Deus Ex Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

[Dedicated_Dark]

So.. should I play Mankind Divided or pretend the story ends at Human Revolution. Does Mankind Divided atleast give me a kind of satisfying open ending?

 

[CyberModuled]

Does Mankind Divided atleast give me a kind of satisfying open ending?

Not really, it just... ends. I can only really recommend it if you liked HR's gameplay loop and mechanics as the only thing it does better than HR is improved gameplay and a slight upgrade in level design scope.

 

[AW8]

So.. should I play Mankind Divided or pretend the story ends at Human Revolution. Does Mankind Divided atleast give me a kind of satisfying open ending?

Great atmosphere, setting, quest design, level design, improved gameplay, same level of writing as HR but with a less satisfactory ending due to it being obvious setup for a sequel. Fun augmentations and mechanics to play around with when sneaking past/fighting enemies.

The microtransaction nonsense that drew a lot of criticism is, while a disturbing vision of future monetization, entirely optional.

If you liked HR, you should definitely play it.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

So.. should I play Mankind Divided or pretend the story ends at Human Revolution. Does Mankind Divided atleast give me a kind of satisfying open ending?

this is how much care the game has been made with: game start, you are stopped by an extremely small and of very little meaning road block, the cop tries to get money out of you. two meters away from him there's a hole, a completely left unchecked hole into the wall they're presiding, you can enter through it, get out to the other side 15 seconds later and then be approached by the same cop who'll ask "so, will you pay me to pass?".
not kidding, not hyperbolizing, literally this.

 

[Beowulf]

The game also has this big city to explore, but you'll find that game discourages you from exploring too much - if you find your way into every tough to reach nook and cranny you might find some meaningless stuff, but if you go take side-missions that forces you to go to the same places you will find something more. The game doesn't allow you to stumble on interesting things by yourself.
Also, and that is my personal pet peeve - why do I get more XP to increase my shooting skills when I watch a very over-the-top third person takedown, than when I actually shoot stuff. They should ditch the XP for enemies altogether and just give the player XP for getting to places, or completing objectives. Sure, the difference is not that big, but I don't like developers pointing me at sneaky one button takedowns as their preferred way of dealing with opposition. Going to third person when sticking to walls is also poor decision. If I remember correctly, you cannot lean if you are in first person, you have to "stick" to a wall to be able to lean.

Other than that it's not that bad. The visuals are nice, levels are good; I don't remember anything standing out regarding characters and story, so they have this quality of being mediocre enough to not offend the player.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

actually the first encounter with the big baddie is interesting and smells of huge potential. only problem is that the big baddie has 30 seconds in the whole game.

 

[AW8]

game start, you are stopped by an extremely small and of very little meaning road block, the cop tries to get money out of you. two meters away from him there's a hole, a completely left unchecked hole into the wall they're presiding

The hole has a laser alarm in it (but one of the emitters is malfunctioning, allowing you to get past it even without cloak if timed correctly). The hole is also obscured behind an (initially) unmovable crate - I didn't even know about this passage until a later playthrough.

you can enter through it, get out to the other side 15 seconds later and then be approached by the same cop who'll ask "so, will you pay me to pass?".
not kidding, not hyperbolizing, literally this.

He's not a cop though, and the road block is fake. This can easily be handwaved as the thugs not wanting to push their luck by actively robbing people, instead of simply standing there and tricking people into handing over money without a fight.

Yeah, it's silly that there's no reaction to doing this (a single line of new dialogue would have essentially fixed it - "I don't know how you got through here clanker, but the price is still the same"), but it's an incredibly minor thing. What I find more noteworthy is the multitude of routes the game offers you to get to the courtyard where Koller's place is:

• Pay the fake cop
• Do the quest he sends you on and have real cops remove him
• Shoot your way through (real cops will be aggroed though)
  
• Fight or sneak past the Dvali-controlled alleyway
• Sneak past the checkpoint through the hole
  
• Climb to an upper story apartment and reach the courtyard that way

It's not greatly balanced, the latter two options are obviously the simplest routes once you've found them. But I think that the amount of options the player is given shows that yes, the game has been made with a lot of care.

 

[Yosharian]

So.. should I play Mankind Divided or pretend the story ends at Human Revolution. Does Mankind Divided atleast give me a kind of satisfying open ending?

Mankind Divided is a fantastic game, despite the story ending suddenly. I mean, it does 'end'. But it does feel like 'oh'. But the game is really very good, and worth playing if you liked Human Revolution.

 

[Teut Busnet]

So.. should I play Mankind Divided or pretend the story ends at Human Revolution. Does Mankind Divided atleast give me a kind of satisfying open ending?

Great atmosphere, setting, quest design, level design, improved gameplay, same level of writing as HR but with a less satisfactory ending due to it being obvious setup for a sequel. Fun augmentations and mechanics to play around with when sneaking past/fighting enemies.

The microtransaction nonsense that drew a lot of criticism is, while a disturbing vision of future monetization, entirely optional.

If you liked HR, you should definitely play it.

I think the writing / story are absolutely not on HR's level. So much so, that it drastically decreased my enjoyment of a sequel that otherwise manged to improve a lot upon an already great game.

In HR, I always knew why I was doing something, where I should go next - I was engaged. Even most of the bigger sidequests made sense to do (you help your ex-partner, not only because you're friends, but also because good contacts to the police will be helpful for security; you want to find out about your past and your parents yourself; you investigate the death of your girlfriend anyway, so you help the mom etc.).

In MD, I felt a bit like a police guy doing police stuff. The sidequests - while very good - felt more like the meat of the game and overshadowed the - already not very substantial - main quest. (Probably because the decison to cut the game in two parts came a bit late, so they had to produce some filler.) And the 'racism' analogy was forced and retarded.

Still a game worth playing though.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah I agree that the overall plot feels a little weaker than HR, however I feel that the moment to moment writing and characterisation is pretty strong.

I liked the freedom of just being able to do what I wanted. Sneaking into the bank on a whim for example. And then later being given a quest for that area and thinking 'oh yeah, I know my way around the bank, haha'.

 

[AW8]

The game also has this big city to explore, but you'll find that game discourages you from exploring too much - if you find your way into every tough to reach nook and cranny you might find some meaningless stuff, but if you go take side-missions that forces you to go to the same places you will find something more. The game doesn't allow you to stumble on interesting things by yourself.

That's not my impression at all.

For example, the Neon sidequest is structured like the Water Chip quest in Fallout 1. With meta-knowledge you can go to the factory and shut it down the first thing you do in the game. Or you can stumble upon any of the clues (which point to the next clue in the chain) and take it from there.
The forged papers sidequest can be started by stumbling upon the forger without interacting with the fake road block.
The cult can be stumbled upon at the start of the game.
And The Calibrator sidequest even has an associated achievement if you aquire the calibrator before Koller asks for it.

And though not a sidequest, you can rob 2 out of 3 bank vaults at the start of the game, but it's incredibly unlikely that you would find those without meta-knowledge.

The sidequests that only become available a bit into the storyline all make sense (to my memory), they don't magically spawn anything that couldn't realistically arrive there with the passage of time. Although they're never quite as nice as the ones that are a part of the gameworld from the start of the game.

Fake edit: The evidence in the bank apparently doesn't spawn until you start until you start the related sidequest, which is a major goof on their part and doesn't follow their design rules at all. It makes no sense to not let the player grab it in advance. So what you said is absolutely true about this sidequest, at least.

Also, and that is my personal pet peeve - why do I get more XP to increase my shooting skills when I watch a very over-the-top third person takedown, than when I actually shoot stuff. They should ditch the XP for enemies altogether and just give the player XP for getting to places, or completing objectives. Sure, the difference is not that big, but I don't like developers pointing me at sneaky one button takedowns as their preferred way of dealing with opposition.

Agreed. It's not a big deal, but I disagree with the design on principle. The original Deus Ex did it best, you don't get rewarded for taking out enemies or sneaking past them. You get rewarded for achieving your objectives, no matter how you accomplished them. Small increments of XP does not register at all for me, nor do they feel rewarding. Huge chunks on the other hand, do.

In MD, I felt a bit like a police guy doing police stuff. The sidequests - while very good - felt more like the meat of the game and overshadowed the - already not very substantial - main quest. (Probably because the decison to cut the game in two parts came a bit late, so they had to produce some filler.)

I love how it made perfect sense to do the sidequests since a lot of it is cop work and you're a cop, and how Jensen actually has authority and isn't just some do-gooder passing by. They're definitely overshadowing the main quest, whose TF29 side is great but not utilized nearly enough, and whose Juggernaut Collective side is meh and utilized in a meh way (Alex is a lame cutscene-only character constantly forced into the story).

But I find the overall writing level on par with HR - the dialogue, the setting, the events. It's not like it dropped off a cliff between games. It's just that HR was much more focused and had fewer (and thus more memorable) main characters. Essentially, the game tries to do too much in too little time.

 

[Beowulf]

The game also has this big city to explore, but you'll find that game discourages you from exploring too much - if you find your way into every tough to reach nook and cranny you might find some meaningless stuff, but if you go take side-missions that forces you to go to the same places you will find something more. The game doesn't allow you to stumble on interesting things by yourself.

That's not my impression at all.

For example, the Neon sidequest is structured like the Water Chip quest in Fallout 1. With meta-knowledge you can go to the factory and shut it down the first thing you do in the game. Or you can stumble upon any of the clues (which point to the next clue in the chain) and take it from there.
The forged papers sidequest can be started by stumbling upon the forger without interacting with the fake road block.
The cult can be stumbled upon at the start of the game.
And The Calibrator sidequest even has an associated achievement if you aquire the calibrator before Koller asks for it.

And though not a sidequest, you can rob 2 out of 3 bank vaults at the start of the game, but it's incredibly unlikely that you would find those without meta-knowledge.

The sidequests that only become available a bit into the storyline all make sense (to my memory), they don't magically spawn anything that couldn't realistically arrive there with the passage of time. Although they're never quite as nice as the ones that are a part of the gameworld from the start of the game.

Fake edit: The evidence in the bank apparently doesn't spawn until you start until you start the related sidequest, which is a major goof on their part and doesn't follow their design rules at all. It makes no sense to not let the player grab it in advance. So what you said is absolutely true about this sidequest, at least.

Sorry, poor wording on my part. I just checked how those side missions I was thinking about are called in-game. They are "Points of Interest" apparently.
Points_of_Interest
Basically you are given directions to some places, but you won't find anything of note if you stumble there on your own before you trigger the POI giver.

 

[J1M]

There aren't a lot of good Deus Ex games. While it may not be a classic like the original, this is worth a play.

 

[DalekFlay]

It lacks a bit of the heart Human Revolution had, but is a very enjoyable "immersive sim" anyway. These games aren't that plentiful so high recommended, because it's a good one despite maybe not being great.

 

[Lichtbringer]

I liked Human Revolution quite a bit and had a blast playing it, but Mankind Divided pales in comparison. Quite disappointing IMO and I am not surprised at all that the franchise is on hold.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i haven't played it, but i realized i have it on steam probably trough humble bundle. was kinda put off from what people saying by the game isn't complete

 

[Tancred]

i haven't played it, but i realized i have it on steam probably trough humble bundle. was kinda put off from what people saying by the game isn't complete

If you enjoyed HR gameplay you will almost certainly enjoy MD as well. It has plenty of side quests + some neat DLC missions, and Prague is a fairly detailed area with lots of opportunities for exploration.

The two big problems are the short main plot that ends abruptly and leaves you feeling like you just played half a game, and the lack of any proper hub locations other than Prague.

 

[Hellion]

The game's final boss feels like you're dealing with a henchman normally encountered during the mid-to-late section of any other game, it really seems like there should be a extra chapter to the story after you've dealt with him. Imagine Human Revolution ending after the Jaron Namir fight in Singapore. That, and the technical issues that plagued its release (mostly fixed by now), are the main reasons for its lukewarm reception.

Plus the fact that it starts X years after Human Revolution and it essentially requires you to read novels or play some mobile games or something in order to bridge all the story gaps of how Jensen ended up in Prague, which as a practice is beyond retarded.

But it's definitely not a bad game, per se.

 

[DalekFlay]

I never read any novels and got by fine. Maybe if you're super into the continuity it would be different, like people who insist you have to watch The Clone Wars to understand Star Wars (you don't). I didn't really mind Prague being the only hub because it was super well done and detailed, but you can't help but miss the variety the previous games offered. The main problem though really is the story, which feels pretty meh in general and then ends without much satisfaction. I don't remember it ending on a cliffhanger really, and the group behind the scenes is basically the one you fight in the original anyway. It was more just bland.

 

[J1M]

i haven't played it, but i realized i have it on steam probably trough humble bundle. was kinda put off from what people saying by the game isn't complete

If you enjoyed HR gameplay you will almost certainly enjoy MD as well. It has plenty of side quests + some neat DLC missions, and Prague is a fairly detailed area with lots of opportunities for exploration.

The two big problems are the short main plot that ends abruptly and leaves you feeling like you just played half a game, and the lack of any proper hub locations other than Prague.

That is largely because this is the execution of one of Warren Spector's ideas. An immersive sim constrained to a single city, so that it feels like you can explore most of the buildings.

Not a surprise that they tried this, but I prefer the heavy conspiracy focus of Deus Ex.

 

[Nano]

Plus the fact that it starts X years after Human Revolution and it essentially requires you to read novels or play some mobile games or something in order to bridge all the story gaps of how Jensen ended up in Prague, which as a practice is beyond retarded.

I read the Black Light interquel novel before playing Mankind Divided. It's a pretty good novel, to be fair.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

MD is a great game because it lets you explore Prague the way it was meant to be explored: by crawling through ventilation shafts

 

[Paul_cz]

MD is great because it is more of a spiritual successor to Bloodlines than to Deus Ex. And since Eidos Montreal cannot make a Deus Ex game anyway, it's fine that they emulated Bloodlines instead.

 

[unfairlight]

I just did my second playthrough of the game and the DLC for the first time.

The main game is really good. Gameplay is solid overall, although I would personally turn off the minimap if I replayed the game again. The minimap makes the Smart Vision aug basically pointless. The story and writing could have used a bit more work overall, and a lot of the choices were disappointingly one sided (choosing Miller over Vega is essentially always the wrong choice), and the dutiful Agent role can't really be done quite as well as a result. I think the DLCs were written by different people, or people who had more liberty in how they could write since DLC characters were seriously more interesting than most of the ones in the main game.
Prague looks astounding and the graphics are great. The lighting with the volumetric fog works really nicely and the end result is just gorgeous. Night time Prague is on a different level. Truly stellar work by the artists and graphics programmers.

The "A Criminal Past" DLC was just fantastic, the story works nicely because it's self contained and wasn't cut short like the main game, and it doesn't feel like cut side content like the other two DLCs. There's legitimate intrigue, good level design and multiple interesting characters that don't feel like they're one sided. There's only one real problem I have with it, and that's the instability. It crashed probably about 4 times in the 5-ish hours it took, the main game crashed maybe once or twice in the 31 hours it took.
The System Rift DLC did have some of the most entertaining dialogue in the game, though. Jensen's banter with Pritchard was really good.

 

[Metro]

Have they still not removed Denuvo from this shit?