Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Previews

While this year’s New York Comic-Con is winding down and we already brought word of several new previews for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided earlier this weekend, there are additional impression pieces sprinkled with developer commentary about the sci-fi RPG still surfacing on the Internet that you should know about.

GameInformer:

You’ll also have more tools at your disposal for non-lethal encounters. All of your favorite destructive augments from Human Revolution, like the Typhoon, now have options for keeping your foes alive.

One of the coolest new skills is the Icarus Dash. If you played Dishonored, chances are you made ample use of Blink to teleport short distances over gaps and to higher ledges. The dash offers similar benefits, and can be also be used to close the distance and deliver an augmented punch to a bad guy’s sternum.

GameReactor:

As we sit down with the demo, the first thing we notice is how satisfying it feels to shoot. The transition from first-person to third-person when you go into cover feels natural, and your weapons have a weight to them that were missing in Human Revolution. When you fire your gun, you can feel how it hits the enemy, what damage it does, instead of him just absorbing the bullets until he dies. Deus Ex is no longer just an excellent stealth game. It is now also a shooter, capable of standing side-by-side with games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider. You will no longer feel the urge to press restart when your plan fails. When you get discovered, you simply switch out your weapon to a lethal option, and then engage in the satisfying gunplay.

It’s clear that Eidos Montreal has listened to their fans, but sadly not everything has been improved in Mankind Divided. The hacking mini-game makes an annoying comeback and even though they’ve upgraded it, it still feels as confusing as it was in Human Revolution. Back then we had to source a YouTube clip that explained exactly how the mini-game worked; if it’s necessary to have gameplay explained by a third-party, then it’s simply not well designed. It’s weird that a developer, one that so eagerly wants to improve their previous game, stubbornly holds on to a mini-game that is, at best, confusing.

DualShockers:

Dugas believes that (console ports on PC is disrespectful) and they will make sure that PC version has features that console does not, to make it more distinct and separate. According to Dugas, it’s (super important that the PC version is treated as such.)

Another question brought on a teaser for future information. According to the devs, there will be a (big week) soon, with reveals on DirectX 12 and how it will affect the game’s Dawn Engine.

PCGamesN:

(We crave that – we like that challenge,) he continues. (We find that that’s our [equivalent of] big explosions; it’s our set-pieces. You can go and make a choice and go back and see people talking about it on the streets. Something that you had an integral part with. Sometimes we don’t always succeed all the way that we would want to; we’d want to go really, really far into it. But we go through the effort and challenge ourselves, and go as far as we can.)

The issue, then, is one which can be split. On the one hand – and this is what Fortier is speaking to – there are the narrative choices that games ask you to make. These are the decisions that affect endings, or which factions you side with, or which characters live or die. But then there are the micro, moment-to-moment choices; the ongoing sneak vs. shoot debate.

The Verge:

The areas you’ll explore feel more dense, with more things to do and places to go. During one portion of the game, which takes place in a grimy, rainy Prague slum, you’re tasked with infiltrating an old theater. Figuring out how to get inside is a problem with multiple solutions. The outside area is teeming with armed guards, including snipers on the roofs and a robot that looks like a cross between the ED-209 from the original Robocop and an AT-ST. On first inspection, it seems like an impossible task.

During a hands-on demo I tried multiple times to get in the front door. I used guns to get rid of guards, sound dampeners so that my mechanical legs were quiet when I ran, and even a cloaking feature so that I was literally invisible for brief periods. But I kept dying, over and over. Eventually, I gave up and decided to do some exploration. In a back alley I found a ladder that provided a clear view of the roof, where I could take out the pesky snipers with a tranquilizer (you don’t always have to kill in Deus Ex). I was then able to climb onto the roof, hack a security camera so I wouldn’t be spotted, and find a skylight I could slip down into. That was my ticket from there I could pick off the guards inside without being seen, before delving deeper into the building.

IGN:

The remote hacking aug is similarly useful in both combat and non-combat scenarios. Some cameras in Mankind Divided simply don’t have big enough blind spots to effectively sneak past, which means some paths through the level are out unless you want to let everyone know you’re there. That makes the ability to temporarily disable security cameras from a distance incredibly valuable being able to bring a menacing security mech to its knees from the safety of cover is admittedly a nice cherry on top though.(

The Icarus Landing System isn’t new, but it’s a great example of how level design can influence the value of specific gameplay elements. I don’t think this aug even came to my mind when I played Human Revolution, but in both of the levels I played for Mankind Divided I was glad I had it. Long drops have been worked into play spaces far more frequently which means there are more new routes open to you if you have it, and just as importantly, more opportunities to drop in on fools out of nowhere, Batman-style

And then GameTrailers offers up a 15-minute “mega preview” video.