• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided I Review Thread I I asked for this

Lime

Member
Put me in the "Deus Ex has aways had a dumb story" camp.

Its all about the atmosphere and the gameplay for me.

Just too bad that the game wants to be taken seriously and the developers go out of their way to state that they are making high art that deals with complex topics.

When developers decide to put lots of story and cutscenes and dialogue into a game, it's hard to avoid the dumb story, unfortunately.
 

Angel_DvA

Member
A story can be great to someone and crap to someone else. It's never a set thing.

I agree with you and it wouldn't bother me if only one or two persons would have said that but the majority of reviews talk about how disappointing the story is, I loved HR story so I hope it's as good at best.
 
Just too bad that the game wants to be taken seriously and the developers go out of their way to state that they are making high art that deals with complex topics.

When developers decide to put lots of story and cutscenes and dialogue into a game, it's hard to avoid the dumb story, unfortunately.

This a series who had a main character with the name JC because JESUS CHRIST.

They have never been subtle.
 

Lime

Member
A story can be great to someone and crap to someone else. It's never a set thing.

It's difficult to determine what counts as a 'good story' for sure, but at the same time we have to recognize and agree on why a 6 year old's random words on a piece of paper is not as 'good' as Dostoyevsky

We can't be all relativistic and say that anything goes when it comes to narrative.

This a series who had a main character with the name JC because JESUS CHRIST.

They have never been subtle.

Tell that to Eidos Montreal
 

Nzyme32

Member
This a series who had a main character with the name JC because JESUS CHRIST.

They have never been subtle.

I don't think that is actually true. In fact iirc it was because they wanted a unisex name, but then decided against the female protagonist or something
 

Curufinwe

Member
Bummer that the story is something people all seem to dislike.
It's the main hook for me, apart from being able to do a non lethal play through.

Go to DOOM for the mechanics, Deus Ex for the story.

Went to "maybe wait for a sale" from "Day 1"

Game reviewers complaining about the story makes me even more excited to play it. Usually their opinions on story are worthless.
 

Geist-

Member
I think I'll cancel my preorder and wait for a sale. I'm pretty tight on funds at the moment, and there are a lot of great games coming pretty soon. I'd still love to play it, but it's just one of those choices I need to make, and right now it's not inspiring confidence.
 
I can't believe people see mid 80s as disappointing, oh well.
For me i would prefer a crappy gameplay mechanic that knocks off a couple points from the score...or more bad boss fights that knock off a couple points. Because story is that important for this genre of game. IMO
 

Tovarisc

Member
What are some examples of them handling criticism like children? I listened to the entirety of the HR Director's Cut commentary, and they were very reasonable about people's criticisms as well as things they admitted they did poorly. Is this a recent thing or something?

I think he is referring to MD's take on "Black Lives Matter" movement, can't remember what it's called in Deus Ex. It got devs under some fire and how they handled is up for argument I guess. Personally I didn't follow that discussion too closely.
 
Most disappointing thing for me is only one hub. I loved travelling between Hengsha and Detroit in HR. Although I guess if they were able to really focus on making Prague amazing I might be okay with it (and hopefully we get to head to other locales for contained missions frequently enough).



What are some examples of them handling criticism like children? I listened to the entirety of the HR Director's Cut commentary, and they were very reasonable about people's criticisms as well as things they admitted they did poorly. Is this a recent thing or something?

Well you see, one guy got upset that the Internet got upset that they used the word "Apartheid", therefore every single person involved with this game handles criticism like a child.
 

jorgejjvr

Member
I'm just going to play the game and judge the story for myself

The gameplay is there which matters most

Can't wait, it's looking like my personal GOTY just like HR
 

dr_rus

Member
This a series who had a main character with the name JC because JESUS CHRIST.

They have never been subtle.

The first game wasn't stupid either and with the amount of conspiracy mythology it covered it sure earned the right to not being subtle. Can't say the same about HR and it looks like MD is even worse from these reviews.
 
Game reviewers complaining about the story makes me even more excited to play it. Usually their opinions on story are worthless.

We all remember the "Oscar worthy" story of GTA 4. Misogynist sociopath went through a hard time during the war. Then the tragic ending. I had tears in my eyes.
 
Just too bad that the game wants to be taken seriously and the developers go out of their way to state that they are making high art that deals with complex topics.

When developers decide to put lots of story and cutscenes and dialogue into a game, it's hard to avoid the dumb story, unfortunately.

Do you think it's possible for a game to earn literary merit for exploring its themes simply through its setting--environmental storytelling writ large--even while the main characterization and narrative fall short? I was struck by how plainly HR depicted society post-augmentation and just let the player absorb it without moralizing one day or another, and I was able to enjoy that element separate from the pulpy story. Deus Ex as a series will likely never reach the status of high art, but not many video games actually try to explore anything, and I at least appreciate the effort when one does.
 
kj3gFME.jpg


Oh, just the usual.

This image is garbage! Videogame reviews have always been arguably weighted towards the seven plus range in terms of scores. If you think this is a new trend that started in the late 00's then I don't think you were old enough to be critically aware of videogame reviews in the late nineties or early-mid 00's.
 
The first game wasn't stupid either and with the amount of conspiracy mythology it covered it sure earned the right to not being subtle. Can't say the same about HR and it looks like MD is even worse from these reviews.

Edios have been pretty open about how they want this to be a serise ala Mass Effect.


I wonder if maybe they leave a few too many sequel doors open. All the previous DX games have been pretty much singular stories that are connected where this might only been the opening of a much bigger planned story
 

Ozium

Member
wow so the story is bad it runs like crap on pc and it looks like a ps3 game?

only 82 on metacritic and I see that is merely one point ahead of MADDEN?

illuminati confirmed
 

br3wnor

Member
Pulled the trigger already since I got it for $36, but seems like main complaint is that it expands on HR but doesn't blow people away like HR did since it's been 5 years. I'm completely fine with a mostly similar game, I didn't even beat HR but really enjoyed the 10ish hours I put into it.
 

Mattenth

Member
Very random... but anyone play it on Windows 10 with an Xbox Controller? I'm curious if Microsoft has resolved their issues yet.
 

FATALITY

Banned
I don't understand why people do this.
Why post a cropped shot of the comparison? First of all it means the image is not native and more importantly it makes things look worse than it actually is because that cropped part shows an area at distance, and since consoles run lower AF and resolution they will look 10 times more blurry in comparison than they actually are.
Masterrace always trying to justify the money they spent on pc.
Don't expect nothing else from them
 

Lime

Member
What are some examples of them handling criticism like children? I listened to the entirety of the HR Director's Cut commentary, and they were very reasonable about people's criticisms as well as things they admitted they did poorly. Is this a recent thing or something?

.

The game's art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletete previously complained about the controversy surrounding its use of the term mechanical apartheid, telling Polygon: "It’s a form of art, the people outside don’t think it’s art, it’s just stupid games. We’re fighting against those people. And then when we’re dealing with serious subjects suddenly we’re treated as little kids that are just doing video games again. This whole thing is completely ridiculous."

The director doesn't seem to understand the concept of feedback and criticism, at least in terms of the more well-reasoned criticisms in terms of the game's narrative.

But I don't want to derail, just wanted to answer your question.
 

Tovarisc

Member
Yeah, I haven't actually seen any other instances of the developers handling criticism like children. It's possible I missed it, but I don't think so. In my experience they always seemed to take criticism in stride.

I think peoples reaction took MD devs by surprise. What I read about it looked like people making huge stink about this thing without knowing how game actually deals with it, if at all. Funnily enough Jim Sterling gave MD devs shit for handling such issues while praised Mafia 3 for having racism in it, while he had no idea how either of games tackle those things.
 

Lakitu

st5fu
I need to read some reviews but lacking time, anyone can summarise what are the negatives (bar the story obviously)?

Nonetheless, I can't wait for it. Hurry up and dispatch my copy Shopto.
 
i loved the deus ex 1 story. it was schlocky but really endearing to me.

human revolution also had a cornball illuminati plot but it was presented well.

anyways these reviews are pretty disappointing to me personally. i'm so up for some more Deus Ex, since the first is my GOAT and Human Revolution is a top 5 of last gen. But a stagnating sequel is something that won't last long with me after I beat it. also the biggest disappointment here is
only one hub city...fuck outta here
 

Lime

Member
Do you think it's possible for a game to earn literary merit for exploring its themes simply through its setting--environmental storytelling writ large--even while the main characterization and narrative fall short? I was struck by how plainly HR depicted society post-augmentation and just let the player absorb it without moralizing one day or another, and I was able to enjoy that element separate from the pulpy story. Deus Ex as a series will likely never reach the status of high art, but not many video games actually try to explore anything, and I at least appreciate the effort when one does.

Definitely, I love that type of environmental storytelling. I think examples like Dark Souls are really great at this form. I think it's just a problem when the traditional elements of a conveying narrative (like cutscenes, dialogue, characterization of antagonists, etc.) are conveyed in a subpar or underwhelming manner, especially when they have such a prominent position in the game.
 

Lashley

Why does he wear the mask!?
I think I'll cancel my preorder and wait for a sale. I'm pretty tight on funds at the moment, and there are a lot of great games coming pretty soon. I'd still love to play it, but it's just one of those choices I need to make, and right now it's not inspiring confidence.

Some of the reviews is not very encouraging to be honest.

?

The reviews have been good
 

JBwB

Member
Not sure where to post this but damn... The PC version seems to be very resource intensive. So does that mean the recommended requirements are for medium / high settings then?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3109519/software/deus-ex-mankind-divided-review-impressions-human-evolution.html

"Both my colleague Brad Chacos and I have spent time with the game the last few days and performance is nowhere near what I’d expect. I’m running the game on a GeForce GTX 980 Ti, Brad on an overclocked EVGA GTX 1080 FTW. My PC fluctuates between 30 to 50 frames per second at 1080p resolution on a mix of High/Very High settings (not even Ultra) depending on whether I’m indoors or outdoors. Brad says the GTX 1080 hits a steady 60 at 1080p, but the in-game benchmark only reached 46 frames per second at 1440p."

Hopefully the performance will be fine on my PC but I'm preparing for the worst haha.
 
Top Bottom