give extra health. The interesting modifiers are the ones that hinder you like adding a constant burn to your HP but in exchange will give you a sizable score multiplier; pair a few of these together and your score for a level will skyrocket. If you want to nail some of those time or score goals on the leaderboard you’re definitely going to want to make sure you select the right modifiers for each level.
Along with competing on the leaderboards, there are tiny pieces of story “missions” you can work your way through called DarkNet Files. This is where the conspiracy element comes into play as you play through those specific levels to unlock documents that will help reveal stories like the mysterious death of a girl who was cured of cancer. These bits of plot can be a little interesting but requiring to pay characters for their assistance comes off a little jarring considering we’re all apparently supposed to be working together to take down “The Man.” Completing stages will also earn experience which will then reward you with Praxis Points you can use to unlock augments for your character. Most of these are the exact same augs from the main game, but there are a few unique to Breach like double jump and increased crawl speed. Where Mankind Divided had you taking slow, cautious approaches to combat, Breach gives you a set of tools and challenges you to go nuts and blast your way through a level as fast as possible
Breach is also where the monster that is micro-transactions rears its ugly head. You acquire better gear through booster packs and you can either buy those with in-game credits or through real world money. I played a good chunk of Breach and never felt tempted to drop any money for a booster pack because I didn’t focus too hard on the leaderboard aspect, but for those players who will take the mode more seriously I can definitely see them getting seduced by it. If you want any sort of shot at competing on the leaderboards you’re going to need the best items and to do that you’re going to need to open a lot of booster packs. Breach can be fun if you’re interested in a distraction from the main game, but expect to hit that paywall if you decide to climb those leaderboards.
The Final Word
Mankind Divided falls pretty short as a sequel with a lackluster plot and some technical issues, but as a whole it’s still a well put together package that’s a blast to play.
– MonsterVine Review Score: 4 out of 5 – Good
