Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

We're quickly approaching a busy, busy gaming season in what has been a fantastic and exciting year thus far for games. 

I've counted and, starting Tues 9/27 with Forza Horizon 3, I'll likely be purchasing six (SIX!) games between now and end of year, assuming that none of them are duds. 

I suppose that's typical during this time of the year as gaming always has a jam-packed fall/winter so I like to counteract that time by not purchasing many games during the summer. This year I was fairly successful, only breaking to buy the superb Overwatch. But a short time ago I discovered that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the sequel to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, was releasing. I say "discovered" because Square Enix certainly didn't do anything to let me know...the game was practically completely unadvertised until reviews started releasing a week in advance. Almost reluctantly (but also kind of excited because the last one was so good), I ordered Human Revolution and have cranked through it with the goal to complete it before Gaming Season (patent pending) starts. 

The good news is that Mankind Divided maintains a lot of what made Human Revolution so great, but unfortunately it also packages some things that diminish the overall playability and fun and make it a bit of a forgettable sequel and game in a year where we've already seen greatness (and will likely see more). 

The janitorial team for this HQ is on point.

"You can't see me behind this desk!"
[sees spikey hair above desk]
"Hey he's over here!"

Alarmingly, the place that I struggled with the most in Deus Ex was its technical prowess. It's been a while since I've played a game that I'd consider buggy, but Deus Ex was one of the worst in recent memory for me. Oddly, I didn't hear too much outcry about it on the internet so maybe it was just me? None of these technical issues were game-breaking thankfully, they were just highly annoying. A few times I'd get so frustrated that I'd decide to stop playing. Mainly this was limited to significant and detrimental frame rate drops whenever I was running and there was a lot going on. Sure, this is something that you see in many games, but it's usually not a drop so significant that you can actually see the stutter on your screen. In Deus Ex, this was a common occurrence. Even worse was when it would seem to happen without a whole lot going on. Several times throughout my playthrough, during stealth sections no less, Adam Jensen, whom the player is controlling, would move forward in spurts. This stuttering movement was a problem because it seemed to not affect the enemies whom you're trying to hide from, revealing my position several times. A handful of times it was even so bad that Jensen moved backward against my will, almost indicating that the game couldn't keep up with what it was trying to do. Why this is, I'm not absolutely sure. The game looks good-ish, but isn't nearly large enough or pretty enough to warrant those kind of technical difficulties. Luckily, a recent 6GB (6 GB!!!) patch seems to have helped things quite a bit, but I can't pretend like it didn't make my playthrough rough. 

I couldn't have timed this screenshot any better. #thatsalotofketchup

Also a disappointment is the story, and I say that outright because I remember how awesome Human Revolution's was and this one had significant opportunity to be "bigger". The plot picks up a few years after the previous game where there was an event in which almost all augmented (meaning they've had mechanical enhancements to their bodies) humans turned crazy and attacked. Now mankind is divided [Huzzah! --> that's how they got the title] between normal humans and those that are augmented, the latter being heavily discriminated against. A recent are-they-terrorists-or-are-they-idealists augmented group has emerged and Adam Jensen, our protagonist, must track them down and ultimately it comes down to stopping them from a final attack. I think, given the current political climate and the division we're experiencing in real life, that a larger plot than "stopping the bomb" would have been welcomed and incredibly poignant. It's a forgettable story instead and the stakes were far lower than in the previous iteration. 

"Jensen...you do realize it's nighttime?
Why're you still wearing your sunglasses."
[music cues]
"I wear my sunglasses at night..."
[Jensen moonwalks away]

Mankind Divided excels in many areas though, particularly gameplay. I've personally always wondered why more games don't take advantage of using multiple perspectives and Deus Ex does it incredibly well. What that amounts to is, every time you're walking around, the camera is first person mode (think Halo) and whenever you're in cover, the perspective switches to third person (think Uncharted). I quite like this combo and I think more developers should take advantage of it. It works fantastically here and it allows the stealth gameplay to shine through. Running-and-gunning in Deus Ex was never the point so it's less skilled, but still competent. The game packs in a host of unique powers for Jensen, most of which are uber cool and useful. Some are simply different shades of another power, but overall, I found it difficult to decide which way to branch my powers and that's always a good thing. Moving from cover to cover, successfully watching enemy patterns, and getting the drop on them in some awesome attack sequences really makes you feel like a super-powered badass. I never felt too powerful though, which is important, because the game is somewhat difficult. Enemies are smart, alarm times are long and lasting, and getting in a firefight usually means you're dead or using a lot of resources to stay alive. It was a fantastic learning curve as I never felt it was unfair but that I needed to refine my approaches. Luckily the game also has a save-anytime feature so I never had to drop too far back and if I did, it was my own fault. 

I'll also add a short note on the hacking mini-game because it's quickly become one of my favorite ever. It's the same one that carries over from the previous game, and it honestly provided some of the most exciting moments of the game, particularly when I knew an alarm was attached to the computer if I failed. It would be too difficult to explain via blog review, but it's a smart combination of strategy, timing, quick thinking, and just a dash of luck. Often a greater risk results in a greater reward with higher difficulty hack terminals resulting in goodie-filled safes, unique paths, or secret rooms. Deus Ex, probably more so than its previous game, gives you a significant amount of branching paths. Some you won't be able to take because you haven't selected to unlock that power yet, but it adds a great amount of choice to the entire game, but not overwhelmingly so.  

I love me some good environment screenshots...

Technically, other than what was previously discussed, Deus Ex is impressive, but not very alarmingly next-gen. The graphics range from good to gorgeous, character models are detailed in game, but stilted during conversations, and the sound effects are on point. A huge shout out deserves to go to the original score that's about as future themed as you can get with dark, brooding synthesizers pulsing throughout. The controls themselves are a little awkward as suggested by the developers, but eventually you get used to them and I have to say, they're quite precise. There wasn't a single time that I'd press a button and it wouldn't respond, but things like switching weapons, taking cover, and putting your gun away are all quite awkward compared to what we're used to. 

While I still can't understand why Square Enix decided not to advertise this game, I am a little saddened that it didn't work out as well as its stellar predecessor. This year has been an awesome one for gaming thus far and it's likely that out of the six more games I'll be playing that they'll pretty much all be awesome. I fear that, because of the technical issues and small story, I'll not remember much of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided by end of year. That's a shame because it's a series that, despite a tiny misstep here, deserves to survive and have many more games to come. I hope to see that. 

CONS:

• Significant, but not game ending, bugs and issues while I was playing 
• The frame-rate consistently dropped during busy times
• Character movements freezing during stealth was unacceptable and annoying
• A smaller-scale story led to a forgettable one that missed a huge opportunity to be relevant and memorable
• Some awkward control schemes
• The maps (partially open) are forgettable
• Awkward conversation animations
• Where was the advertising for this game?!?

PROS:

• Adam Jensen is a cool protagonist and the voice acting in the game is well done
• Awesome gameplay that switches between 3rd and 1st person effortlessly
• Really fun stealth gameplay 
• Graphics that are mostly fantastic
• Awesome original music that keeps the play time intense
• Smart enemies that can be difficult if you get caught
• Brutal execution animations
• Very cool selection of powers that offers a lot of variety to the game play you prefer
• Your objectives are often reachable in multiple ways and the game consistently goes out of its way to offer you choice
• Hacking mini-game FTW
• Fun, edgy, intense --> Deus Ex is an awesome series that I'll gladly keep returning to

Rath's Review Score: 7.5/10