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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided I Review Thread I I asked for this

O

Ozium

Member
Nzyme32 said:
An interesting bit of info via Total Biscuit regarding the rules for video footage during the still ongoing embargo of Deus Ex:

"Video coverage embargo is Tuesday 23rd at midnight central european time. Aiming for that."

"According to the embargo email, the only footage allowed out is from an earlier preview build, early video reviews are using that."

"So either traditional outlets were given different rules or they're using gameplay footage which isnt from the final product. Dunno which."
Click to expand...

I wonder if this applies to benchmarks then
 
M

MasterMenace

Member
So I know will try to explain the negatives of this game by providing excerpts from the "negative" reviews and try to make sense of S1kkZ post below. This is coming from a HR fan and I've already pre-ordered MD. I feel like there is something "weird" about this game from reading so many reviews. I'm getting a feeling of developmental hell for this game. Anyway, let me provide the excerpts:

Paste Magazine
Paste Magazine said:
"And that’s the ultimate struggle of Mankind Divided. By the credit roll, it’s clear this game is intended to spark a series. Not only does it end on a dull, anticlimactic There’s A War Coming scene, but it follows itself up with a mid-credits stinger, an opaque twist that I’m surprised wasn’t followed by “Adam Jensen will return.”
Click to expand...

Hardcore Gamer
Hardcore Gamer said:
It should be stated that Mankind Divided is shorter than its predecessor, comparable to that of Invisible War. Completing all of the side quests and main missions, along with exploring virtually everything in the world took us roughly twenty to twenty-five hours, and then only eight hours on our second go around while still accomplishing everything. Overall, there’s around 25 missions combined, with only one of them spanning a decent length. Forget the short campaign, though; easily the worst offender of the story is that there’s no stakes at play...

The rest of them are essentially glorified fetch quests that require you to break into a location and take a single item. The worst part is that there’s very few of these that go past a couple of tasks, making them not only creatively disappointing, but quests that are over instantly...

Don’t be confused, though; Golem City isn’t the Hengsha of Mankind Divided as it’s a straightforward mission with a couple optional tasks that might get you to the end goal a little quicker. Unfortunately, everything past Golem City is a huge disappointment. Literally the next two missions outside of Prague can be completed in a combined time of one hour, and that’s if you’re exploring most of the rooms and hacking most of the terminals available. Even the time spent in Prague decreases significantly, mainly because the city itself begins to change for the worse, to the point it’s hard to find any quest givers...

The biggest criticism with Mankind Divided is how Eidos Montreal lays out each scenario. I hope you like grates as they’re everywhere and connected to every room, not to mention being conveniently placed to find in order avoid combat all together. While some of the levels feel incredible creative from an artistic standpoint, they’re damaged by the inclusion of so many easily accessible shortcuts...

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case with Mankind Divided as Eidos’ solution was to remove bosses all together. Well, not entirely as there’s exactly one boss at the end of the story, and he’s incredibly lackluster.
Click to expand...

TrustedReviews
TrustedReviews said:
The story continues to build in a clumsy fashion right up until the end, which is so abrupt that I hurled a barrage of swears at the screen. The game essentially ends halfway through the second act. Imagine The Dark Knight (spoilers) rolling its credits after Batman rescues Harvey Dent from The Joker – that’s basically where Mankind Divided decides to bring down the curtain. Also, Eidos answers the leftover questions in the cheapest way possible: via a boring news video clip in a closing cutscene. It’s shockingly bad.

Mankind Divided is also surprisingly short. I was expecting the whole experience to last well over 40 hours, but was done in under 20, including doing every side mission I could find.
Click to expand...

Game Informer
Game Informer said:
If that fight wasn’t frustrating enough (and it’s oddly the only boss I encountered), the game’s ending doesn’t really feel like an ending at all. I accomplished a feat, but was left with a half-baked sendoff, and not enough exposition – which is surprisingly out of character for Mankind Divided.
Click to expand...

S1kkZ said:
man, i really need to vent. i got the game early and just finished it (ps4). what a fucking joke.

there are no story spoilers, but i decided to put my impressions in spoiler tags, since they cover the whole game.

- the game is much shorter than human revolution (i did 90% of the side quests and was able to finish it within 12 hours or so)
- only 1 hub, seperated into 4 areas. there is one mission in a more open area that could be considered a hub, but its not even close to human revolutions second hub.
the prague hub is pretty big, but the lack of a real second hub has a big impact on variety.
- the ending...holy fuck. the game just ends, you dont see it coming. when the trophy showed up, i was speechless. this isnt a complete story, this is a fucking tv-show pilot with the rest of the season missing (probably coming via dlc).
- the game itself (mechanics, gameplay) is great. like i said, an improved human revolution.
-stealth/hacking is way to powerful, much more than in hr.
- breach mode is fun
- performance on ps4 is fine, except for the hub. here, you have to deal with some massive stutter and framedrops. also rare short freezes.
-side wuests are pretty great, i just expected a lot more of them.

cant wait for the spoiler thread to read what others think of it (maybe i overreact?).
and dont freak out: these are my impressions. its not a universal opinion.
Click to expand...


-----------------------

There are more reviews that echo similar sentiments. Interesting...Not sure how to process this. I am worried now. This game seemed to have suffered from 5 year developmental hell. Rumors that this game was originally one big game but chopped into 3 games for Square Enix to milk ... kind of makes sense given what we know know??

1 big hub that's not really varied, short story, abrupt ending, 1 lazy boss fight, side quests aren't good, level design is formulaic filled with convenient vents/ladders etc to help you bypass the levels. AI are dumb and run at you when you're in cover behind a doorway. Pacing is off. List goes on? Idk...let me know what you think. Maybe I'm overreacting, but after 5 years I was expecting Eidos Montreal to learn from their mistakes. It seems like they listened, but executed poorly and now this game stinks of develpemental hell and possibly that the game is "part 1" of the true Mandkind Divided game.

Also, just want to add. Apparently the pre-order mission is not supposed to be played till you BEAT the game because it contains spoilers...wtf? Seems weird! What game gives you pre-order content only to be played when you beat the game???

(sorry for rambling, I hope I made sense. I'm not trying to attack this game (I pre-ordered it! but I may cancel now)..just trying to make sense about the rumors of developmental hell and the possibility that MD was originally one big game, but all we got was "part 1"...)
 
M

Maintenance

Member
MasterMenace said:
So I know will try to explain the negatives of this game by providing excerpts from the "negative" reviews and try to make sense of S1kkZ post below. This is coming from a HR fan and I've already pre-ordered MD. I feel like there is something "weird" about this game from reading so many reviews. I'm getting a feeling of developmental hell for this game. Anyway, let me provide the excerpts:

Paste Magazine


Hardcore Gamer


TrustedReviews


Game Informer





-----------------------

There are more reviews that echo similar sentiments. Interesting...Not sure how to process this. I am worried now. This game seemed to have suffered from 5 year developmental hell. Basically this isn't a proper "sequel" but more of a HR 2.0.

1 big hub, short story, abrupt ending, 1 lazy boss fight, side quests aren't good, level design is formulaic filled with convenient vents/ladders etc to help you bypass the levels. AI are dumb and run at you when you're in cover behind a doorway. Pacing is off. List goes on? Idk...let me know what you think.
Click to expand...

It really looks strange, left me wondering how the game is even reaching 80s.
 
S

sammyCYBORG

Member
MasterMenace said:
So I know will try to explain the negatives of this game by providing excerpts from the "negative" reviews and try to make sense of S1kkZ post below. This is coming from a HR fan and I've already pre-ordered MD. I feel like there is something "weird" about this game from reading so many reviews. I'm getting a feeling of developmental hell for this game. Anyway, let me provide the excerpts:

Paste Magazine


Hardcore Gamer


TrustedReviews


Game Informer





-----------------------

There are more reviews that echo similar sentiments. Interesting...Not sure how to process this. I am worried now. This game seemed to have suffered from 5 year developmental hell. Basically this isn't a proper "sequel" but more of a HR 2.0. Rumors that this game was originally one big game but chopped into 3 games for Square Enix to milk ... kind of makes sense given what we know now.

1 big hub, short story, abrupt ending, 1 lazy boss fight, side quests aren't good, level design is formulaic filled with convenient vents/ladders etc to help you bypass the levels. AI are dumb and run at you when you're in cover behind a doorway. Pacing is off. List goes on? Idk...let me know what you think. Maybe I'm overreacting, but after 5 years I was expecting Eidos Montreal to learn from their mistakes. It seems like they listened, but executed poorly and now this game stinks of develpemental hell and possibly that the game is "part 1" of the true Mandkind Divided game.

Also, just want to add. Apparently the pre-order mission is not supposed to be played till you BEAT the game because it contains spoilers...wtf? Seems weird! What game gives you pre-order content only to be played when you beat the game???
Click to expand...
Yeah even though there are a lot of positives this shit is worrying.

Especially if they want to wrap it up through DLC. Fuck that scummy shit.
 
D

Deadbeat

Banned
WadeitOut said:
People discussing why a game averaging scores in the mid 80s is so bad.

No Mans Sky has ruined people.
Click to expand...
It comes down to the reasons of the lower score. Look at stalker. There were reviews that gave lower scores due to bugs. Thats understandable. Then theres reviews that docked points due to it being 'hard' and 'confusing'. Which is totally fine for me cause I want games that require a brain and if they filter out people like that it means its more up my alley.

The complaints of MD are stuff that dont tend to suffer from bias or taste. Halo 2 ending comparison is a bad thing to hear.

edit: that hardcore gamer reviews is not reassuring at all.
 
S

SuperStiltzkin

Member
Spoiler: The story of Human Revolution was poorly told and pretty incomprehensible if you didn't ready through emails and books.

Do you know what the Hyron project is? Why Zhao appeared out of nowhere to seemingly hijack it? Why it is at the bottom of Panchea? Did Hugh Darrow's betrayal of his own invention feel like a twist when you barely even got to know the guy? Do you know where all the conglomerates and companies and organizations stand in relation to one another? What is Tai Yong? What is Picus? Why did Eliza Cassan help you?
 
N

Nags

Banned
MasterMenace said:
So I know will try to explain the negatives of this game by providing excerpts from the "negative" reviews and try to make sense of S1kkZ post below. This is coming from a HR fan and I've already pre-ordered MD. I feel like there is something "weird" about this game from reading so many reviews. I'm getting a feeling of developmental hell for this game. Anyway, let me provide the excerpts:

Paste Magazine


Hardcore Gamer


TrustedReviews


Game Informer





-----------------------

There are more reviews that echo similar sentiments. Interesting...Not sure how to process this. I am worried now. This game seemed to have suffered from 5 year developmental hell. Rumors that this game was originally one big game but chopped into 3 games for Square Enix to milk ... kind of makes sense given what we know now??

1 big hub that's not really varied, short story, abrupt ending, 1 lazy boss fight, side quests aren't good, level design is formulaic filled with convenient vents/ladders etc to help you bypass the levels. AI are dumb and run at you when you're in cover behind a doorway. Pacing is off. List goes on? Idk...let me know what you think. Maybe I'm overreacting, but after 5 years I was expecting Eidos Montreal to learn from their mistakes. It seems like they listened, but executed poorly and now this game stinks of develpemental hell and possibly that the game is "part 1" of the true Mandkind Divided game.

Also, just want to add. Apparently the pre-order mission is not supposed to be played till you BEAT the game because it contains spoilers...wtf? Seems weird! What game gives you pre-order content only to be played when you beat the game???

(sorry for rambling, I hope I made sense. I'm not trying to attack this game (I pre-ordered it! but I may cancel now)..just trying to make sense about the rumors of developmental hell and the possibility that MD was originally one big game, but all we got was "part 1"...)
Click to expand...

Thanks for putting this together. This is a definite pass for me now. I wonder why all the quotes in the OP were cherry-picked for only positive impressions.
 
M

MasterMenace

Member
SuperStiltzkin said:
Spoiler: The story of Human Revolution was poorly told and pretty incomprehensible if you didn't ready through emails and books.

Do you know what the Hyron project is? Why Zhao appeared out of nowhere to seemingly hijack it? Why it is at the bottom of Panchea? Did Hugh Darrow's betrayal of his own invention feel like a twist when you barely even got to know the guy? Do you know where all the conglomerates and companies and organizations stand in relation to one another? What is Tai Yong? What is Picus? Why did Eliza Cassan help you?
Click to expand...

MD doesn't really have that "incomprehensible" plot like HR apparently. It's just the pacing is off, there's no suspense or danger, characters are utilized very weirdly, and the ending just stops ABRUPTLY as if the game was chopped into 3 games. The plot does make sense throughout, just the pacing and ending and how short it is are the big negatives this time around.
 
J

jrcbandit

Member
sammyCYBORG said:
Yeah even though there are a lot of positives this shit is worrying.

Especially if they want to wrap it up through DLC. Fuck that scummy shit.
Click to expand...

Currently, there's no indication that the DLC will take place post-game and include a new ending (but this could change obviously). They are just planning a sequel that better not take 5 years since this game's story was obviously cut short. So I imagine the conclusion will come out in 1.5-2 years.
 
T

The Emperor

Member
Wow game sounds like a mess development wise and on top of that it comes with hidden story elements in books/in game novellas to FFXIII levels.

Still might buy it as we just don't get many sci fi RPG's
 
S

sammyCYBORG

Member
jrcbandit said:
Currently, there's no indication that the DLC will take place post-game and include a new ending (but this could change obviously). They are just planning a sequel that better not take 5 years since this game's story was obviously cut short. So I imagine the conclusion will come out in 1.5-2 years.
Click to expand...
This industry is so scummy and fucked I'm remaining pessimistic until all the DLC is out.
 
B

Brian_FETO

Banned
Disappointing to hear the negatives/lukewarm reception on some of the elements

As someone who hasn't played a DE game before I'm mostly just wanting a fun game with a cool aesthetic and music. Was sold from the CG announce, will surely trade in upon completion towards one of the 100 other games releasing this fall
 
K

KeRaSh

Member
Oh, it's shorter than HR? I'm actually OK with that. Was a little scared the scale would be a little overwhelming with the limited amount of time I have these days, especially with my summer vacation coming up. Might actually buy and finish this before that then.
 
M

MasterMenace

Member
The only game I was looking forward to in the summer. I literally only have Ace Attorney to play. I need a console game to sink my teeth into...every other god dam game comes out this Fall zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
 
N

Nags

Banned
I might just end buying No Man's Sky instead. Crazy that an indie dev can create a game with more content than a triple A title. Baffling.
 
N

nOoblet16

Member
SuperStiltzkin said:
Spoiler: The story of Human Revolution was poorly told and pretty incomprehensible if you didn't ready through emails and books.

Do you know what the Hyron project is? Why Zhao appeared out of nowhere to seemingly hijack it? Why it is at the bottom of Panchea? Did Hugh Darrow's betrayal of his own invention feel like a twist when you barely even got to know the guy? Do you know where all the conglomerates and companies and organizations stand in relation to one another? What is Tai Yong? What is Picus? Why did Eliza Cassan help you?
Click to expand...
I know all of this and I didn't have to read every single email, I got almost all of them from the conversations and cutscene themselves rather than emails and datapads.

But when it does come to additional information not presented in conversations, it's up to the player to dig in and find more information. The game does not need to present all of that to the player in an obvious manner through conversations/cutscenes. If it did that then there wouldn't be much left to dig in and search around. Unless you exclusively want to read up about things like Security Joe's ghost stories throughout the game.

I mean every Deus Ex game has done this, where majority of the story was left for the player to find in the world otherwise not much made sense. It's a series staple and one of the things people like about Deus Ex, i.e. to not only explore the level but the lore and the world around you while playing.
 
B

BoosterDuck

Banned
Nags said:
I might just end buying No Man's Sky instead. Crazy that an indie dev can create a game with more content than a triple A title. Baffling.
Click to expand...

Breach Mode basically destroys the boring procedural generation bullshit from NMS

and why are you even bringing it up, everyone already blasted the game last week
 
N

Nags

Banned
Iron Badger said:
Breach Mode basically destroys the boring procedural generation bullshit from NMS

and why are you even bringing it up, everyone already blasted the game last week
Click to expand...

Breach mode is suppose to make up for the lack of content in the main game? Sorry, not falling for that.
 
Agent_4Seven

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Nags said:
Why would I be kidding? Eidos under delivered on my expectations of a Deus Ex game.
Click to expand...
And No Man's Sky will deliver everything you've expected from DXMD? Hehe, well, go ahead and buy it then)))))

Krappadizzle said:
DSP would not be someone I would go to for reviews on any game let alone NMS. All you have to watch is any of the 100's of This is how you don't plays for every game around to see that.
Click to expand...
Heh, but he's telling the truth, the game is really that bad in terms of almost every aspect)))))

I can't say a single good thing about it myself in terms of gameplay, story and everything that was build around all this. It's just bare bones concept with no game in it, just like the very first AC but much and much worse.
 
C

Coxy100

Banned
Nags said:
Why would I be kidding? Eidos under delivered on my expectations of a Deus Ex game.

EDIT: Please don't just post a link without saying what it is.
Click to expand...
Chill mate - people post links all the time without saying what it is - welcome to forums...
 
F

flozuki

Member
Nags said:
Why would I be kidding? Eidos under delivered on my expectations of a Deus Ex game.

EDIT: Please don't just post a link without saying what it is.
Click to expand...

I can just recommend to give NMS a try if you like exploring. But since you already waited a bit probably wait for one of their content updates or at least a little price reduction. While I like MD - no surprise that a lot of people here don´t like to hear negatives ;-) - I can´t fully recommend a buy for now (still not finished). The mechanics and everything are superb, but some design aspects and the story are really disappointing for me. Still mad at already hearing about this shady DLC plans, but perhaps I won´t be disappointed with the ending tomorrow^^

If money is no problem and you are ok that publishers are not delivering everything they promised buy both. Pretty sure you still will have lots of fun.
 
E

etta

my hard graphic balls
Sooooooo what are the issues with the story? Not great or is it bad? And what do people mean by short, are they saying that just because it ended abruptly or is it actually short (< 8 hours)?
 
D

Drewfonse

Member
Holy shit, didn't realize that people were in full on "pre order cancelled" mode with this. Short length is troubling, but I'm still excited
 
T

Tovarisc

Member
etta said:
Sooooooo what are the issues with the story? Not great or is it bad? And what do people mean by short, are they saying that just because it ended abruptly or is it actually short (< 8 hours)?
Click to expand...

According reviews story isn't anything special with quite abrupt ending, estimated playtime around 30h. Make out of that what you will.
 
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