Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (I asked for this)

[DoPo]

The trailer is out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2kd7F3YFz8

I kind of don't like it..

Yeah, the trailer is kind of meh. But then, I kind of expected it. The trailer for Human Revolution wasn't exactly subtle either and it is only natural that they want to play up the awesome-angle of the main character for the sequel.

But they should know better by now. You don't need to sell DX as some kind of super combat power trip. That isn't why people love the series.

I completely get what you're saying - there was a lot of violence in that trailer. As in direct one, by the protagonist (it's not like Deus Ex is peaceful and stuff) and there was all the talk about Adam wanting to save the humanity. It was a weird juxtaposition...and actually, I think they may have actually went for it intentionally - it matches well with the title.

That's not to say I liked it - it was rather meh, I'm just trying to analyse the design decision behind it.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

But they should know better by now. You don't need to sell DX as some kind of super combat power trip. That isn't why people love the series.

For sure. But this trailer isn't aimed at us, is it? When it comes to us old-time Deus Ex fans it would have been enough to just say "new game on the way, have this crudely drawn concept art" and we would still have squeed with joy. This trailer is to draw in new people, to create hype for the product with consumers that haven't engaged with Deus Ex previously. More specifically, this trailer seems to be aimed at the teenager and early 20's male gamers that are looking for cool action games. Probably totally misleading, but to the people who authorized this trailer in the first place that's probably not as important as getting good Day 1 sales.

... I'm sorry, that was a bit cynical, wasn't it?

Being cynical is normal for a DX fan. I mean we are a crazy bunch. I fully expect the official forms to be exploding with people being cynical about the game. It will be a bloodbath just like last time. Now that is cynical.

 

[Fhqwhgod]

Being cynical is normal for a DX fan. I mean we are a crazy bunch. I fully expect the official forms to be exploding with people being cynical about the game. It will be a bloodbath just like last time. Now that is cynical.

Well to be fair HR had this horrible trailer (and also some reminders to it in form of loading screens). *shudders*

 

[Atmos Duality]

Taggart's ending is realistic, considering Deus Ex 1, Sarif and Darrow endings are trickier. Though the "fuck them all, let's destroy this facility entirely" ending makes just as much sense, and is the one that allows a true sequel to HR, because you can assume that things went on without much change after Panchaea's demise. I mean, iirc, no one outside the area knows things went bad with augmentations there, and you could even explain the destruction by blaming Humanity first "luddites".

None of the endings contradict DX1, primarily because the developers took the lazy way out, and DIDN'T SHOW ANY SPECIFIC CONSEQUENCES, leaving them fully open to interpretation.

Spoiler: Ending Spoilers, just in case

Relative to DX1...

Taggart Ending is just the easiest to explain in continuity. Not much more than that.

Darrow Ending sounds contradictory, but consider that by revealing everything to the public, this effectively sparks the backlash that would lead to the Northwest Succession War & the NSF, which are eventually pacified by the Powers That Be prior to DX1.

The upheaval of public control might be one of the impetus for the Illuminatti to splinter, with most of them leaving to follow Bob Page to form MJ12.

Sarif's ending leads to the same result as Darrow's, but in a slightly different way.

Blaming the Humanity Front would start a public backlash against anti-augmentation groups, but the thing is, anti-augmentation was, by far, the dominant public opinion presented throughout Human Revolution; it's a major theme of the game. This results in the public being more polarized and divided amongst itself.

Also, while the Humanity Front is an Illuminatti puppet organization, it's also comprised primarily of anti-aug zealots.
Discrediting them could easily lead to Illuminatti losing control over them (if not just straight up abandoning them) leading to their remnants forming the initial NSF (NW succession war, etc).

Furthermore, Bob Page and Versalife are the ones that ultimately profit from a more pro-augmentation world. Perhaps this is when Mr. Page feels like shucking off his Illuminatti cohorts and taking control for himself.

Panchea Explosion is just as you describe.
Jensen didn't exactly break the Illuminatti's hold on humanity by blowing up Panchea...or do much of anything, really.

It looks like this new game might contradict Human Revolution. Well, at least the last ending anyway.

 

[Fhqwhgod]

It looks like this new game might contradict Human Revolution. Well, at least the last ending anyway.

Just like Invisible War had to pick one ending they will have to do the same for this game.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Awesome!

Dammit, did it have to be Jensen again? His Christian Bale-as-Batman voice is irritating as hell, and he's just such a bland standard brooding video game character. Come on, Ubisoft.

Jensen was boring and broody but the supporting characters were decent. Perhaps this game will be the same.

Some of the supporting characters were terrific. Why not let us play as one of those?

Maybe let us play as Megan, forced into learning how to defend herself.

OOOOHHH How about Simons?! Let us play as young Walton Simons! Or Anna Navarre?

Considering Megan betrays everyone and is responsible for the worst event in the settings history IIRC... I'm not sure she'd fit as playable.

I think that would make her a rather neat playable character.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It looks like this new game might contradict Human Revolution. Well, at least the last ending anyway.

Just like Invisible War had to pick one ending they will have to do the same for this game.

Heh, well Invisible War was a clusterfuck of continuity anyway.

 

[Don Incognito]

Awesome!

Dammit, did it have to be Jensen again? His Christian Bale-as-Batman voice is irritating as hell, and he's just such a bland standard brooding video game character. Come on, Ubisoft.

Jensen was boring and broody but the supporting characters were decent. Perhaps this game will be the same.

Some of the supporting characters were terrific. Why not let us play as one of those?

Maybe let us play as Megan, forced into learning how to defend herself.

OOOOHHH How about Simons?! Let us play as young Walton Simons! Or Anna Navarre?

Considering Megan betrays everyone and is responsible for the worst event in the settings history IIRC... I'm not sure she'd fit as playable.

Yes, but that's why I think it'd be interesting.

 

[Random Gamer]

More specifically, this trailer seems to be aimed at the teenager and early 20's male gamers that are looking for cool action games. Probably totally misleading, but to the people who authorized this trailer in the first place that's probably not as important as getting good Day 1 sales.
... I'm sorry, that was a bit cynical, wasn't it?

Nay. If you wanted to be really cynical, you'd say that this trailer was authorized by people who believe their core customers are still teens and early 20s males - which is pretty much my guess, considering Eidos is ultimately owned by some huge faceless behemoth

 

[Pyrian]

I think people are being too hard on this trailer for showing a lot of action. Trailers do that. The issues raised are still interesting and DX-y.

I found that InvWars endings were very similar to the clusterfuck that HR's were.

All three games have similar endings; the only thing that jumps out at me is that the first game doesn't have a "purity" ending, while the other two do. Aside from that, blow everything up, pro-aug, and Illuminati each have their own ending in each game.

Then again its the first game where the Illuminati where the good guys that I know of(well I suppose one could argue that about the secret worlds illuminati too).

Huh. I don't usually think of the Illuminati in Invisible War as good guys. They're pretty shnarsty, nastier I think than they are in DX1 (not counting MJ12) or DX:HR. Granted, they're not as bad as the paladins, and the other two factions have their own issues. The best case I could make is that the Illuminati might be the least bad, but you can make that case is DX1 and DX:HR as well.

 

[THE_JOKE_KING33]

I hope this has the option of NG+. One of my very few problems with Human Rev was it's lack of NG+. I mean I still played through it 3 times but I sometimes in games I just like to run through and face-roll everything while being fully decked out.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Link to Game Informer Article. [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/04/07/may-cover-revealed-deus-ex-mankind-divided-568435.aspx]

Looks like the Darrow or Taggart ending is canon because everyone hates augmentations. That kind of sucks because I think Transhumanism is great and always went for the Sarif ending. Although I suppose that ending could never really follow into the world that existed in the original Deus Ex. Oh well, you'll all be infused with nanites by the time the 2070s come round if I have my way. Anyway, really looking forward to this, I'll probably be getting it the day it comes out.

Eh. As long as I get to be an adorable hyperintelligent shapeshifting freak, it's fine by me... Xd

 

[The Madman]

Human Revolution was pretty good, but after the disaster that was Thief I'm not going to be holding my breath for anything amazing to come from this since both games were done by the same studio.

That said however make it so that xp is tied to completing objectives rather than killing/subduing opponents to eliminate a lot of the imbalances HR had, add more non-lethal options and gadgets, and give us bigger more free form levels and I'll be intrigued. The technology should be there to do bigger levels by now and yet they only seem to be getting smaller and smaller. I'll gladly accept worse graphics if it means levels like the Statue of Liberty in the original Deus Ex again, that level was bigger and gave more freedom than anything HR provided and that was just the damned intro for Deus Ex.

I also still think it's pretty weird how this is ostensibly a prequel yet everyone's got better tech than JC did in the original Deus Ex, but now I'm just nitpicking. Hopefully this will be good.

We'll see.

 

[Pyrian]

That said however make it so that xp is tied to completing objectives rather than killing/subduing opponents to eliminate a lot of the imbalances HR had...

DX:HR gave a lot of XP for objectives. You could shoot your way through it just fine. It takes 125 perfect takedowns to get a Praxis point over just shooting them - 167 if you're shooting them in the head.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I also still think it's pretty weird how this is ostensibly a prequel yet everyone's got better tech than JC did in the original Deus Ex, but now I'm just nitpicking. Hopefully this will be good.

We'll see.

This is actually kind of explained in Deus Ex itself. The Dentons are the first people to be augmented with nano technology instead of cybernetics. This means that they theoretically have more potential (think JC's regeneration) and are less conspicuous than their cybernetic counterparts, but cybernetics can do a lot more stuff that isn't just body modifications.

Adam can have blades in his arms, a built in cluster grenade launcher and a stealth field because these are machines that replaced his actual body. His bulletproof upgrade is quite literally bulletproof metals inserted into him. His radar is an actual radar implanted in his head etc. etc.
JC Denton on the other hand can make his own body bulletproof via nano augmentation. He can become as strong, if not stronger, than his cyber augmented peers just by applying the nanites to his arm muscles and so on. These aren't replacements for his body, these are augmentations to his existing body. I don't know about you, but that makes JC's augs much more high tech to me.

 

[The Madman]

DX:HR gave a lot of XP for objectives. You could shoot your way through it just fine. It takes 125 perfect takedowns to get a Praxis point over just shooting them - 167 if you're shooting them in the head.

Oh I know it was minor, but it was there nontheless. I'd just prefer a system that didn't have xp points pop up across the screen after choosing to either kill or not kill some guy, instead allow the player to complete the objective however they choose and then award xp at the end based upon their performance and completion of minor sub-objectives... you know, like the original Deus Ex did. And then just like the original if you choose to go all lethal force on everyone's ass you can have the character get chewed out for it and people act accordingly.

Hell, if the devs wanted me to get all giddy about the game they could add in multiple difficulties that would change the objectives. Maybe add in side-missions that would alter the course of how you play; Maybe one guy wants you to wreak havoc and kill people and is willing to offer some nice gear if you so happen to murder a bunch of sobs on the next outing while another wants a very specific item stolen but insists that no one is killed and is also willing to offer major money. That sorta stuff.

Just giving xp for killing guys and awarding more for one playstyle than another doesn't sit well with me for this kind of game. It's a personal preference but I don't like it. I don't like that is encourages you to do things you might otherwise not and discourages other playstyle (Like ghosting) entirely. Sure you can still try to do them but you're actively working against the intentions of the game devs at that point which is a bit of a bummer when the original game not only didn't discourage it but actively promoted thinking up unusual solutions.

 

[communist gamer]

DX:HR gave a lot of XP for objectives. You could shoot your way through it just fine. It takes 125 perfect takedowns to get a Praxis point over just shooting them - 167 if you're shooting them in the head.

Oh I know it was minor, but it was there nontheless. I'd just prefer a system that didn't have xp points pop up across the screen after choosing to either kill or not kill some guy, instead allow the player to complete the objective however they choose and then award xp at the end based upon their performance and completion of minor sub-objectives... you know, like the original Deus Ex did. And then just like the original if you choose to go all lethal force on everyone's ass you can have the character get chewed out for it and people act accordingly.

Hell, if the devs wanted me to get all giddy about the game they could add in multiple difficulties that would change the objectives. Maybe add in side-missions that would alter the course of how you play; Maybe one guy wants you to wreak havoc and kill people and is willing to offer some nice gear if you so happen to murder a bunch of sobs on the next outing while another wants a very specific item stolen but insists that no one is killed and is also willing to offer major money. That sorta stuff.

Just giving xp for killing guys and awarding more for one playstyle than another doesn't sit well with me for this kind of game. It's a personal preference but I don't like it. I don't like that is encourages you to do things you might otherwise not and discourages other playstyle (Like ghosting) entirely. Sure you can still try to do them but you're actively working against the intentions of the game devs at that point which is a bit of a bummer when the original game not only didn't discourage it but actively promoted thinking up unusual solutions.

the whole idea of XP for not killing people was tied to the plot. Jenson was tured into a walking death machine but a large part of the plot revolved around the quastion "if you are agumented are you still a human". You can still get clouse to as much XP as with shooting stuff. I liked it because it made you think a bit about the plot instead of turning it into shoot everything and find stuff later, which 1 could be from time to time