Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Previews
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It has been difficult to keep up with all of the game reveals and other announcements that came out of this year's E3 event, but one thing I don't want to overlook are the various previews for Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Ars Technica:
The developer has crafted a world that's both futuristic and believable, and rendered it with the gloss and lighting of a movie (and running on a PC, naturally). In the train station at the start of the demo, people were going about their daily business, or as best they could under the rule of an oppressive government. Police drones hovered menacingly around the platform stopping random passers by for impromptu scans and inspections while police officers asked to see papers, punishing those who failed to comply with a swift strike of a baton.
Like in Human Revolution, Mankind Divided's world is one grounded in the scientific advancements and technology currently being developed in laboratories around the world. Eidos Montreal has again consulted with renowned bioinformatics and neuroscience researcher Will Rosellini to make sure that the technology in the game is as realistic is possible. But this time around in the story, those with mechanical and electrical augmentations ("mech-augs") are no long the envy of society. Mech-augs are outcasts, people to be feared because of their physical superiority over the rest of the human race. In what Eidos Montreal is calling "Mechanical Apartheid," they are kept at arm's length and treated harshly by the authorities, who are quite happy to dole out physical punishment at the slightest provocation.
In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, getting into combat often seemed like a bad idea. Playing stealth was framed as the preferred way to approach situations. Eidos Montreal is trying to remedy that with Mankind Divided. De Merle said that the team is trying to make combat (fun and visceral) so that (guns blazing) is a viable option. One of the augmentations we saw to this effect was the Titan Shield, an ability that, when activated, covers Jensen in a sort of onyx polygonal shield. This gives him temporary invulnerability while he continues to attack his foes. And it looks cool as hell. A cutscene version of it popped up in the initial Deus Ex: Mankind Divided trailer.
Finally, the demo ended with a boss fight, but not the usual kind people think of. This wasn't a locked arena with a cybered-out meathead and way too many rocket launchers to be believable. This, De Merle said, was a (social boss fight,) something the game features more than one of. In this scene, Jensen was speaking with a leader in the Augmented Rights Coalition, a terrorist group fighting for the rights of augmented individuals.
Gunplay looks pretty much the same as Human Revolution, except now players can rotate in different bullet types for varying effects, as well as slow down time and even slam the ground with an Icarus Fall to cause massive damage to a group of enemies. On top of all of this, players have the ability to use a Tesla gun arm, which can take out four enemies at the same time or use the new Nanoblade, which can be fired to pin enemies to walls, as well as be charged to explode over time.
If going in guns blazing isn't your style, Mankind Divided also lets players use a number of other more strategic styles of gameplay that can lead to unexpected benefits. If you upgrade your augmentations to let you dash, not only can use that for combat, but also to move from location to location or vent to vent faster. There is also an X-Ray vision augmentation that will let you track enemy movements, and the new ability to remotely hack devices.
And Entertainment Buddha:
Mankind Divided's story takes place two years after the events of Human Revolution. Despite the relatively short time period, the live demo made it clear that a whole lot has changed since Human Revolution.
During the live demo, I was able to get a glimpse into the rich environment that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has to offer. The impeccably detailed world of Mankind Divided is just one of the game's exciting assets. In terms of actual gameplay, Adam Jensen has a slew of new hacking abilities and weapon upgrades. Jensen is now equipped with a nano blade that can either kill and enemy or break into shards and knock out multiple enemies.
