Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is less of an action game and more of a detective simulator. Human Revolution's compelling gameplay takes the backseat to focus on an immersive world, realistic levels, and quality environmental storytelling.

The level design is massively improved from the previous entry. Environments are realistic and include a multitude of ways to tackle every scenario. Prague inparticular is so dense with lore and content that I spent a majority of my time exploring it. Unfortunately, the gameplay takes a backseat: everything is laughably easy, even on the hardest difficulties. On the plus side, this fits extremely well with how powerful Adam Jensen is supposed to be in Deus Ex. There's also the tradeoff of quantity. Mankind Divided only features 5 levels, one of which is visited 3 times. Each level is very well put together though.

If you only complete the main story missions, the story will be lacking. You'll scratch the surface of some of Mankind Divided's biggest conspiracies, but without the side missions, Mankind Divided would definitely feel stunted. The 12 side missions feature more compelling stories than the game, and they heavily contribute to the overarching narrative present in the main story. Combined with the immersive world, the story shines in a way Human Revolution's more "on-rails" story didn't. Beyond this, the narrative and themes feel right at home with Deus Ex, with some shockingly accurate predictions and some prime conspiracy theory fiction.

Much of Mankind Divided was designed for consoles. The UI is nothing short of atrocious: buggy map, weapon wheels, buggy scrolling, weird navigation, buttons not doing what you would expect, etc. To its credit, they did improve the minimap from Human Revolution, making it actually useful. There's also many improvements in skills, opening up some really fun (and overpowered) gameplay options.

If you enjoyed Human Revolution, you'll likely enjoy Mankind Divided if you do the side missions. I highly recommend pulling up the "Walkthrough" page on the wiki and confirming you've done all the side mission as you go (some are easy to miss). Remember you'll return to Prague a few times so it's okay to leave some locked doors and unexplored areas behind. I would not recommend Mankind Divided to anyone who hasn't played Human Revolution.

Hot take: this game is more of a stain on the franchise than Invisible War. Human Revolution was amazing for everything it did right on its own + bonus points for being better than its predecessor + awesome viral campaign to "leak" its first few hours to the public. This one was churned out as quickly as possible because new consoles were on the rise - the UI is the same but busier, the font is new, it's prettier and moves faster but it's the same game minus what made HR "innovative." The exhaustively woke plot makes no sense. Even when you disregard how disgusting it is to compare the heavy-handed oppression in this to real life discrimination, it doesn't follow the rules of the franchise. You got a whole 'back of the bus'/papers please thing going on in a world where the augs could LIFT aforementioned bus or use their literal shoulder missiles against the corrupt and abusive cops that enforce laws that the people don't seem to be completely aligned with. They just allow segregation because they're civil death machines? And people still persecute them? Dumb. Then, of course, you got the hungry microtransaction market, poorly conceived DLCs and spastic animated NPCs that sound like Roman Bellic. This marks the third time I've waited a long time to play the game after uninstalling it and wondering why so I'm mostly writing this remind myself not to bore myself with millennial feel-bad garbage in a mediocre DX title. Honestly, I had more fun playing The Fall but that's probably because it was way more like HR only a shoddy PC port of an iOS game which had its own quirky jank appeal.

I picked up Deus Ex recently to fill the emptiness that waiting for Cyberpunk 2077 has given me. I played the original and loved it but only played a bit of Human Revolution as i got it towards the end of the 360 life cycle. The game did a great job of explaining the story so far with a pretty lengthy cutscene and introduced all the main characters.

Early on in my playthrough I started out non lethal and actually carried this out through the entire game, it was really enjoyable actually playing through a game without killing a single enemy. Stealth in this game is handled great, the augments are fun to use and it all works really well together. I have heard the gun combat is a bit ropey but I cannot comment as I didn't use it even once. 

The world, characters and narrative is where Mankind Divided really shines for me. I am a huge sucker for sci fi, dystopia and cyberpunk stuff so right off the bat I was hooked. The storyline is great and the detail in the side quests and how they run alongside the main missions and get more and more detailed as you progress is excellent. Your choices definitely feel like they impact the world around you. However, I would liked the world to a bit more fleshed out with a bit more to do. Prague is a great setting and feels grimy and seedy but I just wish you got to interact with more of it. 

My only other fault is I felt the last mission was a bit rushed and it kind of just ended out of nowhere. However, the complaints are minor and I thoroughly enjoyed this game and am excited to go back and replay Human Revolution.