Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

[Let us measure]

2 hours ago, Garibaldi said:

I think my biggest disappointment with Mankind Divided is that David Sarif didn't maintain his 'Aaaaaaadddaaaaam,' greeting from the previous game. 

 

I was thinking this! A real shame.

 

Did anyone (late game spoilers):

 

Spoiler

Break into the flat opposite Adam's during curfew? I don't know if you have to complete the bomber quest first, but wtf? I genuinely love that this game has so many hidden touches that the majority of players will never see; it makes the world seem really alive.

 

I can't believe that happened in Novaforce's Harvester quest for example - mine ended completely differently!

 

[daveodeth]

2 hours ago, Garibaldi said:

I think my biggest disappointment with Mankind Divided is that David Sarif didn't maintain his 'Aaaaaaadddaaaaam,' greeting from the previous game. 

 

Different voice actor, meant he always felt off for the game.

[DjSatansfur3h]

Spoiler

Anyone else find the ending a bit underwhelming? Not the mid-credits scene, but the actual ending. Hnnnghhh.

Incidently according to Reddit, Prima guides has 'spoilt' the identity of Janus. I'm hoping its not correct, but who knows. I'm sure Prima have done this before with another game.

 

[DjSatansfur3h]

DO NOT CLICK THE LINK IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE POTENTIAL UNRELEASED CONTENT SPOILED

 

Spoiler

https://www.reddit.com/r/Deusex/comments/51b2r9/prima_accidentally_spoils_identity_of_janus/

 

[Pob]

I like the detective angle in this - I don't remember that such a prominent part of earlier games. It's funny that in a single side-mission it out-detectives LA Noire with a similar, yet better-implemented approach. It's funny that Jensen detective work usually involves breaking-and-entering, though.

 

On a different subject, something they haven't seemed to fix is the discouragement from actually using Augs. Surely they should all run off a rechargeable battery like Crysis? Having to pop biocells and only having the bottom bit recharge just encourages miserliness. A much slower recharge plus biocells for an instant boost would make more sense. Also, it seems you can only use augs once they're assigned to a shortcut, which is a bit limited once you unlock more abilities than you have shortcuts. I'd prefer to be able to also switch them on from the aug wheel. 

[deerokus]

A bit disappointed so far because I am struggling to get anywhere very early on.

can't figure out how to get into the server room to plant the bug so I assume I need my augs back on and hacking skills etc. But I can't get those because there are a million soldiers in the book shop and it is nigh on impossible to stealth in. I don't get it

[Dark Soldier]

8 minutes ago, deerokus said:

A bit disappointed so far because I am struggling to get anywhere very early on.

  Hide contents

can't figure out how to get into the server room to plant the bug so I assume I need my augs back on and hacking skills etc. But I can't get those because there are a million soldiers in the book shop and it is nigh on impossible to stealth in. I don't get it

 

Climb in via a window, you'll be on the top floor. Then slink around (you basically ignore quite a few on the ground floor) and you'll find an avenue with a bookcase on its side. Duck under that and you're on your way. Its what I did anyway.

[Down by Law]

12 minutes ago, deerokus said:

A bit disappointed so far because I am struggling to get anywhere very early on.

  Hide contents

can't figure out how to get into the server room to plant the bug so I assume I need my augs back on and hacking skills etc. But I can't get those because there are a million soldiers in the book shop and it is nigh on impossible to stealth in. I don't get it

 

try this:

 

 

As you head toward the bookstore ,outside the police checkpoint where the cop gives you trouble passing,  to the left of the top of the stairs is a biocell powered lift. You don't need a Biocell to climb the wall in front you if you jump onto the side of the lift, then vault over the wall.  Jump into the window opposite and go to the vent on the right. This gets you on the roof outside the bookshop. With the bookshop directly in front of you carefully head left along the rooftops. When you run out of space, drop down and sneak past the soldiers. There's some scaffolding here. Climb this, and enter the bookshop through the window. There are only 3 men upstairs. Throw items to lure them to you and take them down. Follow the path toward the back of the bookshop and duck under the spilled shelves. Job done.

[Dark Soldier]

Or what he said, much better than my effort

[Down by Law]

or you could...

 

 

go to the vendor in Jensen's apartment district, buy a silencer for your pistol and headshot them all and drag the bodies off patrol like a proper mass murderer. They are all gangbangers anyway and have it coming, I did Prague a favour!

 

17 hours into my second playthough doing all side missions / poi's I can and I've only just

 

broke into Miller's apartment

 

Getting trophys for side missions I'd done on my first playthough but not done to the best outcome is a real incentive to do them again

 

awesome game, second best of the year just behind U4.

[Mr Do 71]

17 minutes ago, Dark Soldier said:

 

 

  Hide contents

Climb in via a window, you'll be on the top floor. Then slink around (you basically ignore quite a few on the ground floor) and you'll find an avenue with a bookcase on its side. Duck under that and you're on your way. Its what I did anyway.

 

 

Or there is another way 

[Dark Soldier]

 

Or there is another way 

Yeah I discovered that after

I love slinking about and finding multiple routes, realising I've missed such a simple way after spending 45 minutes hacking and sedating.

[Down by Law]

Everywhere I break into I find the best route in on the bloody way out ¬_¬

[Harsin]

What bunch of pussies, kill them all and let God sort them out.

[deerokus]

I eventually blundered through by chucking smoke grenades and shooting wildly. My Jensen is a clumsy halfwit, probably played by Kurt Russell.

[Harsin]

Use the ancient painty can man technique, hide in a room and throw a paint can at the wall. When someone comes to investigate stab them in the neck. Rinse and repeat until building is empty.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Remote hacking is another brilliant way to move guards around - just simple stuff like opening and shutting window blinds does the trick.

[Let us measure]

I didn't realise how useful remote hacking was before my second playthrough. I thought it was a more time consuming way of disabling cameras but there's loads you can interact with.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Same here, got it very late in my first run.

[Liamness]

That and the dash seem like they expand your options the most.

 

What does the overheating actually do? I've left it at 150% for a bit without disabling any augs. Have been fine so far, Jensen doesn't have steam rising from him or anything.

[Pob]

I didn't even think you could leave the Aug screen when overclocked. 

[Liamness]

Oh, apparently it just drains energy faster. I don't think I've used a single biocell yet though so... meh. Apparently there are worse effects if you really crank it up, like health loss and display glitching.

[deerokus]

Ooh, the 'conversation battle' system with the CASIE Aug is pretty neat.

[Pob]

13 hours ago, deerokus said:

Ooh, the 'conversation battle' system with the CASIE Aug is pretty neat.

 

Bah, I permanently deactivated that aug. What's so good about it? I've fluffed up a few conversations I think.

[Garibaldi]

15 hours ago, Liamness said:

Oh, apparently it just drains energy faster. I don't think I've used a single biocell yet though so... meh. Apparently there are worse effects if you really crank it up, like health loss and display glitching.

 

Some of the reviews complained that there were no real consequences for overclocking, but If you role play like there are consequences, as I decided to do, then it's a good system as it limits the number of experimental augs you can use in one play through. 

 

I think the sticky hand of Squenix upper management had some influence. Makes no sense to me why the devs would make the check/balance system of it so toothless, otherwise. As it is I think Human Revolution/Mankind Divided are already too close to the upgrade path of Invisible War. Installing new augs in that game required as little consideration as trying on a stack of clothes in a changing room, and given enough points you could upgrade absolutely everything. 

 

The original game's system of (and correct me if I'm recalling this wrongly) locking you out of certain paths of augs depending on which ones you chose was preferable and really added to replay value. 

 

JC Denton felt like an augmented specialist as a result, where Adam Jensen frequently feels more like a Swiss Army knife. 

[Cosmic_Guru]

1 hour ago, Pob said:

 

Bah, I permanently deactivated that aug. What's so good about it? I've fluffed up a few conversations I think.

 

Well it gives you more options in some conversations which enable the "best" outcomes of a couple of side quests to be achieved.  It also helps you to "win" boss conversations, although, frankly, common sense does the job for these just as well.  For example, with Rucker, since when has patronising someone ever helped?

[Let us measure]

Adam Jensen himself has just uploaded a let's play of Mankind Divided, with some interesting commentary. Probably the sexiest voice in gaming at the moment.

 

 

[Vulgar Monkey]

On 9/8/2016 at 12:26, Garibaldi said:

 

 

The original game's system of (and correct me if I'm recalling this wrongly) locking you out of certain paths of augs depending on which ones you chose was preferable and really added to replay value. 

 

JC Denton felt like an augmented specialist as a result, where Adam Jensen frequently feels more like a Swiss Army knife. 

 

Interesting you mention the original. 

I've been considering going back to that for a while to see how it holds up, and ended up coming across some videos of the Revision mod, where they've updated the maps a fair bit and collated a bunch of gameplay adaption from other mods, one of which streamlines the augs a bit to be the best of both worlds (same nuanced mechanics, but mostly automated contextually so they're more like passives). Also a 'trenchcoat mode' with half the inventory space.

 

I have to say though, the game seems to have aged really well. The most striking thing for me is how big it feels, and how many approaches you can take to any objective. Even by todays standards it's way way up there in terms of level design, layout etc. The only thing the new games have on it is the modern environmental design, the amount of incidental clutter that makes places feel lived-in. Atmosphere.

 

Given the stuff that's going on with the system shock revival, it'd be nice to think a DX remake would happen, but it'd probably mess with the ongoing Jensen franchise in terms of narrative, maybe. NIce to think about though. But the underlying stuff is solid as ever and I'd well recommend anyone thinking about trying it gives it a go.

 

 

 

[Comrade]

I finished this a few says ago, and I've got to say I'm baffled at the number of reviews and critics I saw who claimed that the game doesn't come down one way or another on the whole "mechanical apartheid" thing. I cannot fathom how anyone can think the game might be in favour of it. I mean, first the game shows you that you're being forced to live in the shit end of the city because you're an aug, and it has you constantly hassled by the authorities and on the train, then it shows you how the corrupt police are forcing augs into an actual, factual ghetto, and then it shows you what a nightmare land that ghetto is. Almost every sidequest is about some aspect of how the oppression of augs is bad, and the main quest is about how the powerful use the anger whipped up in the aug community to their own ends.

 

I'd wonder if what they needed was a character to look directly into the camera and explain why the mechanical apartheid is bad to convince them, but since Talos Rucker literally does this when you get to him, apparently not.

[Vulgar Monkey]

When some people cant even grasp fictional politics, it does not surprise me when our real-life equivalent is such a mess.

 

While I'm praising the original though - I remember all the literary stuff and npc asides having a profound effect on my young teenage mind. Any one else? Anyone think this will have the same impact?

 

I know it's a lot more common for games (especially rpg) to have a bit of a philosophical subtext now than back then, but I'm not sure if it might be a bit on the nose. BUt then I hear stuff like the above and wonder if it can ever be unsubtle enough.