Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

For those who played games like Thief or Deus Ex, the man who headed those projects, Warren Specter, once said he wanted to create the "one block" roleplaying game. A game thats not a massive open world or a big solar system to explore but an area just a few streets long. People might think this is extremely limited and boring but what people don't consider is that you can put so much detail in the more small and confined spaces that you could never have in massive open world games. Like the Yakuza series, Deus Ex Mankind Divided is confined to a small area which is admittedly disappointing for a Deus Ex game at first (considering part of its charm is the globe trotting aspect to it) but you soon realize that there is just so much detail in this area that it doesnt feel small at all. In fact, I felt more immersed in this game than in the entirety of games like Skyrim or Assassins Creed. EVERY quest, be it a side mission or part of the main game, is relevant, detailed, and memorable. EVERY detail serves to show you a world gone mad. No place is generic, nothing is filler. Like the Witcher 3, every quest has some purpose and has you making decisions that can change the outcome of something both large and small-small in regards to what people could live or die and large things like how the city itself changes based on your deciisons throughout certain missions. Some people say its biggest fault is that it ended too soon or left a cliffhanger in a way that felt like it was building up to something even greater and this is a valid critique. I too felt similar however I realized I sunk nearly 30 hours into this game and I didn't do all the side quests nor explored every nook and cranny of the world you're in (and believe me, I spent at least 5 hours just exploring). This is not even factoring the amazing DLC mini campaigns nor replaying it to find different outcomes. Buy this game, with it being DRM free at currently on sale at $7 with expansions, it is a steal!

This game is fine, mechanically more refined than Human Revolution, but it just feels kind of soulless. The iconic golden color scheme of HR is gone, replaced with unappealing white interaction overlays and a dull, grey city you spend the whole game backtracking through in place of traveling around the world. The story felt less focused, and the end just kind of came out of nowhere, as if they only finished a third of the game and just padded it out to make it full length. And this is on top of it being really poorly optimized. All in all, I'm glad I played it, and am doubly glad it's on GOG already, but I have a hard time recommending it. If you played Human Revolution, a game I wholeheartedly recommend, I'd say this is competent enough of a sequel to warrant playing, just don't do much side content otherwise the game will drag on way longer than it already does.

DLC now playable without GOG Galaxy. The game, however is very good. I am a fan of "0451 games" and this game feels like an upgrade to human revolution in many ways. The story is ok, maybe a little short but the side missions are actually in depth side missions! Two of the DLC's are good. There's one that was so short it was actually a waste of time spending my praxis points... The other two were fun! Both actually made stealth harder by messing with your augs which I am all for. If in the future another game is made I hope the stealth difficulty is increased with extra dynamic challenges and more heat sensor bots... Because those were fun.

This game got a lot of flak on release - can't say it was entirely undeserved - the plot was spoiled in its entirety in the trailer and the game ends on a cliffhanger. SQuenix is too busy cashing in on superhero games, so another Deus Ex is not exactly announced. BUT to me it was an absolutely amazing experience, and in all honesty I loved it more than Human Revolution. Literally everything else aside from the main plot is great. The atmosphere is amazing. The npc dialogues are actually fun no longer 'durr hurr, I have a strong opinion about augmentations, they're all I talk about'. The graphics are great. The side quests are great. Exploration is rewarding. Stealth gameplay is fun. It feels like it's a third of something great, and I really wish to experience the rest of Jensen's story one day.