Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Review

After a solid ten minutes of creeping around the final level of the game, waiting patiently for the right moment where I could take the last enemy down non-lethally and avoid the drones flying overhead, I finally found my window. So I had every expectation that I would be rewarded with the ‘Foxiest of the Hounds’ trophy – one given for not triggering any alarms over the course of the game. Yet, inexplicably, that little gold icon still eludes me. I never asked for this.

I did, however, ask for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the latest in the series from Eidos Montreal and the direct sequel to 2011’s excellent Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Mankind Divided is one of an increasing number of open ended RPGs, where emphasis is placed on player choice. It continues the story of Adam Jensen, ex-cop turned cybernetically augmented hero, and details the events following ‘The Incident’, where every augmented person on the planet violently turned on those closest to them. This has led to widespread mistrust and discrimination of the augmented, which is the situation the player is thrust into at the beginning of the game. Luckily, there’s no need to have played Human Revolution before (though you should), as you get the option of watching a 12 minute video which does an excellent job of recapping the main plot points of the first game whilst, setting the tone for the uninitiated.

The colour pallet may have dulled, but it’s still just as fun to electroshock a dude. Image Credit: Square Enix / Pressxtra

However whilst this is a continuation, the tone has shifted slightly; the atmospheric and memorable black and gold colour palette has been swapped out for a more realistic, desaturated one. About 20 minutes into the game you’ll be under no illusion why: the Enlightenment period of augmentations is over. The situation facing those with augmentations is hammered home in the beautifully rendered version of Prague, which serves as the hub for most missions over the course of the game. The subway stations are divided into ‘naturals’ and ‘augs’ section, the latter looking dirty and unkempt. You are routinely stopped as Adam Jensen and asked for identification, and ‘anti-aug’ graffiti is plastered throughout the world. Sadly it all feels little heavy-handed, the controversial and tone deaf ‘augs lives matter’ marketing stunt in-game being one such example. Unfortunately, this lack of nuance also permeates the main narrative at times.

Despite these missteps, one thing that can’t be understated is just how fun the gameplay is. Every mission can be taken on in whatever way you see fit – a locked door will have a security pad waiting to be hacked, a patrolling guard will have a pocket secretary containing the passcode or, if you look up, you’ll see a trusty vent allowing you to bypass the door altogether. Alternatively, you could just blow the door up. This flexible approach has the added bonus of increasing replayability and even a dyed-in-the-wool stealth enthusiast like me is enjoying creating mayhem in my second playthrough.

Prague offers another dense city for Jensen to stand around brooding in. Image Credit: Square Enix / Pressxtra

There’s a new cover-to-cover system, which makes movement seem a lot more fluid and the AI is less temperamental, so if the guards are looking for you, you’ll usually know why. Gunplay has also been improved since Human Revolution; you can now customise your weapons, upgrading them and attaching scopes and silencers, but shooting still doesn’t feel as weighty as more combat focussed games (although I’ve heard reports that this is improved when playing with mouse and keyboard). The console control scheme in general is a bit messy, and why on earth anyone thought it would be a good idea to holster a weapon by holding down square and tapping L2 is beyond me.

But thankfully the game offers a number of alternative control schemes for players having trouble. The augmentation system is much the same as any skill tree based system in recent memory. You can gain the ability to cloak, lift fridges (so many fridges) or convince someone that you are allowed somewhere that you absolutely shouldn’t be with ease. There are also new ‘experimental’ augmentations which cause Jensen’s system to ‘overclock’, meaning you’ll have to permanently disable another augmentation if you want to use them. It’s more forgiving than other RPGs in the sense that you won’t be locked into a specific version of Adam Jensen – if you suddenly feel the need to hack everything you see the only thing stopping you is Praxis Kits, which aren’t hard to get hold of.

For me, the best moments of the game come from the side missions; each one does a fantastic job of telling a fleshed out and contained story that adds to the overall conspiracy. These missions have the potential to make the player genuinely think about their choices and are your reward for careful observation and exploration – for example, one of the best side missions in the game only starts if you notice a glitch on a digital advertisement board.

The funky, Superhot-esq styling of Breach Mode adds extra value to the package. Just watch out for those micro-transactions. Image Credit: Square Enix / Pressxtra

Mankind Divided also has an online section of sorts, in the form of Breach mode. You take on the role of anonymous hacker going after some generically corrupt multinational companies. Essentially it’s a set of stripped down arcade challenges with your playstyle ‘monitored’ by the Palisade Bank AI and counteracted accordingly. This mode is where the complaints of microtransactions have stemmed from but, in my opinion, Breach mode is nothing more than a pleasant distraction and one that you can quite easily progress through on your own merits.

Overall, despite a couple of misses, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an extremely enjoyable single player experience, set in a tense cyberpunk world with conspiracies around every corner. I’m just left hoping that it won’t be another five years before I get see more of it.