If you aren't already aware, Mankind Divided picks up where Human Revolution left off. Being a huge fan of Human Revolution, and playing through it 3 times, I can say that I also love this game. My first playthrough was in "Give Me Deus Ex" mode. If you've played HR, there's no reason why you shouldn't give yourself more of a challenge. I tried to get several achievements such as "Pacifist" and "Foxiest of the Hounds" and ended up spending over 50 hours in a single playthrough. I didn't get the latter as I must have set off an alarm somewhere. Do car alarms count?

There are many reviews about gameplay that you have already read. It has received a lot of criticism. I will try and address why I disagree (at least partly) with the critisisms below, as well as offer my thoughts as to why I think it let some people down, so that you won't be disappointed when playing it.

#1 - The game offers in app purchases.

* I do agree that $60 AAA games shouldn't offer in app purchases, please let's stop the madness! However, to be fair, they don't put it in your face or beg you to spend more money. If I didn't know it offered IAPs ahead of time, I wouldn't have gone looking for the menu, and probably would have never seen it. As of this review I have put in 56+ hours into the game and have seen the IAP menu once, because I went looking for it.

#2 - The game has too many loose endings.

* I'm not sure why people say this. The game wraps up quite nicely. At the beginning of the game you find out that Jensen has experimental augs and you never really find out from where. But, this is all to setup a third game, and it's dead obvious that this is what it's for. There is a surprise cliffhanger in the middle of the ending credits regarding these augs, but again, this is to setup a third game and is quite exciting to know that the developers want to continue the story! :) However, if you follow the main storyline from the intro mission in Dubai all the way to the end, it wraps the primary story up, while leaving just as much mystery as Human Revolution did when it ended. You didn't think that Pancea was the ultimate goal of the Illuminati at the end of HR, did you? Of course not :)

#3 - The game just doesn't have the same mood as HR.

* You're right, and I suppose this is due to the fact that HR is consistently dark all the way through the game, however, MD starts out in the middle of the day which makes the mood a little lighter and much more settling. Don't get too settled in though, the mood does change from there and I think is a great storytelling element far superior to HR :)

#4 - The gameplay feels identical to HR.

I hope that nobody who makes this comment also thinks Mass Effect 2 or 3 were great games, because they suffer from the exact same problem, but I would argue they were worse in this area. That's not saying those two games are bad, they aren't, but for some reason people holds this game to a different standard.

#5 - Unstable and buggy.

* I only had one crash bug that got fixed when I was about half way through the game. The developers obviously want a high quality game and didn't just put it out and just rake in the cash. Some advice... don't buy games (or anything technology related) shortly after they release! I'd think this would be common sense by now, but apparently not. Wait a few months. If you wait, the bugs will get ironed out and you'll end up paying less for the game. The same goes for new CPUs, GPUs, games, software, etc. If you get something immediately when it comes out, expect bugs, including major ones.

Overall, I really loved the game and am going to play through it again. I can understand some of the critisisms above, but many of them I believe are from people setting their expectations far too high, or getting on the hype train. Also, I hate to say it, but I think we are at a point where games are getting large and complex enough that you can expect bugs for the first few months after release. This is just how software is. Early adopters always get bitten by bugs, and games are no different. If you want to have a more bug free experience when playing games, then wait at least 3-6 months until after a game is released.

To cap it off I would like to add in something I did miss from HR (Director's Cut). I really enjoyed the Director's Cut boss battles. They were like challenging/intense milestones that helped break up the story, but also offered a non-frontal assault approach to defeating the bosses. I know this makes it harder with the "Pacifist" style gameplay/achievement, but if you can't figure anything out, adding that "bosses don't count" again is perfectly acceptable, at least to me. :)

[Update] Now that I've also played through the "Criminal Past" DLC I can say that it feels like a fun, unique, standalone DX game where you can literally play through it with the old Aug system from HR, or the new Aug system from MD, or no Augs at all. I've also played through the two other DLC missions and enjoyed them as well. Finally, Breach mode, although not my favorite of what DX:MD has to offer, is quite fun too and adds even more gameplay if you want more DX style gameplay.