Deus Ex Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

[Gerrard]

The microtransactions give us a glimpse of a dystopian future, but in practice they're not only completely avoidable but hidden away in menus as well. You don't even think about their existance while playing.

The Micro-Assembler Aug, which lets you dismantle things into crafting parts and reduce crafting costs, is a part of a DLC.
If you just bought the game with all the stuff later you won't even know this.

 

[commie]

Saying that Mankind Divided is short is a litmus test for proving you are a fucking imbecile. Seriously. It also proves that you are the typical love-me-some-handholding retard. Many retards claim that games with quest markers/compasses are "dumbed down" and handholding but apparently whenever you play such a game you can't resist at following the marker 100% of the time and bee-lining the main story ignoring anything else. Then you complain it was short, lol. You also can't resist playing an immersive sim like it was your average doom-clone then complain it had "bad stealth". Basically, you suck and blame the game instead of yourself. Happens all the time, that is why the industry is in such a shitty state at the moment, too many imbeciles and not many connoiseurs.

No, MD is not short, in fact, if you actually play the game properly, explore, try a stealth approach, do the side missions which are really quality, the game can easily last you 40 hours. And those are 40 quality hours, not grinding shit.

People like you are the reason the Jensen trilogy was never completed and instead we got an Avengers game. Fucking retards. Shut your fucking mouth and go back playing Fortnite with your wives' boyfriends.

I did it in 43 hours, checking everything. Game is fine, even if story is more low key. I get that everyone wants muh global conspiracy, but it felt like this was an interlude type of thing to introduce certain things that would have been put in a third game as a grand finale, but that never happened. I liked the Eastern Europe setting more than in HR.

It's based on a downgraded WiiU version, so it's not just the color changes. There's lots of little downgrades. I think Missing Link being there is bad whether you care about balancing at that point or not, just for pacing reasons, but if you really like doing it there you could always save and quit the main game and play the DLC then, before finishing the main game. Anyway, it's more the cheat item DLCs that I think break game balance. The game was not designed around you having a silenced sniper rifle from the start, that's why it has a loud as fuck sniper rifle and a quiet crossbow thing. Also wasn't designed around auto-unlockers which ruin the balancing of hacking skill points.

Anyway... this is a repetitive thing and people either agree or they don't. The original version can still be had at some key shops I believe, so no one is forced to do one or the other as far as I know.

I liked the integration of the DLC in the DC and played through both(The DC was free to owners of the original) so it was ok. I didn't really notice the changes only that I enjoyed not having piss filter everywhere. Just felt a bit less monotonous. You can always use ENB or whatever to change the look anyway, but I almost never bother with texture mods as they tend to change the intent of the artist more often than not, rather than just sharpen stuff.

 

[TemplarGR]

I did it in 43 hours, checking everything. Game is fine, even if story is more low key. I get that everyone wants muh global conspiracy, but it felt like this was an interlude type of thing to introduce certain things that would have been put in a third game as a grand finale, but that never happened. I liked the Eastern Europe setting more than in HR.

I agree. I love low-key stories as well. Especially when those low-key stories are part of a larger trilogy, because when the final part escalates things into the typical "save the world" territory, it will feel as a progression instead of "been there done that". For example, Witcher 2 was a low-key story as well, compared to the third part. And the first Witcher was also somewhat limited in scope, despite containing a mini "save the world" plot in the final acts.

Spoiler

I think Mankind Divided handled the story well, introducing some elements and also hinting at certain revelations that would happen in the 3rd part, including the fact that Adam Jensen was probably a genetically modified clone. Hints of that exist in both Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, plenty of those. Even the voice actor hinted at something like this, but alas, we never got the 3rd part...

 

[Lacrymas]

I'd say the original plan was to reveal Jensen as the genetic blueprint/donor of the Denton brothers. The problem is that that, while interesting, isn't all that relevant or revelatory. The same with Jensen himself being a clone. It has no bearing on anything except to show scientists are pretty sly in how they manage to research augmentation.

 

[TemplarGR]

I'd say the original plan was to reveal Jensen as the genetic blueprint/donor of the Denton brothers. The problem is that that, while interesting, isn't all that relevant or revelatory. The same with Jensen himself being a clone. It has no bearing on anything except to show scientists are pretty sly in how they manage to research augmentation.

Yeah, Jensen is more than likely the donor of the Denton brothers. But given all the hints in the Jensen games, it seems that Jensen is not a typical human, he seems like a genetically modified organism himself, probably grown in order for the company to experiment on him. I think it could be possible that even his memories were fake implants. In the first game you find some research notes about the patient who supposedly offered the solution to Megan's research and it is clearly Jensen, but it seems Megan hides something more sinister than that, like the fact that Jensen is not a real human. In the interlude between Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, Jensen was MIA, and was in an Alaska research facility but he doesn't remember much from there, and suddenly he appeared in Prague having some extremely advanced augments inside him that weren't put there by Sarif. There are many scenarios as to why this happened and many plot variations could evolve from this, but i think it is possible that the MD Jensen is not the HR Jensen at all. He is another clone, while the original died. And it seems the Illuminati are pushing Jensen's strings from the shadows to force certain outcomes. Something along those lines.

In any case, depending on how the writers would handle the 3rd part, it could have been amazing. They did create many cool threads in the first 2 games in order to have material to make an awesome 3rd part.

 

[Old Hans]

I've only played the directors cut version of HR and I see alot of people saying it's inferior to the original version. Why? Isn't the boss fights retarded in the original?

it's a port of the Nintendo switch version. original version is much better

It was released on the Wii U, not the Nintendo Switch.

that's even worse!

 

[AW8]

IIRC, if you DO NOT kill him/sneak past him after the first encounter, you do fight him again later and he's much more dangerous then (more space to use his AOE rifle, for example). Unfortunately for him, by then you're even more well-armed than the first encounter, so he still goes down easily. He does have some cool new dialogue though.

 

[Gargaune]

I'd say the original plan was to reveal Jensen as the genetic blueprint/donor of the Denton brothers. The problem is that that, while interesting, isn't all that relevant or revelatory.

JC certainly agrees with that sentiment. In his conversation with Morpheus he outright says "I'm engineered. So what? My brother and I suspected as much while we were growing up."

The same with Jensen himself being a clone. It has no bearing on anything except to show scientists are pretty sly in how they manage to research augmentation.

Eh, that could theoretically go somewhere, especially since they didn't just grow a new Jensen, they made a replica of the old one, name and all. Questions of memory and identity aren't exactly foreign to cyberpunk, and MD Jensen discovering that he's a clone of HR Jensen could have hypothetically delivered some character drama in a third installment.

 

[Lacrymas]

Sure, if it goes somewhere, but it has nothing to do with what we've been doing in HR or MD up until this point. Also that might contradict the cloning tech in Deus Ex 1. Why did JC and Paul need to grow up when they could spit out a fully grown Adam?

 

[Gerrard]

I'd say the original plan was to reveal Jensen as the genetic blueprint/donor of the Denton brothers. The problem is that that, while interesting, isn't all that relevant or revelatory. The same with Jensen himself being a clone. It has no bearing on anything except to show scientists are pretty sly in how they manage to research augmentation.

But wasn't Jensen also grown in a lab? There was that side quest in HR which revealed that his age didn't match, and his memories of childhood are fake.
I don't think he is a donor as much as being a product of the same research.

 

[TemplarGR]

I think what is a more likely scenario is that all the Jensens are clones that were grown in a lab and sleep in "capsules" and they can be activated and implanted with memories/identities. In Mankind Divided, in a mission inside the bank, you can find if you search a crate that contains the body of Adam Jensen, in cryostasis. It is not clear what it means, and who that Jensen is, no details are revealed other than another body of Jensen exists. The thing is, it is highly unlikely that this Jensen in the bank is HR Jensen or is a clone made from HR Jensen after the Antarctic incident, since why the fuck would they store the body in a bank in Prague of all places?

I think it is more likely this clone is an illuminati back up of your own MD Jensen, just not activated. You were probably delivered in a similar crate, you were just activated, implanted with fake memories, and delivered to Interpol for hire. This makes more sense.

Jensen in MD seemed to me like he was being manipulated by Illuminati handlers. At first you think it is the Interpol chief, but i think the real illuminati handlers are this latin chick and her illusive hacker boss, called Janus i think? Don't recall the name. Those people seem to know a lot about illuminati but i think they actually ARE illuminati themselves, at least the boss, if not the girl as well. Probably the boss Janus is that guy from the illuminati meetings that is the boss in Deus Ex 1 and subverted the other illuminati. Who knows.

In any case, they were probably planning to make the reveal that you are an illuminati clone/tool in the 3rd part of the trilogy, and make you make a judgement call to resist the illuminati and foil some plans of theirs, only to die afterwards like an unsang hero. Probably by a kill switch.

 

[Lacrymas]

They would store it in that bank in particular because it's one of the (if not THE) most secure banks in the world. If that is a unique body that is. Here's the thing, though, that body is augmented, so it can't be a clone that wasn't used yet. Jensen was augmented only 2 years ago, so it's highly unlikely that all the clones (if there are indeed more of them) are augmented before being used. Yeah, you can argue they augmented all the clones after Jensen himself was augmented in order to use them as fast as possible if something happens to the original, but I think Occam's razor beats this theory. It's more likely we are playing a clone and we saw the original that died at Panchaia in the VersaLife vault. Still, my main problem is that this doesn't really mean anything unless they make it mean something in a hypothetical third game. What, though? Jensen only being angsty about it seems pointless and circular. We already know there is cloning technology available because Paul was born/put into Mrs. Denton in 2028, a year before the events of MD, so it's not like it's a huge revelation. It also posits the question of why impregnate a woman with a clone if they can use/make already-adult clones. Jensen himself was a child at one point (maybe), so it's not even a new experiment.

Oh, and one more thing - JC and Paul Denton can be black or albino.

 

[Gerrard]

The devs wanted to hammer home the idea that you're not playing the same Jensen as in the first game. it's still a hidden thing, not out there in the open.
The original plan for this game most likely was that you were supposed to play a completely different character, but then the faggot art director threw a fit.

 

[TemplarGR]

The problem is, if the body at Versalife is the one that died at Panchaia, why store it there? It makes even less sense. I mean, it is dead, what is the point? If they wanted to research it, it belonged in a lab. Or at a graveyard. What is the point of keeping it there?

As for the clones being augmented, i think augmenting clones while they are "disabled" is even easier than augmenting the living. I don't see an issue with the clone being pre-augmented. As i said, i think it is a back up. If for some reason the MD Jensen dies, then the local Prague illuminati is going into the vault, opening the crate, and pressing the start button. LOL. The reason i believe this is because i always got the impression that Jensen in MD worked for the illuminati without knowing it. For example early in the game, his handlers order him to bug the communication device of the interpol director. They claim that the interpol director is illuminati but at the end of the game we realise he probably is not, he seems to be a legit good guy. The main interpol illuminati is that female shrink.

In any case, it has been some years since i played it so i don't remember many details. I probably have to replay it at some point, but i have been waiting to upgrade my machine so i can play it maxed out this time.

 

[Owl]

Is that body in the bank visible in normal gameplay? I thought it's only visible with a noclip hack or something like that.

 

[TemplarGR]

Is that body in the bank visible in normal gameplay? I thought it's only visible with a noclip hack or something like that.

I don't remember the details but i think it was visible in normal gameplay, yes.

 

[Lacrymas]

Is that body in the bank visible in normal gameplay? I thought it's only visible with a noclip hack or something like that.

You can see the outline of Jensen's face without anything special, but you can throw an EMP grenade to see it more clearly. You don't need a noclip hack, that was only to 100% confirm it is Jensen's body inside.

 

[Nano]

The problem is, if the body at Versalife is the one that died at Panchaia

It isn't.

 

[502]

Reinstalling. This time I intend to play all the expansions too.

What would you say are the most disproportionately demanding graphic options alongside MSAA?

 

[Owl]

Reinstalling. This time I intend to play all the expansions too.

What would you say are the most disproportionately demanding graphic options alongside MSAA?

I've recently replayed the Criminal Past dlc, I recommend it to everyone. It has some surprisigly good reactivity, especially considering it's just one area.
For example,

Spoiler

the prison riot plays out differently depending on how you use (or don't use) a certain story item.

If you collect enough evidence against a certain character, the dialog options and his attitude will be different when you talk to him, etc.
I might do a third playthrough to see what else I can do differently.

As for the graphics options, obviously turn down texture resolution from ultra to very high or high if you don't have lots of vram, to avoid stuttering. High works fine for me with 4GB, and it still looks good.
Screen space reflections can be demanding, I turned that off too.
Also definitely try out both DX11 and DX12, to see which one works better for you. The interface (augs screen, map etc.) was very laggy for me in DX12

 

[Lacrymas]

MSAA is definitely ridiculous for the almost non-existent impact it makes. From the stable 60+ FPS on ultra, it drops down to the 30s with MSAA on.

 

[Gargaune]

Reinstalling. This time I intend to play all the expansions too.

What would you say are the most disproportionately demanding graphic options alongside MSAA?

The DLC is well worth your time, especially the second and third ones. Performance-wise, never really looked at it, since aside from MSAA everything works fine on mine, but I'd suggest playing around with shadows, reflections and parallax settings if you're having problems.

MSAA is definitely ridiculous for the almost non-existent impact it makes. From the stable 60+ FPS on ultra, it drops down to the 30s with MSAA on.

I dunno what's up with my setup in this game, but I've seen more dramatic shifts than that. Just had the curiosity to check at the Bolzano monument in Prague, and MSAA x8 cost me 90 FPS in that particular scene.

 

[Lacrymas]

I dunno what's up with my setup in this game, but I've seen more dramatic shifts than that. Just had the curiosity to check at the Bolzano monument in Prague, and MSAA x8 cost me 90 FPS in that particular scene.

I don't know what the drop actually is because I have a 60hz monitor and the AMD overlay doesn't go above 60 because of that (or maybe due to the Vsync, who knows), I haven't tested it with other programs. It might also be more dramatic for me, but I wouldn't know. I just have it turned off.

EDIT: Yeah, it's the Vsync. I get 90ish FPS without MSAA on, and 20 (!) with 8x on. There's definitely something fishy going on with it.

 

[Gerrard]

"Ultra" textures that require "more than 4GB VRAM" in a game from 2016

Spoiler

 

[Lacrymas]

^ The game uses around 5GB of VRAM.

I just finished the System Rift DLC mission and I'd say it's my favorite so far. The main reason is because it doesn't deal with augmentations, rather more with corporate espionage and revealing cover-ups. I've always liked Pritchard, so it was fun having him along again. ShadowChild is a bit hit and miss, it's good that there's someone else there so Pritchard doesn't get elevated to hacker god and to show such an operation requires 3 agents working at the same time, but she's kinda bland otherwise.

There are only 3 things I didn't like, two of them easily ignorable, the third one not so much. The first is getting into the bank proper. ShadowChild tells you to speak to the receptionist, who then deactivates the laser field to the elevator. You actually have to do this so you can get the optional mission to investigate Saridakis's death/murder. However, there is another way to get in through the roof that places you in the exact same spot in the same elevator. I guess that's there if you don't remember the receptionist's hacker name, but it's still kind of lazy area design in an otherwise spectacular mission. The second one is when you get into the servers through the funicular. The security consoles are placed literally in front of you once you get in there. It makes the hardest part to sneak in (due to heat detection) a joke once you deactivate all the drones and cameras. Those computers should've been hidden somewhere else in there.

The third and perhaps worst part affects the whole game - the quest compass. You are even funneled to the optional evidence for the murder. Deus Ex 1 would never. It not only infects you with tunnel vision, but it also hinders replayability since you can explore everything that isn't where the quest compass is pointing towards. It's dumb and I hate it.

Other than that, yeap, pretty great mission, great map, great quests, very Deus Ex-y plot, fun characters. The narrative should be more like this and less like main game, please. I'm actually going to go play the last DLC mission now.