During E3 last week, I had the opportunity to check out Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the followup to 2011’s masterful cyberpunk reboot, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. If you liked the first game, there’s a good chance you’re going to love what the sequel has to offer: despite it being an entire generation later, Mankind Divided‘s resemblance to its predecessor is shockingly uncanny. If it isn’t broken, why fix it?
The demo I played started out in a transport helicopter. Adam Jensen and a crew of super soldiers are on their way to a burned-out hotel to capture a wanted suspect. After asking a few questions to determine my preferred play style, the game armed me with a long-range tranquilizer gun, and I was on my way.
Mechanically, the game is identical to Human Revolution. Adam Jensen can effortlessly weave between and vault over cover points, allowing him to sneak past enemies undetected. I didn’t a chance to try any weapons besides the suppressed sniper rifle, but in my experience it was very positive; lining up head-shots wasn’t a problem at all.
The demo itself was a very linear mission that showed off only a handful of the game’s mechanics. This is probably a good move on Square Enix’s part: The game comes out in a couple of months, so there’s no reason to give away too much right now. As was the case with the first game, level designs were complex and intricate, allowing the player to get creative and choose or make a path to their objective that best accommodates their preferred play style.
Jensen’s augmentations were fun to toy around with, though there weren’t many opportunities to test them out during the demo. In one instance, I used an augmentation where Jensen slams his augmented fist on the ground, creating a shockwave and incapacitating a trio of enemies that were surrounding me. Additionally, a new X-Ray visor allows the player to see weak points in walls that can be smashed through.
All in all, despite the demo’s understandably limited scope, I was quite impressed with Mankind Divided. I can’t wait to see what the full game has to offer.