Game News Deus Ex: Mankind Divided revealed in May issue of Game Informer

[Infinitron]

Tags: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided; Eidos Montreal; Square Enix

Just over a year ago, we first learned that Square Enix had trademarked the title Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. In an era of prolific Deus Ex branding, including Deus Ex Universe, Deus Ex: The Fall, and Deus Ex: Human Defiance, many weren't sure what to make of it, but it now appears that Mankind Divided is indeed the name of the next major Deus Ex title from Eidos Montreal. Square have set up some sort of elaborate viral ARG to officially announce it, but now Game Informer seem to have jumped the gun, announcing that the game will be featured in their May issue. That's official enough for me, so here are the details:

The original Deus Ex is one of the most critically acclaimed shooter/RPG hybrids of all-time. In 2011, Eidos-Montreal resurrected the dormant franchise with Human Revolution, giving the series an updated look while remaining true to the player choice-driven gameplay. Eidos-Montreal knew its game wasn’t perfect, and has worked to improve the series' combat systems and boss encounters for the latest entry in the series – Mankind Divided.

Set in 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution, Adam Jensen returns and joins forces with an Interpol-funded task force aiming to hunt down and capture augmented terrorists in a world that now hates and fears transhumans. Jensen has a new suite of augmentations that allow him to cleverly navigate stealth, combat, and social interactions, but how Jensen chooses to solve every problem is entirely up to you.

At the end of Human Revolution, the Illuminati caused every transhuman to go into a fight-or-flight response and attack anyone near them. In the next issue of Game Informer, you can find out how this event caused humanity to hate and fear those with augmentations. We spent two days in Eidos-Montreal's studio, talking with the team and learning about how they build a realistic future. We go in depth on some of Jensen's new augmentations that help improve the stealth and combat systems, such as the ability to remote hack electronic objects, fire off his nano blade from a distance, and surround himself with a nearly indestructible nanoshield. We also got some great examples on how the game will be as open ended as ever, allowing players to carve their own path through the world. You can only get these details in the latest issue of Game Informer.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided doesn't yet have a release date, but it's headed to PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
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In addition, a Russian website called Kanobu has leaked some information about the game, along with a bunch of screenshots, although they look more like concept art to me. Here's one of them:

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Yep, that's Adam Jensen, all right. Well, let's hope this is more of the The Missing Link and less of The Fall, eh? And a bit of Dishonored-inspired verticality would be nice, too. After all, they don't have that PS3/X360 low RAM excuse anymore.

 

[Angthoron]

I asked for this.

 

[felipepepe]

Jensen? But that makes my badass "blow everything up, incluiding me" ending non-canon!

Anyway, DX:HR was a good game, so I'm excited for this. However, I'm worried that the devs have said on a post-morten they regret that HR was "too hard"...

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Angthoron]

Anyway, DX:HR was a good game, so I'm excited for this. However, I'm worried that the devs have said on a post-morten they regret that HR was "too hard"...

Could just mean the boss battles. Which were really something completely else.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Deus Ex was the best CRPG of 2011, I'm glad to see a successor

 

[Tigranes]

A probably decent sequel to a decent game. I am mildly aroused.

 

[Zed]

*enters thread, fist full of doritos*
hey guys
*munch munch*
what's goin on in this thread

oh cool a new desu sex game

mm these new augmented doritos taste great

can't wait for more XBOXCLUSIVE UNLOCKS on GAMEINFORMERS XBOXTREME INFOPORTAL

 

[Luka-boy]

I enjoyed HR for the most part, so...

 

[felipepepe]

Anyway, DX:HR was a good game, so I'm excited for this. However, I'm worried that the devs have said on a post-morten they regret that HR was "too hard"...

Could just mean the boss battles. Which were really something completely else.

Nope:

Talk about setting the difficulty levels for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and if you believe the game offered proper balance.

In retrospect, I think our game is a tad too hard on normal difficulty. It was quite a challenging game to balance. Our first pass at game balancing was too permissive. Players were playing the game like a typical run & shoot action game. Players weren’t using tactics, let alone their augmentations. It was tricky to find that sweet spot where the game is hard enough that you want to think and use your tools a little bit more, while still allowing the FPS vets to have fun with combat itself. Unfortunately, the game ended up being too punitive for some. If I could go back, I’d tone it down a bit, all over the place (AI, more consumables all in all, redesigned bosses, etc.).

Source.

 

[Roguey]

boy I sure am glad that a genuinely original character with a compelling personality is making a return in this fan favorite franchise, i can't imagine how tired everybody must be with all these one-note meme-spouting generic badasses, it's good that Eidos is breaking new ground and keeping up with the intensely literary environment nowadays exemplified so perfectly by gems such as Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland 2. I can only hope the developers step up their game and do away their previous setting, which had a really boring background about techgizmo and transmenism, and move on to cinematic High Action (eat that, Robert E. Howard!) such as, say, an exciting chase for augmented nano-bio-terrorists who stole a prototype Typhoon Mark 2 from Sarif Industries which Bob Page had been developing all along.

i will now convey my excitement in form of an emoticon which is funny

What a shame.

 

[himmy]

in a world that now hates and fears transhumans.

Sounds like the Codex.

 

[Metro]

boy I sure am glad that a genuinely original character with a compelling personality is making a return in this fan favorite franchise, i can't imagine how tired everybody must be with all these one-note meme-spouting generic badasses, it's good that Eidos is breaking new ground and keeping up with the intensely literary environment nowadays exemplified so perfectly by gems such as Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland 2. I can only hope the developers step up their game and do away their previous setting, which had a really boring background about techgizmo and transmenism, and move on to cinematic High Action (eat that, Robert E. Howard!) such as, say, an exciting chase for augmented nano-bio-terrorists who stole a prototype Typhoon Mark 2 from Sarif Industries which Bob Page had been developing all along.

i will now convey my excitement in form of an emoticon which is funny

Go back to the shoutbox you lonely teenager.

 

[Rahdulan]

I enjoyed HR for the most part, so...

How strangely appropriate.

 

[SniperHF]

I always liked the Human Defiance title more.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

TBH Jensen looks quite cool on this pic

 

[Morality Games]

Actually I could stand to play this.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Some tidbits from the Gameinformer issue for easy reference:
-Takes place in 2029, 2 years after Human Revolution
-Listed as single-player, no mention of multiplayer
-Jensen is part of a covert, goverment-sponsored task force called Task Force 29, a new branch of Interpol, to combat a new breed of terrorism
-Jensen doesn't full trust Task Force 29, also feeds intel to another covert organization called the Juggernaut Collective
-In true Deus Ex fashion, you often receive conflicting missions, neither can be fully trusted
-Boss encounters are designed in a way to allow players to approach any way they want (stealth, full combat, etc)
-Eidos won't comment on which ending it considers canon but is trying to string together different parts of each ending for the overall background of Mankind Divided
-Story is in many ways a story of redemption for Jensen
-The story they're telling is building to events that take place in the original Deus Ex
-With Mankind Divided, they're exploring the original game's past; "Is the depiction of past events from the original Deus Ex true? Will we discover stuff we never knew?"
-One of Jensen's missions takes him to Utulek Station in Prague, now a ghetto for augmented individuals
-Shops line the streets, temporary housing units stacked on one another reaching upwards toward the sky; claustrophobic atmosphere
-Mission to track down a leader of an aug group, but police have captured the informant
-Can choose to butter up the informant's wife for clues or cause a scene with the police
-Alternatively Jensen can bypass this area of the game altogether and find the leader's hideout on his own
-Mentions Jensen engaging in tense conversation with the leader, resulting in a diplomatic solution or violence
-"You can go full combat or full stealth throughout any part of the game"
-Side quests meant to be more meaningful; ex. players can choose to make deals with criminal organizations and its mob boss might call in a favor later interrupting main missions
-Features twice as many augmentations as Human Revolution
-Aug examples:
Tesla: little darts pop out of Jensen's knuckles allowing him to tag enemies and take them out quietly
Silent Run: Allows Jensen to move quickly across any floor without making a sound (can combine with cloaking)
C.A.S.I.E.: Allows Jensen to analyze the mental state of individuals, helping him to respond adequately in conversations
PEPS Gun: Non-lethal weapon that pops out of Jensen's bionic arm and fires a concussive blast allowing him to knock an enemy out, kill him or flee
-Augmentation features can be assigned on the d-pad for quick selection
-Augmentations consumed a fixed amount of energy, when Jensen stops using them he regains a portion of it
-Can still refill his augs completely with bio cells, Eidos wants the recharge mechanic to encourage using augs more liberally
-New remote hack augmentation allows Jensen to activate shortcuts through areas to pass enemies
-No plan for Human Revolution saves to carry over, but Eidos is planning for a franchise now, want to expand further after HR's success
-Eidos noted fans who played stealthily enjoyed the game more so spent several years iterating on gunplay
-Jensen can adjust his weapons at any point mid-battle, changing ammo type, firing pattern, scopes, etc
-Some enemies have external tech like exoskeletons and mechs to combat Jensen
-Variety of enemies have a diversity of weapons, augments, or other high-tech combat tools, some have high-jump abilities, etc
-Focused on making A.I. more aggressive, flanking, etc

From http://www.telltalegames.com/community/discussion/94126/new-deus-ex-game

 

[Infinitron]

The Juggernaut Collective is the Anonymous/Wikileaks-like anti-Illuminati hacker organization that Jensen ends up teaming up with in The Missing Link DLC. You also work for them in Deus Ex: The Fall, talking directly to their leader, Janus.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

The Juggernaut Collective is the Anonymous/Wikileaks-like anti-Illuminati hacker organization that Jensen ends up teaming up with in The Missing Link DLC. You also work for them in Deus Ex: The Fall, talking directly to their leader, Janus.

Yep. It's also implied in Quinn's dialog that the Juggernaut Collective has some relation to the group of Russian researchers that eventually would found The Omar (from DX:IW).

Spoiler

The Omar was the only good thing about DX:IW

-Quinn

 

[Infinitron]

Hmmm, I don't think there's anything that really directly implies that. He is Russian and he namedrops the phrase "invisible war", but I interpreted that as just an injoke.

 

[Brayko]

My body is ready..

 

[CRD]

I wonder how they are gonna include all the decisions and endings of HR here.

Making single ones as canon will leave HR in a not very good position

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

I wonder how they are gonna include all the decisions and endings of HR here.

It's simple. All characters who can die in HR (Malik, Sarif, etc.) won't be featured in MD. Decisions and endings will be referred very vaguely. For example "there was some catastrophe in Panchaea, but almost no one knows reasons or details, and those who know something (as Jensen) are silent".

 

[TNOchan]

Director's Cut commentary was an eye opener on how much HR was cut down from what was originally planned, really hope they will bring that floating shit shader back.