With the game industry's obsession with remakes in the last 5 years, I'm shocked that Eidos Montréal hasn't tried to remake the original Deus Ex. Heck, even playing through a remastered Invisible War with a engine that isn't total trash could be fun.
That would require Square Enix to give a fuck about the Deus Ex franchise, which they don't. A lot of the issues surrounding Mankind Divided were caused, in some part, by SE messing with the development. "Augment Your Preorder", Microtransactions for consumables in a single player game, and splitting off part of the team to focus on Breach mode were all reportedly SE decisions. I have seen some speculation that SE also pushed for a break in the narrative so that Jensen's story could be a trilogy of games, but I've never seen actual developer comments that substantiate that.
Regardless, I am a huge defender of Mankind Divided and would recommended that anyone who is willing to give it a shot keep a couple of things in mind.
1. Explore Prague. A lot. While the hub world that Eidos Montreal created is kind of small, it is dense, packed with details. Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example of "mile wide, inch deep", and MD's Prague is the exact opposite. There are a lot of little environmental stories being told in this world and details that really make it feel lived in, and in my opinion, enriches the experience. Additionally, you will come across emails, messages, and side quests that will flesh out and improve the overall narrative.
2. Do the Side Quests. I would even prioritize them. While the main story is pretty by the numbers, the stories found in side quests really stand out. An underground cult led by a former stage magician, a serial killer targeting augmented people, unexplained changes to Adam's body, tracking down an outside element that is spying on TF29, a glitching billboard asking for your help. The ideas presented in these missions are not only more interesting than the main narrative, they also offer explanations and hints at what is (probably) really going on with Adam and his overall narrative. Similarly, the two main DLCs, System Rift and A Criminal Past, are amazing, especially the latter.
3. Experiment with the augmentations. I think it is pretty easy to get locked into approaching every situation the same way, especially with stealth, because remote hacking, takedowns and tranq darts/tasers are a really powerful combination. But there are a lot of viable combinations and approaches worth exploring. Also, while the narrative will warn you not to use the experimental augs without deactivating one of your core augs, just use them anyway. Unless you push your system you don't experience any glitches outside of HUD/visual disturbances, which are trivial really.
I love Deus Ex, and Mankind Divided is not the best in the series, but it is well crafted and worth playing.
And turn off MSAA, it's fucked for some reason.
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