DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED Impressions - E3 2015
Today I was given a behind closed doors presentation of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of my favorite games of all time (I love the others but that one really stuck with me), so my expectations were very high.
The game takes place two years after Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The canon ending is that Adam Jensen blew up the base, leaving the world in the dark about the Illuminati and hoping that humanity will find their own way. A social rift has emerged between regular humans and augmented humans. Augmented humans have been sort of quarantined within ghettos.
One of the developers said that they were going for a District 9 vibe. Adam Jensen is working for an Interpol task force called Task Force 29 while also investigating the Illuminati, whom he suspects are running Task Force 29. The demo mission had Jensen investigating an augmented rights group because they suspect that the leader is responsible for a recent terrorist attack.
The classic Deus Ex gameplay was here; many different paths to achieve your objective, as well as stealth options and guns blazing options. Mankind Divided features a lot of verticality to its levels compared to Human Revolution — you can go up and over rather than through way more often.
Also making its return is the non-lethal approach, meaning the game can be completed without a single death. A lot of Jensen’s abilities make a return such as cloaking and his blade (meaning takedowns are back), but there are some awesome additions. He can now shoot his blade, impaling enemies on walls, or shoot his blade that detonates and kills enemies with shrapnel. There is also a new ability called Icarus dash which can get Jensen to places super fast, as well as ram enemies. Jensen can remotely hack, too.
One of the coolest additions was the titan armor which covers Jensen in nanobots and makes him invincible for a short period. Not only is it super useful, but it looks freaking awesome. The PEPS gun (the nonlethal gun that shoots a force field) is now part of Jensen’s arm. You really are a one-man army. Dialogue choices again affect the outcome of a given situation. Overall the demo was awesome, and I am very excited to return to this tormented future in 2016.