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Deus Ex Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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I'm 99% certain they did long ago.
 

Yosharian

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Grand Chien
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.
When I played this game many years ago I experienced zero crashes
 

DalekFlay

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When I played this game many years ago I experienced zero crashes

There's a well known crash in a certain area, I forget where, that happens with more than 4 cores active on your processor. Easy fix is to "set affinity" in task manager to 4 cores. That's the only crash I had.
 

Nano

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
Have they still not removed Denuvo from this shit?
The Linux version never had it. But it's a shoddy port with much worse performance than the Windows version.

There's a well known crash in a certain area, I forget where, that happens with more than 4 cores active on your processor. Easy fix is to "set affinity" in task manager to 4 cores. That's the only crash I had.
Played the game and DLCs with a 6-core CPU, never had any crashes.
 

DalekFlay

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Played the game and DLCs with a 6-core CPU, never had any crashes.

There's a pretty long thread about it on the Steam forums, I thought it was pretty repeatable. Maybe it's about threads though... does your 6 core have more threads? Also I think there were two points it happened and one was in the main game. Could also just be a Ryzen thing maybe.

Anyway whatever, if you get crashes try limiting your threads. :)
 

Alphons

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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.

Marchenko was actually supposed to be a henchman for another Illuminati agent- Hiroshi Saito.
https://deusex.fandom.com/wiki/Hiroshi_Saito

There's quite detailed concept art and some details available on wiki, so he wasn't cut out early in development.


Overall I've enjoyed Mankind Divided, it's a good immersive sim, but it's sitting pefectly in the middle when compared to the rest of the Deus Ex games - better than The Fall and Invisible War (duh), but not as good as original, HR or 2027 and Nihilum TCs.
 

JDR13

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Overall I've enjoyed Mankind Divided, it's a good immersive sim, but it's sitting pefectly in the middle when compared to the rest of the Deus Ex games - better than The Fall and Invisible War (duh), but not as good as original, HR or 2027 and Nihilum TCs.

I enjoyed it more than HR. It does a better job of making you feel like you're exploring an actual city. The environments in HR feel cramped and linear in comparison. The original is still the best, imo.
 

DalekFlay

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I enjoyed it more than HR. It does a better job of making you feel like you're exploring an actual city. The environments in HR feel cramped and linear in comparison. The original is still the best, imo.

Yeah the city stuff is really good, which makes up for there being only one. The mission stuff is a little worse than HR I think. Evens out maybe. My only real issue with Mankind Divided is the plot honestly, and maybe somewhat weaker mission design. The hate for it is really overblown IMO.
 

Alphons

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Overall I've enjoyed Mankind Divided, it's a good immersive sim, but it's sitting pefectly in the middle when compared to the rest of the Deus Ex games - better than The Fall and Invisible War (duh), but not as good as original, HR or 2027 and Nihilum TCs.

I enjoyed it more than HR. It does a better job of making you feel like you're exploring an actual city. The environments in HR feel cramped and linear in comparison. The original is still the best, imo.

I'm not objecting, as I feel that difference between HR and MD is more a matter of personal preference.

Exploring Prague was great, one of the best hubs in the franchise. Really loved the side quests and their open structure (I'm one of those people that stumbled upon Neon lab without even starting the quest). Combat and stealth are more refined and addition of new enemy types adds new challenge.

The thing that drags it for me down is the way how the game was clearly rushed from Golem City onwards. Both Golem and GARM are alright, but they both end too quickly. Illuminati council appearances don't make much sense in the context of what's happening with the plot many times. Marchenko is a weak antagonist who has as much personality as Barret. His boss fight sucks as you can just shoot him with stun gun and knock him out like every cop in exo- skeleton.
London was a really weak final location- way worse than Area 51, Liberty Island, Mt. Weather, Dynamene Station or Panchaea.
And worst of all- I don't feel like I got any resolution to main story- I just stopped main antagonist's henchman.

Edit: Also I have to clarify- I still really like it. The game would be amazing if they were able to finish their vision. Even with all the evident cuts it's still a really solid game that I've recently replayed with the rest of Deus Exes. It's a good Deus Ex game that for me is slightly worse than the best ones.
 
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Modron

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The "director's cut" is a port of the switch version so yeah there are quite a few graphical downgrades. Would be alright if you could still acquire the original one from steam but nope they removed the ability to purchase that one when they released the DC version.
 

RoSoDude

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Oct 1, 2016
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727
I've ranted before about why I don't like the DX:HR Director's Cut:

It's not just a visual downgrade. The Director's Cut is a step down in design as well. While the bossfights are improved, the integration of DLC into the campaign is a total mess. You get all of the pre-order bonus items, which unbalance the game (double barreled shotgun and silenced sniper rifle in the first mission? Seriously?), the Tracer Tong mini-mission now requires a boring romp into the sewers before you can leave Hengsha, and then there's The Missing Link... oh boy.

Dont get me wrong, The Missing Link is actually the best set of levels in Human Revolution. But it was designed as a stand-alone experience. TML is harder and lengthier than any sequence that precedes or follows it, making the endgame missions pale in comparison. It also has a different artstyle and is a huge 5+ hour distraction from the main story, which was just beginning to pick up pace. And the biggest problem is that, because it was originally a stand-alone mission accessed from the main menu, TML resets your progress 2/3 of the way through the game. This is a huge design problem. Deus Ex is about making permanent character building choices which determine the tools available to you to solve problems and bypass obstacles. Allowing, even forcing you to respec throws a wrench in that completely. What makes it even worse is that this extra mission throws so many Praxis points at you that, when you get all of your old equipment and Praxis back, it's easy to obtain every augmentation by the end, trivializing the choices you were making about playstyle and approach. Also my upgraded pistol never made the transfer due to a bug.

Get the original Human Revolution and The Missing Link separately if you can. The Director's Cut is a visual and design downgrade, despite what some may tell you.
 

DalekFlay

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Yeah, Missing Link in the main game is batshit. I think they were responding to loud people on forums who wanted it to be inside the main game, like a Fallout expansion or whatever, but they should have ignored those people. And the silenced sniper rifle especially destroys the game balance right from the start. Throw in worse graphics and it's a total shit show.
 

JDR13

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The Swamp
Overall I've enjoyed Mankind Divided, it's a good immersive sim, but it's sitting pefectly in the middle when compared to the rest of the Deus Ex games - better than The Fall and Invisible War (duh), but not as good as original, HR or 2027 and Nihilum TCs.

I enjoyed it more than HR. It does a better job of making you feel like you're exploring an actual city. The environments in HR feel cramped and linear in comparison. The original is still the best, imo.

I'm not objecting, as I feel that difference between HR and MD is more a matter of personal preference.

Exploring Prague was great, one of the best hubs in the franchise. Really loved the side quests and their open structure (I'm one of those people that stumbled upon Neon lab without even starting the quest). Combat and stealth are more refined and addition of new enemy types adds new challenge.

The thing that drags it for me down is the way how the game was clearly rushed from Golem City onwards. Both Golem and GARM are alright, but they both end too quickly. Illuminati council appearances don't make much sense in the context of what's happening with the plot many times. Marchenko is a weak antagonist who has as much personality as Barret. His boss fight sucks as you can just shoot him with stun gun and knock him out like every cop in exo- skeleton.
London was a really weak final location- way worse than Area 51, Liberty Island, Mt. Weather, Dynamene Station or Panchaea.
And worst of all- I don't feel like I got any resolution to main story- I just stopped main antagonist's henchman.

Edit: Also I have to clarify- I still really like it. The game would be amazing if they were able to finish their vision. Even with all the evident cuts it's still a really solid game that I've recently replayed with the rest of Deus Exes. It's a good Deus Ex game that for me is slightly worse than the best ones.

I value level design and exploration more than plot. I think that's why I prefer Mankind divided. I don't agree that Golem and G.A.R.M. were too small or that London was a really weak final location. I suspect some people claim that because they wanted it to be bigger, but I was fine with the size it was.

Personally, I feel like a lot of modern games are too long for their own good. I often find myself ready for a change by the time I reach the endgame or even before. It would actually have been a negative for me if MD was longer than it already was. I felt like it was close to perfect length for an immersive sim, but I should also mention that I'm a completionist who explores every nook & cranny.

Plot-wise, I agree it felt unfinished. That said, I didn't really care for the plot in either game. In fact, I can't even remember the primary antagonist in HR despite having finished the game twice. By comparison, I can remember almost every level in the original DX despite not doing a full playthough in about a decade.

The main thing going against HR though is how samey it feels throughout. Far too much of the game is a stream of corridors and ventilation shafts that end in rooms filled with more desks to rifle through. To be fair, I think being developed for the previous generation of consoles might have played a part in that, but whatever the reason, there just wasn't enough variation between the different locations for me.
 
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Alphons

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I value level design and exploration more than plot. I think that's why I prefer Mankind divided. I don't agree that Golem and G.A.R.M. were too small or that London was a really weak final location. I suspect some people claim that because they wanted it to be bigger, but I was fine with the size it was.

I enjoyed HR more because it felt like a more complete experience- MD left me slightly unsatisfied as I felt like I haven't really accomplished anything, which left a sour mark on a really good gameplay. At the end of MD I felt like at the end of Singapore in HR- OK, I'm done with henchmen, time for plot resolution and main antagonist.

I didn't mean that Golem and GARM are too small, they're just right in size, but for me they ended too quickly considering they consist half of the locations in game.

London on the other hand felt very linear aside from a really cool sequence where you pick off fake guards in the crowd and the end. But when the level finally opens up you get a time limit (not against it, just wish I had more to explore). And like I mentioned before Marchenko is both weak antagonist and weak final boss (though I really liked how you can influence the battle with him with deathswitch or jammer from cult).

I agree about play time, I'm also a completionist and I felt "stuffed" near the end. I think that certain parts earlier in the game could be trimmed to allow extra time for conclusion (and fixed the pacing).

Also, yeah plot in HR. You think that you're going against Illuminati, and then BAM- mad scientist made zombies. But it's functional, has good pacing (at least without Missing Link) and reaches a conclusion after you deal with plot's antagonists.

In conclusion- I like HR more as it's more of a well- rounded experience. MD has many improvements over HR, but also many things that I see as big flaws. Despite that I really like it and I understand why others prefer it over HR.
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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Aug 20, 2017
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The "director's cut" is a port of the switch version so yeah there are quite a few graphical downgrades. Would be alright if you could still acquire the original one from steam but nope they removed the ability to purchase that one when they released the DC version.
Wii U version, actually. It's easy to forget that was a thing that existed. There's no reason as to why a Wii U version may mean a graphical downgrade though, as the Wii U was on par or better than the Xbox 360 or PS3. I assume it was just a botched port more than anything.
What makes it even worse is that this extra mission throws so many Praxis points at you that,
Oh yeah, this is something Mankind Divided did well. I'd like to say I did the game pretty thoroughly, ghosting through most sections, playing fully non lethal and completing all but one side quest, and I never got everything I wanted. I was probably about 6-20 Praxis short at the end from getting some things, like armour, Titan, nanoblade, maxxing hacking out and probably something else I forgot.
I think Mankind Divided also did a solid job at hiding passwords and keycodes, which is something I don't think the original did too well or it did in a pretty annoying fashion. Adding the lockdown mechanic was also a really good choice since it means you can't just bruteforce keypads any more either.
 

LESS T_T

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Oct 5, 2012
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Codex 2014
Looks like there will be something next year, the 20th anniversary of Dues Ex. From Alexander Brandon, the composer of DX1: https://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBrandonMusic/posts/10156614638902621

4) Something you've all been waiting for for a long time is coming in 2020. It will coincide with the anniversary of the release of a game I'm somewhat known for :)

Though it's possible that this is just music related.
 

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