E3 2015 Impressions — Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

While At E3 I Was Able To See Deus Ex: Mankind Divided In A More Intimate Setting Than Just The Trailer. Here’s My Take On It

Square Enix was no slouch at this year’s E3 as it had many amazing titles to show off and one that I was lucky enough to look at was Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. You may have remembered this one being teased quite a bit over three days on Twitch only for Eidos Montreal to full announce the game was coming. There is still no release date outside of 2016 but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have anything else to show for it on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In fact not only did we all get to see a shinier example of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided but we also were able to see quite a few of the new features even though the level map was considered “small” for the purposes of the demo. Here’s my take on where Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is in its current state.

Right out of the gate we can see that all that down time between titles for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided have paid off as it looks considerably better in the graphics department than Human Revolution did. That should be expected as we are running on newer tech and have had the time to try and perfect the craft for the game here. Even in the below video we can see an alpha build of Mankind Divided running and I can only imagine how it will progress as we get closer and closer to the release date or window for the game. We are going to need some amazing visuals to go along with all of the new features, augmentations, and ways to move about the game’s world after all won’t we?

Speaking of, as we are in a world of human upgrades, Adam has received a few upgrades here in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It looks like Adam will now have a new version of the Icarus Dash that will not only allow him to move across long gaps as before but also to higher locations on the map as well as using it as a charge attack when in combat. It also looks like it can be linked to a few other abilities in Mankind Divided but for the most part, and amazingly so, it can be used in conjunction with the cloak ability to make sure that we are always in cover or hidden in the game. This is great for players like me who would rather have the stealth gameplay over the run-and-gun gameplay that are always the options in a Deus Ex game.

To go along with all of that it looks like we are also getting multiple ammo types and the ability to upgrade on the fly in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. One of these ammo types being an EMP shot that will allow for us to take down mechanical devices and cameras all while keeping our stealth streak going. If you still want to keep stealthy but want to be a murderous bastard there is also the new nano blade attachment in Mankind Divided that can be fired off to kill enemies as well as stick and then explode to get those pesky NPCs who always seem to stay in cover no matter what is going on in the world. Thank you Eidos Montreal for that as there is nothing worse than an NPC AI bot that just fires blind until you have to run up and melee kill them. We now have options.

So I can speed things up and you can see all of these gadgets in use for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided there is also a new non-lethal Tesla gun that allows you to taser up to four enemies with one shot. All of the shots lock on and auto target for ease. There is also remote hacking to allow access to multiple areas of the maps in Mankind Divided as well as control mechanic enemies so you can always choose your own path in the game. Lastly there is also Titan Shield that is more like armor that covers Adam’s body to make him a killing juggernaut for a short time. I guess that one is in there for those who want to just dive in and murder everything face to face in Mankind Divided and not those who like the sneaky approach.

One of the last new features for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a social combat of sorts that works like a choose your own dialog form of combat that has many different outcomes based on your choices. Sometimes they lead to Adam getting some crazy bonuses and other times it leads to all hell breaking loose and the NPC going all crazy and kills them self. It all matters on the NPC and your dialog choices. This was kind of instituted in past Deus Ex titles but it looks more fleshed out and dynamic here in Mankind Divided. I can wait to get into this and see if I can talk my way out of every little issue we run into or if there are set story elements that always have to occur in the game.

I loved Human Revolution and have a feeling I am going to love Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. We still have plenty of time to polish and get ready for market so I can only imagine what else Eidos Montreal and Square Enix have in the pipeline for us. If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on a single thing keep the browser locked in here as we will have all of the updates as soon as we can remotely hack into their servers or the information is shared freely. Whichever happens first I guess.