Deus Ex: Game Divided. Latest victim of Square Enix? (No Spoilers)

Jim Sterling made a video few months ago telling us that his inside source informed him about Square Enix cutting Deus Ex: Mankind Divided into several full priced games. According to him, the full game was supposed to be much bigger experience but now we will get incomplete package and rest of the content will be saved for future releases.

I didn't take that video very seriously as I was very excited for this game to come out. But after experiencing this game seems like he was right all along. Gameplay wise, Mankind Divided is noticeable improvement over the previous one even though it's also held back by microtransactions and other shady business practices. Level design is great, atmosphere is top notch and graphics are very attractive too, apart from few misfires here and there.

However when it comes to the plot it seems like it ends before it even begins. Mankind Divided feels like a setup for the sequel instead of being an actual standalone game. Make no mistake folks, the so called ending here is way worse than the ending in Human Revolution. In Human Revolution your previous choices didn't affect the outcome, but the outcome at least felt like a proper pay off and the game had actual beginning, middle and end. But here we have half assed ending that doesn't make much sense and the game barely gives villain enough screen time. When things barely start to pick up, credit screen is shoved down your throat.

All in all Deus Ex: Mankind Divided feels episodic. It doesn't help when you look at their latest offerings like Hitman and upcoming games like Final Fantasy 7 remake either. It feels like Square Enix is obsessed with episodic releases and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided itself is also first of at least 2 or 3 major episodes, sold at full price, which was originally supposed to be a single game.

Overall it's a very good game but it's disappointing at the same time especially when you have waited for 5 years for the next entry in the franchise. After Thief Reboot (much bigger disappointment), this feels like another bad move from Square Enix. Share your thoughts guys. Have you played the game yet? What do you think about this trend?

That's such a let down. Publishers intervening in the development process is not acceptable.

i was expecting a profound story *sighs*

i have yet to play it but story being half-assed is reported everywhere, no one praises its story.

After watching Angry Joe's Deus-Ex: Mankind Divided Review, he also pointed out about Jim Sterling about the issues like microtransactions which looks like trying to milk gamers when it comes to leveling up just for a single player is what SE goal was trying to do and looking at his review, Mankind Divided feels underwhelming from the way it's going. This doesn't mean I won't buy the game at all, I'll just wait for GOTY Edition with all DLC.

The game was 30+ hours...

Depends on the DLC, if it's some Asura's Wrath shit, then yeah Square-Enix douchery compromised the game, otherwise it could just be good ol fashioned video game writers are shit. And in typical "hur durr we are doing a trilogy" fashion, they made a middle chapter that isn't all that fulfilling as a story. Halo 2 had its shitty cliff hanger ending, Mass Effect 2's actual story and plot kind of sucks and fillerish, that game was carried by a really good cast of characters in the story department. So it's not exactly unheard of for the middle chapter to feel like, the middle chapter before the real story gets going.

Either way from my understanding the microtransactions don't actually impact the game, it's more so there for people who are poor at the game or just don't have the patience and want to god mode it from start to finish. Shitty, and technically a slippery slope type deal, but not necessarily something that had a negative impact on the gameplay and design (unlike say Plants versus Zombies 2, where microtransactions clearly impact that game).

The part where Square wanted to sell a game in parts makes sense, people forget game sales were actually declining late last gen, so there was this theory that selling games in general at 60 bucks wasn't viable. But we have new machines, a new gen, and people were ready to pony up for new games again as shown by Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 doing really well as big rpg type games on these machines. Throw in the part where Square probably wasn't in the best financial position they could be: They sold exclusivity on Tomb Raider, Hitman bled money last time so this time it had to be episodic, Final Fantasy 14's turnaround still came after that game was a financial disaster from the get go, and they bled buckets of cash on the Final Fantasy 13 project.

Hitman has actually thrived in an episodic format, and to its credit it was episodic from the get go. Develop as they go type deal, some technical issues aside (and get fucking real, anyone that has any history with the Hitman franchise can tell you it wasn't exactly the most polished series) but yeah if this game has extensive dlc, that feels like necessary additions to the story and character development, then yeah Square pulled a fast one on Deus Ex fans.

Do you have an issue with the game being short or ending on a cliffhanger? Because games have ended up on cliffhangers before.

I just finished the game last night...and man...what a disappointing finish...it felt like a lot of the plot lines just kind of...ended...if anything, they should have called it Deus Ex: Content Divided

I remember thinking to myself while playing how I was on mission 13, so I must be about halfway done the game.....nope...apparently I was a level or 2 away from the finish...

I think the worst part about the game is that you rarely get to interact with any of the side characters....I mean freaking MacCready is on like every second loading screen and from my first playthrough I only saw him at the beginning of the game and the end of the game...

So yeah, between what Sterling is saying and the fact that we're already getting extra Pritchard story missions in a few weeks, I can believe it that this game was cut to ribbons before release....

I'm arriving at a point where I'm realizing that waiting to play anything in this hobby when it comes out is a losing endeavor.

Watch his video again, it was never cut. The game was made in mind with a sequel, they didn't cut a larger game to sell them separately at increased price. That's disingenuous of you, but you're used to that. Both Mankind Divided, and its sequel were being developed at the same time, simultaneously in parallel in 2015 by different teams.

shut up and stop defending games i like. go bash my DkS3 instead.

Hm, I am glad I read this - and thank you for keeping it spoiler-free. I was very excited for MD, but my backlog is too great. Now I think I might wait even longer

I just hope sequel will be vastly different otherwise we will witness another Invisible wars and mass effect 3 like situation.

I missed Old Eidos. and not square enix own eidos.

Same.

Guess i'll be waiting for the super ultra GOTY version next year

I thought the length was decent... didn't feel "episodic" to me. The story felt weaker than Human Revolution however.

I don't have a problem if it has an ending like Mass Effect 3 or Wolf Among Us, I think I'll love the plot too.

It took me 35 hours to beat the game, that's a fair amount of time for me to finish a single player game, the length is fine. The story was also good enough for me. I didn't feel like it just ended as well, that to me was Trine 3.

I thought the first game was pretty overrated. I think the free pass people gave them there gave them the mandate to see how far they can get away with.

What people fail to realize when criticizing Mankind Divided is that its the common three act play plotline. People ignore this and then complain about how it ended abruptly. It didn't. The main plot is resolved and that is the plot to get the Human Restoration Act passed.

Also bashers fail to realize that there are multiple endings and a good set up for save import. The final level is excellent and things go down based on your decisions in that final level and what you did before.

So true. Bugs, glitches, lack of dlc or expansions, higher price... there just aren't many reasons to buy things day 1 anymore.

Anyway mankind divided sounds predictably disappointing. It's a get it in 2 or 3 years time kind of game or maybe I won't bother at all.

I found the story in human revolution to be considerably underwhelming given the scope of the original - and to hear that this latest installment is even worse? Lol.

Square Enix still publishes some great games, but they do everything in their power to screw up gamers:

Tomb Raider: Xbox Exclusive for some reason, has yet to release on PS4.
Hitman: Episodic for some reason, has yet to see a full release.
Deus Ex: Augment your preorder, microtransactions that were added in the final moments of game production.
Sleeping Dogs: We got a online only sequel that nobody wanted, and that got ditched because nobody wanted it.

Why can't SE just make a proper game, without all this BS attached ?

Preach brother. As some wise man once said "Square Enix has great games, they just don't know how to sell them".

More suits than gamers.

@Cloud_imperium: You're telling me to wait for GOTY/Ultimate edition Steam sale. Okay! ;) :P

Basically all the big publishers are like this: no rhyme or reason to their actions. Well, except when it's the next big thing.

I wonder what kind of influence Pokemon Go will have on the big publishers...

Developers like IO, Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics seem like true gamers, it's just that they are so dependant on what the suits at the top decide for their games, that it sometimes breaks what they were trying to go for.

He's right you know.

My thoughts exactly, I thought the story resolved itself, then afterwards opened itself back up for future games, nothing wrong in that. The final level was awesome, I also thought it was great to have multiple ways to deal with the final boss, even though some are easy it is still nice to have those options.

I was able to deal with the final boss in just under 2 minutes lol it was funny actually since it's the quickest boss match I experienced in all of my gaming history.

So Final Fantasy 15 and 7 Reboot will be confirmed fucked up as well?

I think the game has other problems besides just being cut up into different parts. Mankind Divided comes out five years after Human Revolution...and this is how it turns out? Besides the more open environments, it plays almost exactly the same as the last one. The storytelling is exactly the same (overeliance on drawn out dialogue and emails), the action is the same (bad shooter, decent stealth game) and the presentation is still stilited and clumsy (overused animations, all character exchanges look and feel exactly the same.)

Honestly, maybe it being cut up into parts was a good thing. Playing an even longer game with this game structure sounds very unappealing to me.

Finished Deus Ex: Mankind Divided a couple of days ago. Although overall I enjoyed the game, I'm mildly disappointed by it. The story was definitely not as good as the story in Human Revolution, and it's a lot... smaller in scope. Human Revolution felt like you were battling this global conspiracy, and the events were worldwide in scope. In Mankind Divided, you're trying to track down a single terrorist cell. That's it. Sure, there are hints at a larger conspiracy throughout the game, but they never impact the plot in any meaningful way. Also, Jensen doesn't have the personal connection to the story this time that he did in Human Revolution. The main questline is considerably shorter and just so much less ambitious than Human Revolution's. And there were some threads and questions raised in the story that just simply never went anywhere (I won't say any more as to avoid spoilers, but this was also disappointing).

It's a real shame, because the things the game does well, it does really well. Prague is definitely the most detailed hub area ever in a Deus Ex game, and one of the most detailed areas I've ever seen in a game, period. There's so much to explore and so much stuff to find. I think I spent about ten hours just ignoring my mission and running around the city finding all the side quests and hidden stuff. The side missions are really well-done too, with most of them being long and involved, with multiple ways to resolve them. The side missions I think were much improved from Human Revolution, and the gameplay was top notch. As for the side missions some of them just felt more memorable and interesting than Human Revolution. Things like the Samizdat mission and how it affects a small part of the rest of your game. Sarif's mission I liked a lot early on and how it built up over the course of the main story but I thought the ending to it was lackluster. The Harvester mission was awesome, definitely my favorite. Also the forger mission which then ties into another side mission later on was great.

The gameplay I really liked but a few tweaks would have made it almost perfect. The two things I have issues with is loot and praxis kits/xp. There is way to much of both in this game to a point that halfway through it felt useless. I love most of the augs and how they effect gameplay, but the over abundance of loot and crazy amount of xp you get from missions hurt the game to me. At some point I stopped even opening storage lockers because I knew in 4/5 of them there would be loot that I already had and didn't need more of. I really wished they reduced it so finding loot actually feels like a reward for exploration instead of just a collect-a-thon in each room you go to. As for the xp/praxis kits/augs you gain way way to much xp to the point I didn't even know what to put points into that I would actually use. Halfway through I already had everything I wanted. Similar to the loot situation I wish that xp was reduced and thus getting a new aug or upgrade to an aug would feel much more special.

The level design is also a cut above Human Revolution, with verticality being a much bigger focus this time around. There are almost always multiple paths you can take to your objective, and even in the main missions, you're rewarded for exploration. Loved this aspect as well. The interface is significantly better. The AI could use some improvements, such as not letting me hack their computers with them watching or a quest npc being in a panic state and uninteractable even though I just saved her.

I haven't done the additional mission or Breach mode yet. I guess it's cool that this stuff is there, but I would have vastly preferred them to put more effort into the main game. I know they want to make this a trilogy or a franchise, but it just felt like there wasn't enough here. On the plus side, New Game+ keeps all of your skills and inventory. I played a pacifist ghost in my first playthrough, but stockpiled weapons and ammunition in preparation for this run. Playing through again on the same difficulty, going to choose some different story options and see how it plays out.

Lastly, a brief comment on the microtransactions. I think it's bullshit that a $60 AAA single-player game includes microtransactions. The fact that you can buy extra Praxis kits (for one save only, mind you) for real money just smacks of greed. Fortunately I never felt like I had too little Praxis, but I'm really worried now that they're going to **** with the progression curve in the next game to try to sell more of these. We definitely need to keep a close eye on stuff like this.

@Cloud_imperium: @ghosts4ever: Did it feel rushed, no not really. But with rumours and DLC coming out so soon, it is easy to believe it was cut up. I think while the ending is a little abrupt, it does build up to it from early on. Was a bit miffed at the fact they didn't finish the overall storyline and clearly kept it for a sequel or DLC, and despite all the negativity for the plot that's going around. The story was serviceable. There are at least some major story arcs that end.

The story that's in the game at least is pretty enjoyable and very important to the Deus Ex universe as far as I can tell. The choices you make have a lot of impact which is great. From a gameplay/level design standpoint this is better than the previous entry. I'm so sick and tired of hearing about No Man's Sky and here we have a game where so much work and love for detail goes into it. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided lead writer explains her writing process.

It kind of annoys me that this game got so much criticism for its story, when MGSV is still regarded as a 10/10 by critics and fans alike. They're very similar games so I think they can be compared, and both seen as having weak storylines (and I personally think MGSV's is far worse), yet it was brushed aside by most people as something that didn't really matter in the case of MGSV, but MK is somehow a huge disappointment.

I personally think that Mankind Divided is superior to MGSV in every way; there's not really anything that MGSV does better in terms of stealth gameplay, is there? There are far more ways to completing each mission in Deus Ex and the missions themselves are so much more interesting: it feels like an actual journey rather than a random string of "go to this generic military base, complete this single generic objective and leave" like in MGSV.

Anyway, I've been ranting about MGSV for over a year, so I'll wrap it up: Mankind Divided is a fantastic game and has been less well received than it deserves IMO.

The Icarus Effect had a better story and better protagonists, while fleshing out the shallow in-game villains, yet they relegated them to a shitty mobile game so the boring as hell Adam Jensen could be their own Solid Snake and feed on SJW bullshits with a simplstic Xmen story.

Definitely enjoyed it more than MGS V. It's a very solid game but I expected to deliver a complete storyline like the original Deus Ex but seems like they are saving some of the stuff for the sequel. Having a weaker story is crime in Dues Ex imo :-p

Gameplay was definitely better than Human Revolution. Wish they got rid of kill cams and third person camera views. Not completely against it but I think it'll make the game better.

Thanks for detailed overview. Was a fun read.

Mark Brown is one of the best gaming-related youtube channels for a while now, and it helps that I agree with much of what he says. In my mind, exploration is much more rewarding when it is intimate and I can feel it being put together with care and attention to detail.

Pacing is for me the bar none most important - yet often overlooked - factor for a great gameplay experience, both for narrative minded games and not. The Witcher 2's "Flotsam" town definitely is one of the few things that come to mind when I think of the small hub concept. A small, yet intimate world – like in Arkham Asylum, Beyond Good & Evil and VTMB (seriously, play Vampires) – alone can do so much to help with pacing, and with telling little background stories that help to give life and meaning to a world.