Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided refines andreinforces the defining foundations of the series. It creates challenging situations and gives players the tools and flexibility to deal with them ina multitude of ways, all within an absorbing cyberpunk world. Although not a significant departure from Human Revolution, Mankind Divided is still a uniquely fulfilling experience, one which feels rare in games today.

The way I play Deus Ex: Mankind Divided may not be the same way you play it. When I step into the shoes of Adam Jensen, I avoid conflict, drink all the alcohol I find, and stopbad guys from doing terrible things by releasing pheromonesinto the air and then asking politely. I like tosneak through areas without hurting anyone if possible, and prefer to knock someone out and hide their body if I really need them out of the way. But occasionally, I want to role-play a cyberpunk bad-ass who doesn’t take trashfrom anybody, letting my magnum revolver do the talking when I enter a room. Deus Ex lets me do all these things, and doesn’t punish me for solving problems one way over another. The series is characteristically defined by giving you choices--a variety of ways to tackle given situations like armed conflict, social interactions, and branches in storyline. Mankind Divided is no different. There is no wrong way to play, andthe game rewards you for achieving things with your personally preferred method, no matter what that may involve.Every obstacle in the cyberpunk world of Mankind Divided has multiple solutions, provided you’ve invested in certain abilities. For conflict scenarios, there are more than enough tools provided for a direct approach--a variety of lethal and non-lethal guns, grenades and ammo which fire and explodewonderfully, and cybernetic augmentations that can give you temporary buffs like heavy armor or slowing down time. Shooting controls well--it feels effortlessto transition from first-person aiming into third-person cover mechanics, change ammo types quickly, and smoothly line up headshots with iron sights. Entering a room while firing a shotgun, then finishing off the last couple of enemies with a lethal takedown feels exceptional.

Alternatively, there are robust stealth mechanics that let youslip quickly and accurately from cover to cover, see enemy sightlines, and let you turn temporarily invisible. If enemies hear or see you they’ll transition into a suspicious state where they will attempt to confirm your presence before turning hostile, and this can be used to your advantage. Throwing objects or intentionally making a noise can lure a guard to a particular area, letting you silently takethem out or slip past them unnoticed. You can also use hacking skills and have fun taking advantage of the game’s futuristic setting, turning sentry robots, automated turrets, and the environment against aggressors without drawing attention to Jensen himself.But no matter how you decide to go about solving a problem, there is always a thrill when you succeed, and the game dishes out experience points no matter which actions you take. This means killing enemies is just as satisfying as slipping past them without raising suspicion. Punching through a wall is as fulfilling as stealing a keycard and just usingthe door. There is no superior way to complete a task.

During investigation scenarios, the direct approach may require you to manually hack into computer terminals in order to procure the information you need, or craft tools to do the hacking for you. If you have the patience though, coercing knowledge out of a citizen or spending time snooping around for clues can also provide what you need. It’s refreshing to play agame where different routes can not only be equally successful, but flexible as well. Being an expert in one field doesn’t necessarily lock you out of another.Mankind Divided introduces a handful of new augmentation abilities for Jensen on top of those introduced in the previous game, Human Revolution. Some of these new augs are more interesting than others though; Remote Hacking is invaluable for disabling automated obstacles at a distance, and Icarus Dash is a powerful tool for discreet traversal. However the TESLA, PEPS, and Nanoblade abilities achieve similar effects to some of the game’s more conventional weapons--they stun and kill enemies from a distance. There are some advantages to using them, but most of the time I wished I had spent points elsewhere.What’s interesting about these new abilities is that with their introduction comes with a caveat: to equip them, players must disable one of their other augmentations to avoid putting strain on Jensen’s predominantly cybernetic body, and risking negative effects. Initially, this "Overclocking" system makes for tantalizing dilemmas. The necessity of permanently disabling some skills in order to power others early in the campaign made me stop and seriously think about how I would be handling situations in the future. Not all augments can be disabled (you can’t disable your HUD, for instance) but when I decided to enable Remote Hacking, I made the tough decision to disable something seemingly essential--the ability to mark and track enemies.