Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the sequel to 2011’s stealth-action RPG Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The game is set a couple of years after ‘The Incident’, which saw augmented humans going into a violent frenzy, being the focal point of the story. Players once again control Adam Jensen, an Interpol agent who is trying to bring the people behind that incident — the Illuminati, to justice.
Mankind Divided has one major hub city of Prague, a centre of the friction between augmented and regular humans. The police check for IDs and racism is seen throughout the city. Most of the game’s main story and side missions revolve around this conflict and how different factions of society deal with it.
The gameplay hasn’t changed that much and players can approach any objective through stealth, hacking, combat or social interactions. Different tools and abilities are available to facilitate all of these methods. Also present in the tech tree are more powerful Augs. The game balances this out by preventing players from using them properly unless they disable one entire branch of augments.
Every mission is structured to give players enough options to suit their style. Whether it’s a conveniently placed air vent to crawl through or the password for a door I found in another room, it always gave me the impression that I can adapt to scenarios as I wanted to. While the formula was always strong, almost every element has been improved here.
It has been almost three years into this console life cycle and there have been many showcases in graphics technology. Mankind Divided however was not offered the same time or budget. Body movements, facial animations, character models and the overall look of the game is a generation behind. It’s incredibly jarring to see Jensen make awkward gestures during conversations and the poor lip-sync harms the presentation.
The quality of writing has also gone down. Its story was clearly written for multiple games, but it ends on a low note while simultaneously failing to generate excitement. Aside from the story and presentation, the game is basically a better version of Human Revolution. If the previous game didn’t grab you, this won’t either. Fans of the 2011 title will find the familiarity to be its strongest asset. The rewarding gameplay loop makes Mankind Divided one of the best games to come out this year.
