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Please be aware that there is a ~4GB update (version 1.02) to download. This review is based off that version.
Quick Review: It's all about choice in Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and while it feels much like it's predecessor Human Revolution, the variety of ways to finish missions and achieve your goals is as vast as it is satisfying. The graphics are better and the audio is well done (though the music is too loud to hear the voice-overs clearly without adjustment). There is no multiplayer. I encourage everyone to NOT SPEND MONEY ON MICROTRANSACTIONS that SquareEnix has added. I'm not knocking any stars off because it doesn't interfere with the game at all, but is still a dishonest and greedy cash grab from corporate.
Full Review:
After roughly 20 hours of playing, I feel like I can confidently say I think Deus Ex Mankind Divided is a great game. Not perfect, but I already feel like I have received my money's worth.
Mankind Divided feels like a continuation of the previous Deus Ex, Human Revolution in all the positive ways. New augments, more choices in how to finish missions, and you don't actually have to kill a single person to finish the game! I'm currently working on my non-violent play through first and think it's fantastic. There are consequences to everything you do. For example, when I broke into someone's apartment, I was caught and they tried to find me. They ended up pulling guns and being shot down by the police. I lost a merchant that will never come back.
To start, there are three difficulties to choose from: Give me a story (easy), Give me a challenge (medium), and Give me Deus Ex (hard). There is a fourth option for a hardcore mode once the game has been completed once. I choose Give me Deus Ex because I wanted a challenge and let me tell you: I receive a good challenge. Not once did I feel like I was cheated when I died.
Like the Elder Scroll or Far Cry series, there are a variety of ways to achieve your goals. Do you go in guns blazing or as a silent killer? Take the merciful route using non-lethal take downs and stun guns or sneak around using sound to distract the enemies instead? Being able to choose my approach to fit my play style (or current mood) is a huge plus to me. Not to mention that you don't have to kill a single character in the game, including bosses. I chose the social enhancer augment so I could successfully win the conversation battles.
The first thing I noticed is that the music is LOUD. I could barely hear the dialogue spoken during the first cutscenes (I watched the recap video). I turned the music volume down to 60 and turned subtitles on. Setting the music volume at 60 has given me a great experience so far.
For the first mission I was given two options for the first mission: Non-lethal or Lethal. I went non-lethal. Then, I was given the choice of a long range or short range weapon. I choose the tranquilizer gun. I found the coverr system great. It's easy to navigate and enables you to quickly move around for strategic positioning. I was quietly running from hiding spot to hiding spot without any mistakes.
There is an optional tutorial mode to get a feel for the controls and abilities. Going into the tutorial doesn't affect the game and can be replayed as many times as needed. Afterwards, you're put back in the game where you left off. The controls took a little bit to get used to (I still sometimes mess up the crouch -- L3 -- versus item wheel -- R3 --) so the tutorial was a great way to get familiar with it.
Graphics are good, as expected of a next gen game. But you can clearly see the FPS slowdown during some in-game cut scenes. It was easily noticeable and reminded me I was playing a game, taking me out of the experience. However, I did see cut scenes that didn't suffer FPS loss; not all cut scenes were created equal. The lighting is fantastic, shining on various materials with realistic qualities. Whether plastic, metal, leather, skin, brick, or other substance, it behaves as it should in real life. I thought the skin textures looked realistic for a PS4 game as well.
The battery system is back, like the game before, and is both good and bad. While it forces me to think about how I approach a mission and to use it sparingly when I need it, I felt there were times when it was detrimental. I don't like that non-lethal take downs require you to have battery power. How is the non-lethal take down any different than the super jumping or sprinting?
Experience points are how you get and use praxis to learn and upgrade augments. Experience is earned from exploring, killing or taking down enemies, hacking, reading eBooks, and other events. You are rewarded for exploring every nook and cranny, and thats what I've done. I loved looking through the vents and trying to break into the various locations. Weather I hacked the front door, went in through a window, or snuck in through the vents, there were always a number of ways to get inside the place I wanted to go.
The inventory from Human Revolution returns as a slot based system. You can expand it, but you still have to manage it by moving items around. You can upgrade your guns with crafting supplies or other expendable items like the always fabulous and useful multi-tool.
The augments from Human Revolution return with a few new ones. The twist here is that it overclocks our hero, meaning he'll have to choose which to invest in, and which to shut down permanently. Most of the augments were uninteresting to me, mainly focused on the action part of the game. There are a few stealthy or hacker-y augments to choose from though. If you like inflicting pain or being superhuman you'll likely dig the augments and might have trouble choosing which to shut down.
Hacking makes a return as well, and so far I haven't seen any real difference between MD and HR. There are plenty of keypads to hack, but also computers to find codes or just read about people's lives. Collecting data pads and other items (like ebooks) gives you deeper insight into the world of Mankind Divided.
The story seems standard fare so far, but what I really like about it with this game is that when you're choosing a response, you're not sure who to trust. It creates a tense atmosphere of wondering if you're doing the right thing. Also, the atmosphere is compelling. You feel like you're being discriminated against and segregation is openly happening. If you get on the "naturals" side of the metro, you'll be stopped by police when you exit because it's against the law. One of the other locations in the game show you just how bad the augmented population is treated when compared with Prague, the main city.
Pre-order and DLC items can only be used ONE TIME and are SAVE LOCKED. What does this mean exactly? When you choose to take your item out of "Storage" (press L2 when in the inventory screen), you cannot redeem it again. That means the pre-order guns I received I can only claim ONCE. This is a pathetic. I don't blame the devs, as they are likely to not have anything to do with this shady practice.
DO NOT GIVE SQUARE-ENIX ANY OF YOUR MONEY BY PURCHASING MICROTRANSACTION ITEMS FOR A SINGLE PLAYER GAME THAT CAN ONLY BE USED ONCE. I'm sick and tired of this practice. Vote with your wallets, please. I think the game is great but detest some of the practices that the marketing team/corporate come up with. It's a shame too, because Eidos, the devs, deserve props for this great game.
As for bugs, I've only encountered a single one during my playthrough and that was when trying to turn in a piece of breach software. The game hung during the conversation scene and I had to shut the game down and re-open it. Otherwise my experience has been very smooth.
I highly recommend this game to people who like stealth games, futuristic/sci-fi action games, games with choice, and RPG elements.
I would not recommend this game to people who like constant killing and murder sprees with no consequences like Doom or Call of Duty.
Customer Questions & Answers
Customer reviews
Excellent Level Design: Play How You Want
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2017
If you played a Dues Ex game in the past, the game is basically the same first person, RPG Stealth game with more/better augmentation or upgrade tree.Gameplay is really good, each level is designed so that there's no one way to tackle it, you can either go guns blazing, stealth or somewhere in between. If it's your first play though it'd probably be the latter as going full guns blazing and stealth require a lot of upgrades especially on higher levels which you can purchase through micro-transactions in the game which is very disappointing or if you're a pro in past titles it's not needed. You can literally go through the game without killing any enemy/boss in any lethal means which can net you a PSN trophy. This game has great flow compared to past titles in it's level design, you can zip through enemies and go in/out through levels very smoothy once you get good at the game as it feel very satisfyingGraphics are really good, nice attention to detail in the environments as in some parts there are a lot of random little trinkets and paintings scattered throughout the room or level. Characters animate well, but the lip syncing can be horrible at times.Story is your basic trying to get rid of a terrorist organization plot with racial tension in a form of human augmentation. This game does a good job with a recap video for those who haven't played or forgot what happened in prior titles in the series. There's a lot of good exposition when talking to NPC for world building if you're into that sort of thing. Game ends in an abrupt note as it seems like this title is just a setup for the the next one.Overall best game in the franchise thus far in terms of level design and gameplay. Story is a bit disappointing since it's just a teaser for the next title.
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2017
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Cliente de Amazon
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Reviewed in Mexico on May 26, 2017Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: Day OneVerified Purchase
LotoIn
Buenísimo
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José Luis
Deus Ex bueno pero....
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Angel I. Mejia
Muy buen juego!
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Donovan Aguilar
Gran juego y excelente secuela.
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