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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided combat, augments, and story detailed

Added: 08.04.2015 22:30 | 27 views | 0 comments

After years of quiet, we finally know that Adam Jensen's story won't end with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Square Enix has revealed Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, a direct sequel planned for PC, PS4, and Xbox One that sets Jensen against a new cadre of biomechanically augmented freedom fighters, international politicians, and the good old Illuminati. Just another day in the cyberpunk future, then.

Thanks to , we already know quite a bit about Jensen's next adventure. Click on for more details about Mankind Divided, and check out the debut trailer embedded below to get a feel for how the future's doing two years after Jensen messed it all up.

Human Revolution's final hours held some fairly catastrophic events, regardless of what final choice you made at the end. Square Enix Montreal isn't saying which, if any, ending Mankind Divided will build from (and, no, it won't read your old saves). But suffice it to say that - spoiler alert - augmented people around the world were sent on a brief rampage, the Panchaea geo-engineering plant was destroyed, and the Illuminati have successfully pinned both events on 'transhuman' terrorism.

In other words, Jensen failed, and the world has turned against all augmented people because he couldn't stop the Illuminati. As Mankind Divided begins, Jensen has signed up with Task Force 29, an international police organization dedicated to fighting augmented groups that are chafing against their new position on the bottom of the social order - or, to use the terminology of those on top, terrorists. But serving with Task Force 29 is largely a means to a more familiar end.

Jensen knows firsthand that he doesn't have what he'll need to take down the Illuminati - yet. But by joining Task Force 29, he once again receives access to top of the line augmentations (more on those later), weaponry, and support personnel, not to mention great health coverage. Seriously, good medical is pretty important when your body is liable to start rejecting your arsenal of cybernetic implants if you miss a single dose of Neuropozyne.

As he works for the Task Force, Jensen secretly feeds information to an anti-Illuminati organization called the Juggernaut Collective. The collective is composed of hackers, activists, and the other sorts of people who are inclined to believe that an ancient shadow government runs the world. Unfortunately, Jensen can't fully trust the members of either group, and they'll often give him conflicting goals as he embarks on assignments around the world.

The Deus Ex series has always walked its own path by letting players, well, walk their own paths. Instead of proceeding down a first-person corridor full of pulse-pounding scripted events, you can try to sneak into enemy compounds with some handy stealth augments (we're getting to the augments, promise), or even talk your way through them like a civilized human being.

Mankind Divided will push that freedom even further with stealth options that refine Human Revolution's well-crafted sneaking; one surprisingly important little tweak is a holographic indicator of your last known location, which makes it easier to give guards the runaround. More talkative players will also find their social exploits, including taking on side quests from locals, are much more likely to show up (and potentially bite you in the ass) later on in the story.

Unfortunately, all those social and stealth options previously came at the cost of really solid-feeling combat. With Mankind Divided, Square Enix Montreal is trying to make the guns-blazing approach more of an entertaining option of its own than just a backup for when your other plans go pear shaped. To that end, the whole thing will just be a quite a bit smoother: you can adjust all of your weapon settings on the fly using a quick overlay, you can change up your hotkeyed augment abilities (getting there) at a glance, and more parts of the environment will yield under your fire.

You'll need all that enhanced combat capability if you plan to go Robo-Rambo: enemy forces are meant to be much better at coordinating their attacks, flanking, and using augments or other tools of their own. Hostile forces will also have a lot more variety, setting Jensen against augmented humans, exoskeleton-wearing cops, and killer mechs, to name a few.

Speaking of hostile forces, you needn't worry about slogging through another set of protracted, incongruously inflexible boss encounters. Human Revolution's original bosses didn't really let you sneak around or try to resolve things peacefully - your only option was to dart around and gradually wear down their health bars. Though Square Enix Montreal takes full responsibility for Human Revolution's boss battles-of-attrition, they were actually contracted out to an external developer in interest of shipping the game on time.

The boss encounters in Human Revolution's Missing Link DLC (and the Human Revolution Directors' Cut) were handled in-house, and were much better about letting players fight on their own terms. Expect the climactic battles of Mankind Divided to follow in their example.

And now it’s finally time to talk about the cybernetic heart of the Deus Ex series. Augments in Mankind Divided work basically the same way they did in Human Revolution, with additional abilities unlocked by earning or receiving Praxis kits, upgraded with experience points, and powered by bio-energy. You won't have to worry quite so much about conserving bio-energy this time around, as a fraction of it will regenerate Dishonored-style, but you still won't be able to lean on them exclusively to get the job (whatever it is) done.

You may still be tempted, because Mankind Divided includes twice as many augmentations as Human Revolution. New gadgets enhance every avenue of play: from a mark-and-track optics system that lets you keep an eye on distant enemies, to hand-mounted Tesla darts that let you silently incapacitate foes, to a bullet-deflecting Titan shield that can materialize at a moment's notice. Oh, and that nano blade? He can shoot it like a crossbow now.

That's all we know about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided so far - nope, no release date yet. But be sure to stay tuned right here for formation as soon as we get it. How else do you think Square Enix Montreal can improve on Human Revolution for Jensen's sophomore outing? Let us know in the comments below!

For more cyberpunk goodness, check out our review of .



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