Any game bearing the Deus Ex name sets a high bar for itself, and yet, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Loading

Prague Is Your Playground

Loading

“ What’s the answer? Hint: there isn’t one – there are TEN.

Loading

“ Missions are meticulously designed, like an interlocking matrix of questions with a bevy of interesting answers.

Walking Softly, While Carrying a Big Stick

75 IMAGES

“ Finally, shooting no longer feels like something I’m not supposed to do.

Once More Unto The Breach

Even more so than its predecessors, this iteration of Deus Ex succeeds in making me feel like a cybernetically enhanced super agent that no security system can withstand. A handful of powerful, sexy new experimental augments that you can wire into grizzled cyborg protagonist Adam Jensen are at least partially to thank for that. The energy-draining Titan Armor ripples angrily as it shrugs off everything from bullets to grenades, the Tesla Arm attachment locks onto and incapacitates multiple targets at range, and when someone absolutely needs to die immediately, the arm-mounted nanoblade launcher pierces flesh and armor alike - knocking its target clean off their feet and pinning the corpse to the nearest wall with tremendous force. They’d almost be too powerful if not for the associated energy and ammo costs that come with them, which are fine-tuned so that I wasn’t too shy to use one, while still feeling a little bit special every time I did.These deviously fun gadgets would be good on their own, but it’s the thoughtfully crafted environments that tease out their true potential. For instance, the Icarus Dash allows you to cover short distances in the blink of an eye, which makes it a fine escape tool. It’s also a great gap-closer for swiftly knocking out guards from a few paces out. But it wasn’t until I started noticing subtle new routes I could take towards objectives that I was sold on it. I once used it to dash across a series of rafters high above an entire roomful of enemies with none of them the wiser. More often, I used it to dash directly from ground level up to a second-story window.That particular use synergizes perfectly with the Remote Hacking aug, which is probably the most transformative upgrade. Experimenting with it allows you to manipulate everything from laser grids and mines to ladders and window shutters, opening up whole new possibilities I had no idea were there upon first glance.Being able to leap, sneak, muscle, or hack my way into almost anywhere wouldn’t mean much if there wasn’t anything there worth discovering, but my feats of high-tech infiltration were always rewarded in one way or another. An innocent-looking curio shop might have a secret passage leading to a storage locker full of valuable items, or sneaking through a neighboring apartment might lead to you stumbling into one of the meaty multi-part sidequests.It’s a little surprising that Eidos Montreal is willing to allow us to overlook these if we don’t search thoroughly enough, because in terms of complexity and design these optional adventures are no less sophisticated than the main quest-line. You won’t find any simple hit jobs or fetch quests here; these are long-form assignments with lots of moving parts, and they require you to find one of several possible solutions at every step.They usually begin simply, with a random email I’d read on a laptop I’d hacked or a shady police officer claiming I didn’t have the proper papers to get through a checkpoint. Three steps later I’m breaking up a kidnapping and extortion racket or sneaking into an underground drug lab to put an end to it. Do I have the Social Enhancement aug to convince a lab worker to help me shut down their manufacturing machines? If I don’t, how do I even get to them, seeing as they are gated off by a high fence that’s locked behind a computer keypad with maximum hacking defense? Even if I got past that, there’s arrays of infrared sensors, cameras, and an automated sentry turret all overlapping each other’s sight lines. What’s the answer? Hint: there isn’t one – there are TEN.Except, that was just the keypad. Almost every mission is this meticulously designed, like an interlocking matrix of questions with a bevy of interesting answers…and Mankind Divided never stops asking.None of this would work if Mankind Divided weren’t enjoyable to actually play, but developer Eidos Montreal has made many smart improvements to the moment-to-moment experience since Human Revolution. A new cover-to-cover movement system and the ability to mantle up ledges, for instance, make getting around much smoother. The UI also does a much better job of informing you when you’ve been seen, who sees you, and how close you are to inciting a gunfight. Additionally, some of the stealth-assistance augs that were optional in Human Revolution, like the ability to see a projection of your last known location or to have enemies appear on the mini-map without having to visually acquire them, are now given to you for free (a nice change from the usual sequel approach of de-powering the hero back to base levels, which Mankind Divided cleverly sidesteps). These are subtle choices, but taken as a whole they remove most of the guessing and hoping that made Human Revolution’s stealth occasionally frustrating.Even better, when things do escalate gunplay feels precise, and resetting the situation after setting off an alarm is much more manageable. Where in Human Revolution being seen would almost invariably plunge encounters into total chaos, Mankind Divided allows a well equipped and prepared player to feel powerful even when bullets begin to fly. The new Crysis-style on-the-fly weapon modification plays a big role here, adding a ton of utility and flexibility to standard firearms. By quickly attaching a silencer, swapping the holo-scope for a 4X optical, and switching between full-auto to semi-auto firing modes, my mid-range spray-and-pray combat rifle could become a silent, serviceable sniper rifle in seconds. Finally, shooting no longer feels like something I’m not supposed to do in a Deus Ex game.Completely independent of the story campaign, Breach is a nifty little extra mode you can hit for a quick, short fix of Deus Ex-ish style gameplay in a VR-themed world. As time-trial modes go, Breach has a lot going for it: a striking visual style, unique augs and abilities exclusive to the mode, and leaderboards to compete on for record times. It’s by no means revelatory, but it’s a welcome addition and a nice way to get that cybernetic badass rush in short, quick bursts while leveraging the same excellent mechanics that make the core game great.