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[Alpha Phoenix]

Mankind Divided came out exactly one year ago today, on August 23, 2016. I didn't play it until some months later because of school and whatnot, but I think now is a good time to reflect on some issues surrounding the game.

First off, I loved Human Revolution. It was my personal GOTY 2011. I was really looking forward to Mankind Divided, if only to get more Deus Ex, because it had been such a long wait at 5 years between the two entries. Anyway, when I finally played MD, I loved it, although it definitely didn't blow me away the same way as HR did. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it was essentially more of the same, just a lot better mechanically.

After a few playthrough's of the game, I can summarize what I liked about it in bullet points:

• Exceptional level design
• Major gameplay improvements over HR
• Great sidequests (much better than many RPGs)
• High replayability
• Amazing soundtrack

The main story definitely wasn't its strongest aspect, and that's well known by now. I certainly didn't think a sequel to HR would revolve around investigating a bomb threat. However, at the same time, there was a non-negligible amount of subtext surrounding the seemingly shallow story. Most noticeably, the whole subplot involving Adam's extra augs, which has an entire quest tied to it that spans most of the game. There are huge implications there, some of which you may already be aware of:

Spoiler

Were we playing as a clone?

In addition, by the end of you the game, you realize that bomb threat was nothing but icing on the cake, and there is in fact a lot more going on than meets the eye. This is especially evidenced by the post-credits scene in which Delara Auzene is featured. If you've played A Criminal Past,

Spoiler

it is also hinted at that Adam may have already figured out who she really is, just from the way he talks to her at the end of the DLC.

In any case, I loved the game in spite of its shortcomings (main plot, only one hub, forgettable cast). There is a lot going on in that story, and I hope Square greenlights a sequel once one of their current projects is finished, because it would be a shame to see it go. Eidos obviously had big plans for the sequel.

 

[Nintendo's Witch]

The sequel did not meet my expectations at all. I loved HR tho.

 

[Lashley]

I preferred HR but I loved this.

Such a shame its on hiatus

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Echoing the sentiment that it was a less exciting game than HR, but even "so so" Deus Ex makes for a great game. My largest criticism would probably be the frequent back tracking and the way in which side quests seem to have been placed in the world specifically to maximize the number of load screens needed to complete the quest. I found that aspect of the game tedious when I was just trying to finish them up before proceeding with the story.

 

[Window]

I can kind of understand people being more engaged with the plot and story in HR but MD has a much more interesting world to explore (from a level design perspective).

 

[Arklite]

Just finished A Criminal Past yesterday after having shelved it for several months and yeah, that final scene with Auzene is great. I read someone else explain how her response of killing a traitor was her practically daring him to do something. This and other pieces of MD's more memorable plot points come few and far between but when they hit they nail it.

I have to agree with the criticism of a weaker cast. They just don't have the same allure and chemistry as HR's characters and it's a detriment of the game's narrative impact.

 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

The exploration and ambiance (especially at night) of the Prague hub basically made up for my disappointment in other aspects of the game. One of my favorite game hub worlds.

 

[TheDeftone]

MD is one of my favorites in this gen. Human Revolution was more epic storywise (mainplot) and more thrilling in terms of making decisions but I think Mankind Divided had a far better leveldesign and much more interesting sidequests. I love both games.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

GAF makes me feel crazy since I thought Mankind Divided was better than Human Revolution in nearly every way. This was a great game, IMO.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

I was doing a no alarms and no kill play through and got to the snowy area where if you call the wrong person an alarm always activates no matter what you do

So fuck this game

 

[Sinh_Magnus]

Great read OP. I share more or less your thoughts about the game, but I don't think I can say I loved the game. I liked it and have a lot of fun with it, but it failed to impress me like its prequel did.

My main criticism, and one I don't usually see when people comment about this game, is the amount of places (mainly apartments) you can visit in Praga but they are just there to give you more exp and fill your inventary with things. All those emails you can read amount to nothing for me; I keep thinking that if I explore every place I would find sidequest or interesting secrets. Unfortunely, that wasn't the case as there are few sidequest in the game and most of them are easy to spot. The few sidequest at least were really good though.

I put 31 hours in my playthrough last year and I can say for sure that a good amount of them came from exploring to discover nothing worth at the end. There's also the necessity to go to the metro stations to travel between districts, which for me interrupted the gameplay.
Having said all of that, I enjoyed my time with the game and it's a shame we won't see another (and probably unrelated to these two) in 7 or 8 years.

 

[Window]

I was doing a no alarms and no kill play through and got to the snowy area where if you call the wrong person an alarm always activates no matter what you do

So fuck this game

Yeah they should have excluded that from your alarm count.

 

[CosmicRomancer]

I agree with all your points. I thought it was a brilliant game too. The sidequests were especially well done -- I was very impressed with them.

 

[Arklite]

GAF makes me feel crazy since I thought Mankind Divided was better than Human Revolution in nearly every way. This was a great game, IMO.

It's built better and plays better, not sure I've seen much of any argument on the contrary.

 

[MechaX]

My main grievance against the game is that right after what should have been a very exciting end of the second act, the game just ends like you got into a head-on collision with a concrete wall going at 90 mph.

 

[jack....]

This game was the very definition of decent

 

[N7.Angel]

The sequel did not meet my expectations at all. I loved HR tho.

This is me.

 

[RumbleHumble]

It's a solid game bogged down by some seriously tedious loading. For a game dependent on quick saves, I found myself really struggling to keep going past the first couple of side-quests.

 

[Risev1]

I've finished the game back when it came out and I very much enjoyed it despite the disappointing story and characters. None of the characters in this are as interesting as, say, David Sarif, and the change of VA's (while unfortunately understandable) for Sarif in this makes him even less interesting than his HR counterpart.

Apart from that, the game had great level design, and very enjoyable side quests. However, I've been playing it again recently and it's ridiculously easy to exploit the A.I. For example, you might want to get into an area owned by mobs. You have your goon standing guard at the door, and the area behind him counts as a trespassing area (shoot on sight and what have you). However, because of how the borders between neutral and hostile areas work in this game, you can 90% of the time just literally walk past the guard, climb the wall and get into the forbidden area, and no alarm would trigger because the forbidden area only counts from inside the wall. So the guards stationed outside the wall would literally not give a single fuck about you trespassing because, by the time you're trespassing, you're already on the other side of the wall and they won't see you. It's a huge oversight that ruins a lot of the otherwise great level design.

 

[Window]

My main grievance against the game is that right after what should have been a very exciting end of the second act, the game just ends like you got into a head-on collision with a concrete wall going at 90 mph.

Considering the time it takes to get to that point and the escalation in the story and gameplay scenarios building up to the end, I really don't understand how anyone was expecting more game after that (or even thinking it's only the second act).

 

[GinoFelino]

Your friendly neighbourhood Mankind Divided hater Gino here, popping in for my obligatory post about how it's the worst game I've played the last couple of years

However, since I'm still seeing people staunchly defending the game, I've decided to give it a second go on PC, after hating it on (base) PS4.

We'll see how it goes

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

I seriously need to get around to playing this. It completely went under my radar last year at launch, despite loving Human Revolution. Finally picked this up on one of the Steam sales earlier this year but still haven't gotten around to playing it.

I just hear such contrary things about it- some people seem to love it and think its arguably better than HR and yet some people think its terrible and a huge disappointment. I guess the one constant from what I've read is that the ending is abrupt.

 

[Window]

Your friendly neighbourhood Mankind Divided hater Gino here, popping in for my obligatory post about how it's the worst game I've played the last couple of years

However, since I'm still seeing people staunchly defending the game, I've decided to give it a second go on PC, after hating it on (base) PS4.

We'll see how it goes

I was wondering when you were gonna turn up. Been missing your posts in the last couple of MD threads.

 

[HariKari]

Considering the time it takes to get to that point and the escalation in the story and gameplay scenarios building up to the end, I really don't understand how anyone was expecting more game after that (or even thinking it's only the second act).

It's not that much time and it feels like even less narratively. The way the game ends is pretty jarring, especially compared to HR.

I seriously need to get around to playing this. It completely went under my radar last year at launch, despite loving Human Revolution. Finally picked this up on one of the Steam sales earlier this year but still haven't gotten around to playing it.

I just hear such contrary things about it- some people seem to love it and think its arguably better than HR and yet some people think its terrible and a huge disappointment. I guess the one constant from what I've read is that the ending is abrupt.

It improves everything from HR except the actual story and narrative. Almost every annoying little thing from HR is refined in MD. It's great. It just ends abruptly.

 

[finley83]

Loved the game, but ran into a game breaking bug where all NPC voices were ridiculously quiet. Even loading earlier saves didn't help as the problem would always reappear.

 

[Window]

It's not that much time and it feels like even less narratively. The way the game ends is pretty jarring, especially compared to HR.

I think the ending cut scene and the final resolution is definitely jarring in its haste but the game overall certainly doesn't feel as if it ends out of no where with no indication that its coming to an end.

 

[Risev1]

Considering the time it takes to get to that point and the escalation in the story and gameplay scenarios building up to the end, I really don't understand how anyone was expecting more game after that (or even thinking it's only the second act).

I finished the main story plus all the side quests I could find in less than 25 hours on Normal difficulty. Considering just the past few years we've had Witcher 3 at 80+ hours, Phantom Pain at 40+ hours, Fallout 4 at 60+ hours, and a huge number of games nowadays breaking into the 30+ hours mark just for the main story plus like half the side quests, it's really not that much time by the end point of Mankind Divided, so it's not at all weird that many of us expected more.

 

[Arklite]

I just hear such contrary things about it- some people seem to love it and think its arguably better than HR and yet some people think its terrible and a huge disappointment. I guess the one constant from what I've read is that the ending is abrupt.

If you enjoyed HR's overall play style then there's no reason to hesitate. The narrative isn't as tightly woven in MD, but it hits the same gameplay beats very well.

I finished the main story plus all the side quests I could find in less than 25 hours on Normal difficulty. Considering just the past few years we've had Witcher 3 at 80+ hours, Phantom Pain at 40+ hours, Fallout 4 at 60+ hours, and a huge number of games nowadays breaking into the 30+ hours mark just for the main story plus like half the side quests, it's really not that much time by the end point of Mankind Divided, so it's not at all weird that many of us expected more.

I'd definitely agree that MD's ending was too abrupt, but not because it didn't over inflate the play hours like all of your examples, hah! IIRC 25 hours was about the same for HR to wrap up well enough.

 

[GinoFelino]

I was wondering when you were gonna turn up. Been missing your posts in the last couple of MD threads.

Aw shucks

I do try to post in all of them, but I keep forgetting to make a template post listing the reasons why I dislike it so much

 

[Kill3r7]

Your friendly neighbourhood Mankind Divided hater Gino here, popping in for my obligatory post about how it's the worst game I've played the last couple of years

However, since I'm still seeing people staunchly defending the game, I've decided to give it a second go on PC, after hating it on (base) PS4.

We'll see how it goes

Did you like HR? Try a clean hands, no alarms play-through.

 

[Alpha Phoenix]

Echoing the sentiment that it was a less exciting game than HR, but even "so so" Deus Ex makes for a great game. My largest criticism would probably be the frequent back tracking and the way in which side quests seem to have been placed in the world specifically to maximize the number of load screens needed to complete the quest. I found that aspect of the game tedious when I was just trying to finish them up before proceeding with the story.

This is definitely true, and a byproduct of having one hub where everything takes place. It was especially annoying on consoles because you had to sit through the train sequences.

Having said all of that, I enjoyed my time with the game and it's a shame we won't see another (and probably unrelated to these two) in 7 or 8 years.

I hope it won't be that long. I think there's a good chance the sequel could happen sooner than any of us expect, especially once Eidos wraps up one of their current projects.

Your friendly neighbourhood Mankind Divided hater Gino here, popping in for my obligatory post about how it's the worst game I've played the last couple of years

However, since I'm still seeing people staunchly defending the game, I've decided to give it a second go on PC, after hating it on (base) PS4.

We'll see how it goes

You're welcome to post as long as you keep your arguments well-reasoned and level. FWIW, I do think it's a better game on PC, like HR was.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

It's already been a year?

Damn

 

[Window]

I finished the main story plus all the side quests I could find in less than 25 hours on Normal difficulty. Considering just the past few years we've had Witcher 3 at 80+ hours, Phantom Pain at 40+ hours, Fallout 4 at 60+ hours, and a huge number of games nowadays breaking into the 30+ hours mark just for the main story plus like half the side quests, it's really not that much time by the end point of Mankind Divided, so it's not at all weird that many of us expected more.

As I said it's not just about the time (fyi I was 40hrs+ in when I got to the end) but it should be obvious you are approaching the end from the game play scenario + story beats.

 

[kaiju]

Apartment snooping has never been more fun. Really enjoyed DE: MD.

 

[GinoFelino]

Did you like HR? Try a clean hands, no alarms play-through.

Yeah, I really enjoyed HR when it came out. Probably won't like it much by today's standards.

And a no alarms/as clean as possible playthrough is how I play all my immersive sims!

You're welcome to post as long as you keep your arguments well-reasoned and level. FWIW, I do think it's a better game on PC, like HR was.

I always try to!

 

[xrnzaaas]

Mankind Divided was a really good game but I liked HR better, it had nicer locations (not necessarily better level design), more interesting main story and I'd be happier with two very different hubs instead of a large single one (and separated by loading screens on top of that). Oh and HR didn't have any Breach trophies.

 

[walei]

I love MD it's one of my favourite game last year. The world building is amazing and Prague is a beautiful & dynamic hub world.

Spoiler

Shame that it's the ONLY hubworld I got so excited when the game takes you to London only for it to be the last level

Too bad the marketing during pre-launch effed the franchise up, I really want a sequel.

 

[HariKari]

I think the ending cut scene and the final resolution is definitely jarring in its haste but the game overall certainly doesn't feel as if it ends out of no where with no indication that its coming to an end.

I definitely got the sense of dread that the last level was exactly that when playing it. I just don't think the note it ended on was worthy. It's the equivalent of the Barrett fight from HR.

 

[Marcel]

The "Augment Your Pre-Order" debacle ended up fucking them hard in addition to the game getting a delay.

 

[Ushojax]

It was a good game, but it didn't feel like a full sequel to HR, more of an expansion pack. I don't know how it took them 5 years.

 

[Window]

I definitely got the sense of dread that the last level was exactly that when playing it. I just don't think the note it ended on was worthy. It's the equivalent of the Barrett fight from HR.

Yeah this I can agree with. The ending was unsatisfying.

 

[BeeDog]

Despite its ending not being as good as HR, MD is one of the very best games in the last few years. It's a crying shame we probably won't see a follow up

 

[NeoZeedeater]

I loved the game. Story aside, Mankind Divided was an improvement over Human Revolution. Both games are too easy, though. Prey is the only one of the modern FPS/Adventures to have that 1999/2000 era difficulty. It makes all the survival choices more satisfying.

 

[Stygr]

I really think Arkane is the right developer for Deus Ex and Thief, i will be so happy, if Bethesda would buy Thief and Deus Ex from Sqeenix, but this aint happening saldy

MD was a good game depsite some flaws.

 

[Akuun]

deleted

 

[Brazil]

I really think Arkane is the right developer for Deus Ex and Thief, i will be so happy, if Bethesda would buy Thief and Deus Ex from Sqeenix, but this aint happening saldy

Well, they're definitely used to working on IPs that underperform.

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

Loved the game but I still prefer HR. One of my favourite gaming franchises.


And that Misha Mansoor theme was amazing.

 

[Arklite]

It was a good game, but it didn't feel like a full sequel to HR, more of an expansion pack. I don't know how it took them 5 years.

At least part of it was due to their engine switch and modifications. They went from Crystal Dynamics own engine to the Glacial 2 engine used for Hitman Absolution to handle larger hubs. Sadly MD still has a giant obnoxious loading issues with Prague being split in two.

 

[Courage]

GAF makes me feel crazy since I thought Mankind Divided was better than Human Revolution in nearly every way. This was a great game, IMO.

I'm with you, Prague could very well be a map from the original Deus Ex.

 

[MrFrankFontaine]

This game has been on my backlog for too long. I'll need to get to this game soon.