Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Previews
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News of various outlets doling out coverage for Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Mankind Divided continues to flow into our inbox and into our browser tabs, so it's only right for us to crank out another round-up of previews and other such curiosities, some of which even contain developer commentary.
GameSpot:
"We cut things out a lot as we go through the development process,” he said. “That choice-and-consequence aspect of the game, we knew we wanted to invest a lot into it. So all these little moments...are being reflected in the game, and there's some big moments where sometimes, it's a question of life or death for a character. Everything that leads to the ending of the game is much more organic, not ‘push one of your four buttons at the end.’
To help players experience all these possible paths, Mankind Divided will also offer a New Game Plus mode, which carries over all unlocked augmentations. Proulx said that someone rushing through the game and ignoring side missions would be able to finish the main story in 20 to 30 hours, although game time could "easily go past 30 hours." And as a treat for dedicated fans, completing Mankind Divided on Hard difficulty unlocks a mode titled, "I Never Asked For This." In this setting, players will only have one life to get through the game. Progress can be saved along the way, but if the player dies, that save gets deleted.
Options. One of the features that I had heard most about Deus Ex was the ability to play through the game without killing another person; it appears that Mankind Divided is no different. As you approach your first mission you’re given the option of choosing either a lethal or non-lethal play style, with your weapons loadout adjusted accordingly. In my playthrough I decided to go with the latter.
As you progress through the first mission, you’re introduced to the various gameplay mechanics of stealth and hacking. It’s here that this idea of player choice starts to unravel. Missions will have mini-objectives that you can either choose to complete or not; deciding to do so not only nets you additional points for character upgrades, but also changes the dialogue between yourself and other characters.
Combat, for instance, is a much more viable option this time around, and Adam feels a whole lot snappier in terms of his movement between, around and over cover. For those who prefer to play with a controller, you’ll be glad to know that Eidos-Montréal has revamped the controls to fit in with what’s familiar and all-new for Mankind Divided. There’s an early prompt to switch to Human Revolution controls, to switch to Mankind Divided’s new control set, or two other presets. Getting the controls right was actually one of the key reasons that producer Olivier Proulx attributed to why the game was delayed.
The initial stages of the Dubai level are separated into mini tutorial rooms, that offer guided training, or the option to test out the new mechanics on your own. Despite the funnelling nature of this opening mission, Proulx mentioned that there are actually four choice-and-consequence moments that can come into play, which helps it feel more like a Deus Ex mission and less like an obvious tutorial.
Where the Deus Ex series has been known to really shine, however, is through the plot. “Mankind Divided is the direct sequel to Human Revolution – so we’re set in 2029, two years after the big events that concluded that game. In Human Revolution, transhumanism is a big theme – a lot of people in the world have augmented limbs designed to improve their lives, improve their jobs, or just as a fashion accessory. At the end of the game, everything went wrong – people with augmentations were hacked from a distance, lost control of their bodies, and lots of people died. We decided to use this as a stepping stone for the themes and stories of Mankind Divided – for example, what happens when technology goes wrong? Politicians start to play with that. We have a world where people with augmentations are being viewed with suspicion, and people are scared of them. There is a lot of segregation and division in the world we’ve created.”
With the decision to continue the Human Revolution story arc, came the chance to continue developing the character of Adam Jensen; an opportunity that Eidos-Montreal relished. “Creating a fleshed out, iconic character is so difficult. With Human Revolution, it took a few years to really nail Adam Jensen in terms of who he is and how he looks. He went through so many different iterations, and honestly, the first ones were pretty rough… but we ended up with a character that has taken on a life of his own with the gaming audience” explains Proulx. “Aside from that, we’re bringing Adam Jensen back because he needs to get to the bottom of the conspiracy, and also solve the mystery surrounding himself. We also felt that we could add a bit more depth to Adam through the way he reacts to the events of the previous game. Ultimately we sought to make him a bit more assertive, less of an errand boy. In Mankind Divided, we’ve made it more so that he is in control of how he investigates- it’s his own agenda.”
Olivier also confirmed that if there was going to be another sequel, that the team has looked at ways to track the way you play Mankind Divided and that the events and decisions would carry over and effect the sequel, similar to Mass Effect. So it looks like Adam is here to stay!
It was also really impressive to see how many ways you can play Mankind Divided. I switched from stealth, to guns blazing and everything in between without feeling like I was being punished or missing out at all. The game rewards you no matter how you play, so it really comes down to personal preference. In the first level, I decided to play stealth to start with. I spent most of my time in cover, carefully tracking enemies and avoiding all combat besides the few times I decided to use my stun gun to knock out enemies who got a little too close. Halfway through the level, I decided to pick up one of the enemy’s machine guns and ran around shooting and lethally punching everyone in sight. I then dialed it back and played a little more comically and threw buckets and vending machines at the bad guys. All of these play styles were viable and progressed me through the levels. The maps are designed in such a way that it accommodates how you want to play. You can sneak through air vents, climb to higher vantage points or move from cover to cover at ground level. I’ve not played a game that feels as broad as this, let alone a game that is open to me completing a level by killing bad guys with a series of air-born buckets.
The shooting mechanics really have been tightened compared to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and are no longer the weak point they were previously. Iron-sights and scopes quickly snap up and down when needed, abilities can be quickly utilised and cover mechanics are better than ever. It’s obvious that Eidos Montreal made improving the shooting mechanics a priority during the development of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and it helps make the game a better experience overall.
Following Dubai, the game jumped forward to Prague as Adam Jensen’s train slowly rolls in to the city. Adam meets a fellow operative, and we get our first glimpse of the possible conspiracies in the game, before being witness to the Prague bombing that has been shown in previous trailers. After waking up in Adam’s apartment post-explosion, I then had the opportunity to really explore Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s full potential and experience. First by clicking on absolutely everything in the apartment, including triggering a side-mission with David Sarif, then by wandering out of the apartment to see what Prague was like.
And Proxy Payload:
By making the player choose a certain path you are basically building up an entirely new game that the wielded character must progress. Deus Ex did this differently by blending all three endings together be it in the Invisible War and in Human Revolution.
Mankind Divided seems to ignore many previous player choices just to give Adam Jensen a clean slate in a sense and this bothers me greatly. The main reason is because Human Revolution provoked a very strong moral path for our protagonist. Adam in a sense was a walking opinion of the gamer when it came to their thoughts on augmentations and what lengths we would go to bettering ourselves.
