[Gonzo]

Review for Deus Ex Mankind Divided - PS4


As a rookie to the Deus Ex games, I went in with a very unbiased view. I pre-ordered the game two days before launch so that I could play it right away. the fanfare for this game was huge, (as was the moronic money-grabbing tactics originally attempted by Square Enix, Montreal).
Alas, another story for another day.

This is the latest installment of the long running series and it has a huge fan base. Some call the original Deus Ex a perfect game. I wouldn't know, I've never played it. I did play the previous installment, Human Revolution though.
I only lasted about two hours and found myself lost. This was when I wasn't really into narrative driven games. I borrowed it from a friend who just raved and raved.
Now I kind of see what he was talking about. The beautiful thing about 'MD' is that you don't really need to play the previous games to jump right in. There's an optional 12 minute video you can watch, (that is a little confusing) that will bring you up to speed for the most part.

You play as Agent Adam Jensen. A man that's been "augmented" with robotic limbs, implants and special abilities in the year 2020. He can see through walls, become invisible and basically just dominate everything. The world has become very anti-augmentation since a huge incident occurred two years prior. That's difficult since a huge portion of the population has an augmentation of some sort. I'm not going to go in depth on the story. It's very interesting, though and it has caused several debates with SJW's and others.

Off we go...

Graphics:
This game is the graphical equivalent of most in the genre. It's really nothing astounding anymore. If this was released two years ago, we all would've been shocked. It's a beautiful game with great attention and time spent on the little details. Lighting and shading is very beautiful and you can just tell the devs spent thousands of hours on it. They're pretty mush as good as a console can do right now without serious lag.

Sound/Voice:
The music is perfect. The sounds are rich and detailed. The voice? Not so good. The lip-sync is WAY off on nearly every conversation. You can tell right away that this is an issue.
By the way, I know Adam Jensen is who he is but for god's sake, does he have to mumble and whisper every line? It's god awful. Show some emotion man.

Gameplay:
This is the crux of the game. It's very "James Bond meets Aiden from Watch Dogs." There's a million ways to go about every mission and side mission. Do you go in hot with a tactical shotgun, grenades and your suped up Augs?
Or perhaps you go in super stealthy? Use stun guns, knock out gas, tranquilizer guns, your stun abilitiy on your augments. All these options are available.
You'll also find five or six different ways to enter a mission site. You can go through the front door, a vent system, the roof, hack something to distract guards, etc.


All in all, the game is good. It has it's drawbacks regarding gameplay for people that don't like to back-track a lot.
That's one drawback I found.
Go to point A
Crap, you need a code to enter, its at point B but you don't know that unless you talk to person 1. Ok, talked to person 1, got the code from point B, back to Point A. I'm in...
Shit! Need to go talk to person 2 to find out exactly what I need to do to get into the laptop. Person 2 sends me to Point C to do a favor for person 1 in order to get the Laptop code for the mission.
Well, if you don't like doing those types of things, the game might not be for you.
If you do like problem-solving, give it a shot.

By the way, the multi-player option? Not so good. But that's ok. No big deal.

Total gameplay is anywhere from 10-20 hours depending on your approach.
It's a good experience and a decent story.
For those who loved the previous installments, you'll love this one just as much.

Score: 8 out of 10 Praxis Kits