SANTA MONICA, Calif.—At a recent press event, Square Enix reps tried to set the tone for the future of the stealthy Deus Ex games with a flashy, live-action video. The next game’s story was foreshadowed in a film called “The Mechanical Apartheid,” anchored by the story of a husband and wife divided by a very Deus Ex kind of conflict: a forced quarantine for any “Augs” who have received cybernetic enhancements. Robotic wife and "natural" husband forcibly separated? Nooo!

But that polished, dramatic video didn’t leave the most lasting impression. Instead, that honor went to a giant table graphic with icons representing all of the games and “fiction” entries we can expect in the future. The stories will be spearheaded by this August’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but Square Enix also teased two attached projects launching this year and two more “AAA games” in a future timeline, currently blurred out.

Square Enix wasn’t ready to reveal its years-down-the-line hand, but ahead of E3, the company did produce quite the three-of-a-kind: the new, big-ticket game; an arcade-styled stealth shooter; and the first official Deus Ex games for touchscreen devices. Best of all, the entire trio is set to launch by the end of this summer.

Once more unto the cyberpunk Breach









Before diving into newly revealed Mankind Divided content, Eidos Montreal Producer Fleur Marty showed Ars the “new mode” shipping with that game’s retail copies: Breach. For a moment, we thought Eidos was announcing a virtual reality take on the series; instead, we’re getting an action-minded, leaderboard-driven game.

The mode (which technically has a much longer name of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: Breach, phew) puts players into the shoes of a hacker that we assume is affiliated with the series' main hero, Adam Jensen, but that was not confirmed. That hacker enters a virtual reality environment with a mission to extract important files. For whatever reason, these hackers break into high-end computer systems by engaging in first-person combat with jagged, polygonal security guards.

I can’t help but wonder how much of Superhot’s pre-release content Eidos saw before working on this mode, because the aesthetic looks nearly identical (it merely selects a different color motif). Breach doesn’t clone Superhot’s time-freeze mechanic in any way, at least. Instead, it appears to be the kind of combat-heavy twist on Deus Ex that would drive series purists mad if it was launched as a pure sequel. As a free, side-mission lark, on the other hand, its emphasis on quick-finish, leaderboard-driven missions could really prove to be a spark plug for the series.

I didn’t get to put my hands on the game at Square Enix's event, but preview footage showed a variety of upgrade paths that players could spend on elements such as speed, stealth, and weapon boosts, tuning the gameplay to their tastes. Marty pointed to players’ ability to break down older weapons to augment newer ones. Leaderboards for the game’s small missions will rank players in separate speed and “points” categories, as well, but we didn’t see how those points will break down and whether they’ll favor any particular brand of mission completion. (Players will also be able to "corrupt" the game's "public challenge pool" with more challenging mission modifiers, but specifics on that point weren't clarified at the event.)

Marty mentioned a virtual currency that players will accrue in missions, which can be spent on more augmentations and upgrades. After a pointed question, we learned that Breach will also contain a real-money microtransaction system as an unlock "accelerator." From the sound of things, Square Enix won't charge players for any additional "support post-launch" content, and the mode will ship "day one on disc" for all Mankind Divided owners.

Deus Ex passes Go

Square Enix Montreal was in the house for the event, too, and my guess on why that team was on hand was proven out: a new game in the “Go” mobile series. Following the success of its Tomb Raider Go and Hitman Go games, which boiled down those series’ elements for touchscreen platforms, the developers at Square Enix Montreal announced that they were nearly done doing the same thing for Deus Ex.

“For us, it was a no-brainer,” lead designer Etienne Giroux told Ars, and Deus Ex Go’s preview footage made that apparent. Players will tap to move a tiny version of Adam Jensen around a hexagonal grid, on which he’ll sneak up on guards to punch them from behind, engage in hacking sequences, and turn on augmented abilities like invisibility. The trailer shown to press ran longer than the teaser trailer shown to fans worldwide today, and while brief, it looked diverse enough to make us hopeful for a full game's quality. Sadly, we weren't able to get hands-on time with the game.

Should smartphone gamers feel fatigued by yet another series’ Go twist, Square Enix Montreal has one juicy offering under its sleeve: a “fully featured” puzzle design mode for Deus Ex Go. Players will be able to create and share their own single-screen puzzle levels when that option is enabled “a little bit after launch.” Deus Ex Go wasn’t announced with a specific release date beyond “this summer” for iOS and Android devices.

Listing image by Square Enix Montreal