EPTSo once again we inhabit the cyberboots of Adam Jensen, a man perpetually damned to wear sunglasses indoors and have everyone think he’s an enormous twat, as he continues his quest to get to the bottom of conspiracies by skulking through hallways wearing a stylish trench coat. Two years after Human Revolution he lives in Prague as part of an anti-terrorism taskforce and some terrorists are nice enough to start conducting terrorism in his neighbourhood so the plot can get kicked off. It’s up to him, and us the player, to sneak, punch, shoot, hack, and ventilation shaft our way through a series of futuristic complexes and uncover the truth behind the lies behind the truth.
Let’s get all the praise out of the way first and believe me there’s quite a fair bit of that. It’s extremely gorgeous even I thought I run it on low settings because I have a shitty motherboard that overheats when trying to run Freecell. The audio design is lovely, particularly the soundtrack which consists mostly of slow moving ambient tracks that blend in seamlessly. The stealthing feels delightfully tense and the cover based shootery basically adequate. Jensen’s body may give off the impression he’s part Robocop but against gunfire he displays a resilience similar to papier mache so get used to lurking around crates and favouring the silent put downs. The levels are thickly detailed, not just in terms of visuals but with the whole multiple pathways thing that gamers can thank the original Deus Ex for inventing. Sometimes I wonder if in the bloated world of triple A development they have someone who spends a few years making a series of hallways and rooms that are basically alright and then they hire someone else to go through and fervently scatter random debris, empty bottles, bits of cardboard and papers and other assorted detritus under the logic that more things on screen = better graphics, but whatever, it’s fine.
It all blends together to create a wonderful sense of immersion that sucked me in and kept me hooked like the game was a Mothership constantly dropping Vortexes. I found myself roleplaying my decisions, carefully considering my way through the occasional dilemma and dialogue puzzle and adjusting my lethality protocol depending on the situation. State Police and sympathetic Augmented guards I went to some efforts to keep breathing (ruined at one point when a Policeman jumped onto a grenade he’d thrown but a moment ago, but hey not my fault he was a dumbarse. Probably woulda suffocated himself trying to put vegetables into a supermarket plastic bag the thick prick). For the Terrorist and Mafia types I decided to go all John McClane crossed with the Punisher which was wonderful cathartic release. Not just for me but for my inventory which I’d been dutifully filling with hundreds of bullets, guns and grenades I’d been scooping up all game and hardly using. It’s always a good sign when one starts trying to take the game seriously and although Deus Ex requires a fair bit of input and patience from the player it’s definitely worth it.
It was gratifying to see an important plot character hail from good ol’ Straya but then he started referencing an event called the Australian Civil War. What abject malarkey! How the dickens does Australian society collapse into civil war anyway? Did State of Origin get a bit out of hand that year? Did they stop brewing Victoria Bitter? Did Pauline Hanson get elected Prime Minister? Did they ban Tim-tams and sausage rolls? What!? And to make matters even more ridiculous the two sides of the conflict are the Northern Territory and the South Australian Federation. Eidos, you do know those two states are the most desolate regions of the entire fucking continent right? I mean I’m looking forward to the day we take those bloody Melbourners down a peg or two but I’m not putting the fucking Northern Territory in charge, that’s bloody outrageous. Later it’s revealed Captain Boomerang has a long running loving relationship with another bloke and it’s never made clear whether they are married or not, which accurately reflects current Australian policy regarding gay marriage: that if our great nation strays from traditional marital and family unions then a furious Mecha Jesus shall descend from above and none shall be spared His purging wrath. So at least Eidos Montreal got one thing right about my culture; passive bigotry. Thanks French Canada! You cunts!
I’m trying to avoid going on at length in a dry and boring manner about how so many of the things in the game are the product of expert craftsmen under adroit creative direction or that it’s got more polish than an 1800’s bootblack’s guild. All you need to know is that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, really, very good. But, and this is a But of such girth so imposing even Sir Mixalot would be given pause for thought, it’s not great. It is the very essence of 8/10, B+, solid video game.
The issues don’t lie in stupid nitpicks, like how the race for photo realism leaves any imperfection glaringly obvious in contrast. Jensen’s hair clipping through the back of his collar the entire fucking game, for example. Or how loudly punching someone in the face several times is somehow considered a silent takedown. Or how Jensen can smash his way through a brick wall and nobody seems to notice. Or how ventilation shafts in the future are built to accommodate six foot tall humanoids. Or how when Jensen’s crouched just beside a corner and the barrel of his weapon sticks out around the side like an awkwardly timed erection.
No, the real issue is that it’s a Deus Ex game and due to that it has crippling plot issues. There’s two plotlines going on in Mankind Divided: Jensen investigates a terrorist strike and an overarching sideplot regarding the Illuminati conspirators that secretly run and manipulate things. The first plot simply isn’t engrossing enough to carry a game of this magnitude and the latter is tensionless because it features characters and an organisation that will remain intact up until Deus Ex 1 sorts them out. The game ends after defeating what feels like a secondary villain, one that would normally be killed off 70% of the way through a regular video game and I honestly can’t remember the last time an ending left me this angry. The sequence itself and the sections leading up to it are actually quite spectacular, very well done level and mission design people, but when I’ve got plot threads dangling like skinned poultry from a Chinese foodstall, the words “You’ve unlocked New Game+” should not be appearing on screen. We’ve got some fucking critical structural problems don’t we?
The aforementioned themes of racism and societal response to fear are well handled but it’s mostly just wallpaper for the one and only real Deus Ex plot: Rich Shadowy Cunts ruin everything. My qualm isn’t that it’s unrealistic, I can totally buy into Rich Shadowy Cunts stoking fear of the outsider to manipulate and control society (Oh hi Rupert Murdoch, how’s Brexit working out? Great? Yeah? Hurry up and fucking die you creepy old shitstain). My point is that ever since Deus Ex 1 did it, the cat’s out of the conspiracy bag. Deus Ex 1 handled it perfectly, you start the game as an unassuming cyberagent preying upon poor defenceless terrorists and the layers of conspiracy and greater plot are gradually piled on to form a delicious narrative parfait. But now Deus Ex has this reputation it’s impossible to surprise us anymore. The more you focus on ‘the Illuminati did it’ the more you devalue them and the more they come off like a Captain Planet villain or something. That pesky Bob Page is up to no good again!
In these uncertain modern times entertainment companies like to bank on the marketability of recognisable brands and franchises. That’s fine, I understand an investment has to be protected, but if we’re stuck making games called Deus Ex then perhaps do what Ubisoft does with the Far Cry games and make each one a self contained universe and story that exists for that game and that game only. Or do what Arkane Studios are doing with Prey, ie a reboot that has absolutely nothing to do with the original but we’re calling it that because some of you have heard of it. The first Deus Ex game was perfect in this regard, it required neither of the quels, pre or otherwise. Human Revolution wisely steered clear of trying to link itself to the original and stayed more focused on Jensen’s personal journey, which kind of worked, but that story has been told now. We don’t need him or his conspicuous beard scar anymore. I’d still recommend Mankind Divided for the high quality of the aesthetics and gameplay, just don’t expect to get all that much out of it is me point.
Oh yeah and if the games set roughly 25 years before the original Deus Ex, why's everything look so much more futuristic?
. But I don't mind too much, they couldn't have made that level of detail otherwise for just 60 dollar. Would prefer though if they made the sidestuff more like in the first game.
