First, I don't hate the game, I think it's a pretty average one, but not a bad one, the level design is the great force of the game obviously, the possibilities to handle a mission are amazing and the art direction for this game is over the top, really good job here (however, I’m a little disappointed that Eidos decided to move away from Human Revolution‘s famous “black and gold” aesthetic, the game feels more generic now without it), the OST is good but not as good as it was in Human Revolution and that's pretty much it.
Where Human Revolution took you hopping across the globe, Mankind Divided keeps you mostly in Prague and its surrounding environs, and the story feels far more limited in overall scope and worst, it makes the game feel so repetitive, Prague is pretty for sure, but everything looks the same, you can watch everywhere and had this impression of déjà vu. What make the game so repetitive in Prague is the goings and comings the game has, you're always going to point A to point B to come back to A to go to C to come back to B etc... fucking annoying...
The animations feel like a game from the 90's, like seriously, during discussions, it's like Adam Jensen or other characters only have a spine, they all standing and almost nothing else is moving, during gameplay, they only have 2 or 3 animations for the stealth takedown, it's like you always do the same thing over and over and over and over... and why I'm talking only about stealth takedowns? it's because the game can only be played this way if you want a little fun, the gunfights on this game are terrible, seriously, shooting just isn’t as satisfying to become your primary choice. The IA in this game is the worst IA I've ever seen for the last decade, it's amazing how bad they make it, just terrible.
The story is where it hurts the most, guys this is Deus Ex, you need depth, conspiration, cliffhangers etc... the plot isn't really interesting and too simple to get you excited for anything, there is no surprise, no tension, it feels like a roman between two main games to tell you a little story about what Jensen is doing in this universe while waiting for a true sequel, I can bite about the Human vs Augmented conflict, it makes sense but to make an entire game around it is too much, they don't show it enough to make you care about their fights, at the end its just an annoying cutscene here and there where a robotic cop, in a robotic world ask to a robotic man to show your papers at each train station, annoying. The game is ending too abruptly, it feels like a third act is missing, it's a shame because you can see all the potential the game has and what it could have been if Eidos/Square didn't have a sequel in mind.
Side characters are really bad on this game too, Miller is the most developed character of them and yet the most bland of all, I just didn't care about him one second, it's just yelling at you for no reasons and his voice acting is uninspired, the most useless character of this game though is Duncan McCready, just what they were thinking, you see him two times on the game and he's a fucking hater, his backstory is as developed as a new born and his design is pretty weak, mind blowing... Alexandra is okish, nothing outstanding, nothing really wrong, Janus is the most interesting character and you don't see him once in the game, that speaks volume...
The most interesting part of this game is Adam Jensen himself, the past two years when he was supposed to be in coma in Alaska is really interesting and I can't wait to see more of it and, of course, how they will end Jensen journey in the next episode.
I want to talk about microtransaction too, this shit is a sin, consumables like Praxis Kits, ammo, credits and crafting parts. These are one-time use items. And yes, once you add them to your inventory, they are consumed in your current playthrough and are not re-usable, FUCK YOU.
I don't understand what happened with this game, they had 5 years, 5 years since the last one and it doesn't feel like a true sequel, it feels like Human Revolution 1.5, in gameplay, in story, in almost everything beside the engine that is wonderful this time ( almost no loading screen when Human Revolution was full of it ), what did they do ? did they passed all their time on the engine ? did they struggle with Jensen story and coherence to the Deus Ex universe ? did they have some problem with Square that we don't know about ? I'm confused about what I'm seeing and what they promised, the game was gold pretty early too, does that mean that they were satisfied with it ? i don't really understand but I hope if we have a sequel that they will do more than a Deus Ex MD 1.5, a real sequel that will end Jensen story.
