All in all, this is a good game and worth playing. I was a bit skeptic, due to the mixed reviews (especially some people were still negative even by getting it in sale at 15€). I must say, at 15€ it's absolutely a bargain even with its flaws.

Mankind Divided continues the story of human revolution, so i don't understand how some negative reviews bash this aspect of the game. It's a sequel, what did you expect?

Some people hate the fact that there isn't a real tie-in to the choices taken in human revolution, in fact, you don't need a savegame. Did you save somebody? Did you pick a certain ending? It doesn't matter, the game will recap the first chapter and skip all these customization through careful dialogs and skilled story telling. It's a bit annoying, i can agree, but really, not that big deal like somebody tells.

This game has a huge problem for many people: it's not human revolution. HR set the bar very high (especially considering the franchise. Do you remember the time when deus ex 1 was the only good deus ex?) and beating that was going to be a challenge: some people will never be happy.

The game has a few flaws, and, in my opinion, are all cause of possible budget cuts or crunch time. Often you see a lack of variety (for example the underground loading screens) which should not be present in AAA games as this one. Do they break immersion? A little. Are they game breaking? Absolutely not. It is true, in order to shove a lot of content in the game (with side missions) many things are sospiciously convenient. Need to do side mission X? What a coincidence, it's just 20 meters over there, just the apartment in front side mission Y.

Yet, the story is not bad (although take a few hours to get you engaged) and although i didn't like --- MINOR SPOILER AHEAD ---- the fact that it leaves the door open for a new chapter -------- END OF MINOR SPOIELR ---- i overall had fun.

The final mission especially is my favourite part of the game even if it's probably a little too short.

Some other minor annoying stuff are there, but really, it's still a very good game. If you liked Human Revolution, this game is for you too.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an absolutely beautiful, intricately detailed, amazingly realised piece of exposition. It improves upon Human Revolution in nearly every way, and I laud Edios for the amount of work and effort that went into this game, however it is clear that Square Enix cut this title into pieces to sell as DLC and future Deus Ex games and as a testing bed for the atrocious microtransactions. I had heard that Mankind Divided's main story ended quite abruptly, but when the New Game+ notification appeared and the credits began rolling I was in disbelief. I bought this game on the expectation that I was going to experience a complete story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Mankind Divided is only the beginning.

It is frustrating, because everything about Mankind Divided is amazing. The fusion of classical European and post modern architecture is beautiful and this world is a distinct cyberpunk that stands alone from the masses of Blade Runner inspired worlds. The combat and stealth are a massive improvement over Human Revolution, and the level design is top notch all across the board. The story (main and side quests) and its themes, despite being a bit heavy handed and not thoroughly fleshed out, have so much potential in addition to the characters that inhabit them.

Everything about this game screams potential, it is such a shame that Square Enix had to mess it up.

Deus Ex died so we could get Avengers instead
Very sad, I cry everytiem

You're probably wondering why I'm "Not recommending" a game that I've invested literally 5 days of my life into. For one, because Steam doesn't have a "meh" option; but mainly, because compared to its predecessor Human Revolution, this game isn't really that good.

Let's rewind to 2011, when HR was released. As a reboot of a much-loved series, it pretty much did everything right: great characters that you actually cared about, overarching plot that built to a very satisfying crescendo, and of course game mechanics that could suit anyone from the stealthiest hacker to the most gung-ho gunslinger. Yes, there were some rough edges, but they were easily forgivable given the scope and breadth of Eidos Montreal's accomplishment.

Given all that, the most burning question on my mind is: how the hell did it then take them half a decade to release what is essentially an expansion to HR? And I use the word expansion deliberately, because overall Mankind Divided feels like less of a game than its older sibling.

This is due to a lot of things. Firstly, and most importantly, instead of there being multiple cities between missions, there's one hub - Prague - that you return to repeatedly. Now, Prague definitely changes and evolves between each mission, but it doesn't really grow; you can visit almost the entirety of it right from the beginning of the game, which means that coming back to it time and time again becomes pretty boring.

That isn't helped by the fact that Prague is just plain small; there are maybe a dozen streets with about the same number of side alleys. In terms of footprint it's probably larger than HR's Detroit and Hengsha combined, but those cities were redeemed by the fact that they had more going on on roofs and multi-storey apartment blocks than they did at street level. Prague has sewers, street level, a few empty apartments higher up and... that's it.

The ridiculous load times, which were marginally acceptable in HR in 2011 but are actually offensive in MD in 2016, make this seem even worse because getting around becomes a chore. If Bethesda can ship Skyrim and Fallout 4 with multi-kilometre-square maps that have no loading times (apart from fast travel), then I fail to see why MD can't have a single seamless map for the maybe 1 square kilometre that makes up Prague. You literally have to endure a loading screen to get from one small half of Prague to the other... what? Why?

Hey, did you like the characters in HR? Too bad, because you ain't gonna see them in this game! Sarif makes three video cameos, assuming you do the side mission involving him. Pritchard? Referenced a couple of times. Malik? Referenced once, extremely indirectly. Taggart? Referenced once (yeah, he's an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, but still a well-portrayed one).

What we have in their place are cardboard cutouts of stereotypes that exist for no other reason than to push the plot along. You have the hacker lady who literally does nothing, the gruff leader who doesn't like it when you go off script, his second-in-command who doesn't like you, and the pilot who also doesn't like you. None of them are particularly likeable or memorable, most just get on your nerves, and talking to them really doesn't affect or alter the outcome of the game in any way. Terrible lipsyncing doesn't help to endear them either.

And then there's the villains - or should I say, villain. HR didn't do too well on this front, but at least it had more than one Big Bad and by extension, more than a single boss fight. MD has quite literally one boss fight, right at the end of the game, and you know exactly who it's going to be against BECAUSE THERE IS LITERALLY ONLY ONE CHARACTER IT CAN BE - a character you meet halfway through the game. Who is so laughably obviously the Big Bad, that all the contortions the game pulls to try to make you second-guess and think it's someone else are just cringeworthy.

"Cringeworthy" is a pretty good description of the plot, actually. This being a Deus Ex game, one would expect a meandering plot with a few dead ends, and while HR delivered, MD plays it pretty much straight. I don't have an issue with straight plots, even in a Deus Ex game - as long as they're played honest. MD doesn't do that; instead of owning its join-the-dots plot and trying to play to its strengths, it tries to obfuscate and hide that simplicity under layers and layers of unnecessary ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and poorly-executed misdirection, and the end result is that it just ends up feeling needlessly annoying and forced.

As for gameplay, it's HR with the rough edges mostly polished. Takedowns are easier to execute and stealthier in that Jensen actually (gasp!) attempts to hide his victims as part of the takedown animation. However, dragging unconscious enemies, or corpses, to hiding spots is just as irritating as HR, in that sometimes the dragging just stops for no apparent reason, or a limb gets stuck on something and you have to go around and pull from a different angle. And no, you still can't just PICK UP AND CARRY bodies, which would obviate this whole mess.

Combat: just like everything else in MD, the selection of weapons is similar to HR, but lesser. On the plus side you now have the option to upgrade weapons with crafting parts that can be found and bought; on the downside, some of the most powerful weapons are no longer available. Presumably this is to encourage players to rely more on the new augmentations, but Deus Ex as a series has always been about choice, and MD takes away rather than giveth. Also, no Boxguards. :'(

The new augs are pretty cool, although you can't really play with them until later in the game due to another arbitrary plot speedbump. The Remote Hacking aug in particular is probably my favourite (in fact I'd say it's almost essential), but again, it feels like something that could've and should've been in HR. There are a lot more lethal augs to complement the Typhoon, which itself is now available in a non-lethal option, and they make it possible to finish the game without using any handheld weapons, which is nice I guess.

Oh, and then there's Breach mode, which is now free sooo... doesn't really contribute to my overall sentiment towards MD. It does add some unique new mechanics and looks pretty cool in a Tron-like way, but again... free. Also microtransactions.

Finally, this game has some serious bugs - be careful with the inventory screen because often, attempting to customise a weapon from it causes the game to crash to desktop. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why this happens, and often attempting to customise the same weapon that caused the crash before, causes another crash - the only fix is to drop that weapon from your inventory and pick it up again. Then there's the black screen issue, whereby a single pixel goes black, then the pixels around it, then all the pixels around them... etc. until the entire screen is black and the game crashes the display driver. The "fix" is to switch your Smart Vision augment on and then off again - but good luck doing that if you're stuck in dialog or a hacking minigame. Maybe it's only a problem with NVIDIA hardware, but it's piss poor whatever way you look at it. (Yes, I have the latest patch. No, it's not overclocking or corrupted drivers.)

To conclude: on its own, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a good game, especially if you enjoy stealth. Unfortunately its predecessor Human Revolution is a great game, which makes it difficult to recommend this one unless you're a HR veteran looking for more of the same. If you're looking to start with the Deus Ex series, HR is better and cheaper; play that first before deciding whether you want to buy this.

And seriously, Square Enix? You want me to purchase mission DLC that probably should've been part of the full game? As if the microtransactions and single-use items weren't enough? Stop trying to milk this franchise and get out of Eidos' way.

Ok, so I pre-ordered DXMD and completed it on "Give Me Deus Ex" level along with all side missions within just 2 days of release. After I completed it I uninstalled it and didn't bother writing a review as they were already negative and explaned the issues fully. I really wanted to enjoy this game, as I have had great fun in Human Revoulution and for most of my playthrough I was having fun. However this game ended up being a great let down to me and I'll tell you why...

Pros:
+ Beautiful Visuals & effects
+ Smooth/fluid gameplay & controls
+ Great ambient theme & soundtrack
+ Immersive environment
+ Good sound design (apart from gun sounds)

From the above you are probably wondering why this is getting a bad review, but the thing is this game lacks severly in major areas. I want to get this one off my chest quickly. Deus Ex games have always had multiple "hubs", where you can roam around environments freely, exploring, recieving quests and buying items. However DXMD only has 1 hub, which ruins the global travel theme shown in the games before it.... and ooohhhh boy the worst part about this game is the embarrasing lack of content.

I don't blame the developers at all, it seems like Square Enix had just cut large amounts out of the game to pump out later as dlc. This games story was great for the first 5 hours of gameplay, however it turned to litteral ♥♥♥♥ afterwards. I have seen Call Of Duty pull off better stories than this, honestly it is less than half the length of the story in DXHR and it certainly wasn't quality over quantity. One thing they advertised and hyped up, was the supposedly "important" decision making, but it ended up being almost non-existent. Instead of your choices being reflected in gameplay, it only changes what is shown on Picus News near the end of the game.

THE ENDING IS LITERALLY YOUR CHOICES IN THE STORY BEING READ BACK TO YOU BY PICUS NEWS , no joke it has to be the worst ending they could have possibly come up with lmao.

I cannot recommend this game at full price, maybe if it's under £10 you should buy, infact I would wait for a directors cut version where they give you the content they took in the first place. A massive let down to DX fans, everyone would prefer Human Revolution, buy that instead if you get the chance.

I'm also worried people will be fooled into buying this game as they keep dropping prices for the main game & DLCs. Please don't give into the fact that it's a Deus Ex game and it has to be good... I did so and I regret it. Soon enough it and the season pass, as well as probably a Directors Cut edition will be released at a much lower price. These price drops, and the introduction of Breach being free-to-play show that Square-Enix is bent on trying to squeeze as much money out of this game as they possibly can.

After playing Cyberpunk...maybe we were too harsh on this game

This 'review' is only to tell people to TURN OFF MSAA and either put Volumetric Lighting on On or Off. Do not set it to Ultra. Contact Hardening Shadows should also be set to On instead of Ultra as well. These settings are HUGE performance killers with very little noticeable differences ( Mainly Volumetric Lighting and CHS )

Volumetric Lighting and Contact Hardening Shadows are hard to notice on Ultra unless you compare two screenshots side by side and look for the differences. Save yourself the trouble and leave them to On or Off depending on how much of an fps boost you want.

Do the above and watch your FPS jump. I'm currently getting 50 fps average ( using the provided benchmark ) with a 980ti @ 1440p on Ultra with MSAA Off and Volumetric Lighting + Contact Hardening Shadows set to On.

EDIT: Updated review to mention Contact Hardening Shadows as well.

This game feels like someone handed me a book that had been torn in half. The half I got was great, but without the other half, the entire experience is meaingless. Perhaps Square Enix plans to drip feed a story through DLC (which would be terrible), but as it stands, this game doesn't have a middle or an end, which is a shame because it's a great start.

This is worth a purchase if it's super on sale.

It's an almost surreal experience to be writing a negative review for a Deus Ex game, after having invested countless hours in the series and enjoying them immensely (The Fall notwithstanding), but here we are. I will try to keep this short and sweet.

The game is awesome, the trademark Deus Ex feeling of having many possible pathways to solving a problem is there, the character customization is there, the great worldbuilding and lore is there (including references and callbacks to the series as whole), the excellent characters are there, and the gameplay itself is very similar to the one of Human Revolution (Which was top notch), and even improved in some areas. In short, the game is a treat and if you liked Human Revolution, you will certainly love Mankind Divided.

Now you will be thinking "But what is the problem? How come the game is reviewed negatively if it has so much going for it?"

The fatal flaw lies in the story. Not even the quality of the story itself, but that the game is clearly cut in half, in what has to be one of the worst cases of executive meddling I have ever seen, because I refuse to believe this is how it was intended from the beginning. The ending is a coitus interruptus in game form.

To put it more graphical terms (Spoilers for DX: HR coming), imagine you are playing Human Revolution, and after killing Barret, you are shown a cinematic of Adam talking to Sarif about him going to Hengsha to continue his investigation, and then the credits start to roll (30 minutes of unskippable credits, mind you, just to rub more salt in the wound).
And to add further insult to injury, two of the secondary missions in Detroit are sold as a separate DLC (Which clearly seems they were ripped from the main content), plus an extra hyper bland game mode topped off with microtransactions and lootboxes. Completely disgusting.

Deus Ex is a franchise that has a very dear place in my heart and while I certainly enjoyed the story and would like to know how it continues, I cannot abide these despicable commercial practices. Play at your own risk.

By far and away almost a direct improvement in every manner from Human Revolution. Why do I not recommend it? The ending isn't in the game. It cuts out and rolls the credits by the end of act 2, showing plenty of cutscenes before and during the credits to set you up for act 3, but they've held back on actually letting you play said third act, until they release it as DLC.