deus ex game review

Test: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, a successful adventure on PC and consoles

After restoring the aura of the Deus Ex franchise with Human Revolution, Eidos Montreal worked for more than 4 years to develop Mankind Divided, which marks the return of Adam Jensen, a charismatic augmented hero quickly adopted by keen players. from the saga. Human Revolution is not without its faults, the Eidos Montreal teams were attentive to the feedback from the public and endeavored to erase the pitfalls that tarnished the pleasure of the original game. It remains to be seen whether Mankind Divided manages to equal if not outperform its predecessor. The answer in these columns.

We are in 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution. In a society where transhumanism is omnipresent, an "incident" has led augmented individuals to commit acts of violence against the organic population, under the constraint of their implants. While there was already a strong divide between the pro and anti-augmented populations, this tragic event exacerbated the hostility of the population with regard to the "Augs", to the point that it created a real " mechanical apartheid ". The acts of violence are increasing while the segregation is getting worse every day. In this more tense climate than ever, Adam Jensen, having joined the anti-terrorist division of Interpol, Task Force 29, is looking for those responsible for an attack that devastated Prague, the agent's hometown and headquarters of his organization.

Before going further, know that it is not completely essential to have played Human Revolution to understand the issues that drive Mankind Divided. The developers have integrated a cinematic of almost a quarter of an hour, which you can watch or not and which returns to the events of the first episode. It remains however naturally recommended to have lived the previous adventures of adventures of Adam Jensen to better benefit from the history and to seize all the subtleties. Winks will be numerous and references abound. Note that the lack of consideration of your final choice in Human Revolution is perfectly justified and treated with great cunning by the writers. Because Deux Ex to begin with is essentially a story of a scenario.

A CONTROLLED SCENARIO

Suffice to say right away, we were afraid at first. Very scared. Indeed, in the first moments of the game, especially during your wanderings in the city of Prague, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided knows some writing blunders for the least unusual. Caricatural characters and overly demonstrative abuse of the augmented made us think that Eidos Montreal had forgotten that the narration of Deus Ex must be done above all in shades of gray, without ever falling into Manichaeism or cliché. But by taking a step back and progressing, we realized that this awkwardness was above all caused by the manifest will of the authors to set an atmosphere and a context fairly quickly in order to return thereafter to more subtle considerations and nuanced. Because if the first moments of the game can make you think otherwise, believe that the story of Deus Ex Mankind Divided is poignant at will and that its development is like a long and gradual rise in power.

The crossed characters are all treated, each having their own torments, their own goals, their own personality. The narrative structure is impeccable. Conspiracy, conspiracy, all the standards specific to Deus Ex are present. The scenario seeks to cover the tracks, ask the right questions while leaving it to the player to answer them. Whether it be through your own reflection or through the choices you will have to make, more numerous besides than in Human Revolution, Mankind Divided intelligently approaches the notions of terrorism, lost and blind causes and transhumanism. The themes are deep and skillfully addressed, in short, no doubt, Eidos Montreal can tell a story.

CONTENT AND DETAILS

The concern for writing is also felt during the main quest as well as during the secondary quests. The latter benefit from the same quality of processing as the central story, so much so that you will often have the impression of progressing in the basic plot rather than accomplishing an optional objective. The side quests are also a bit more numerous than in the past, but especially benefit, for some of them, branching out and drastic choices which will put your conscience sometimes to the test. The world of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is darker than ever and the atmosphere becomes more desperate, burdensome and disturbing as you progress through the adventure. In addition, the environments are more populated than before, each PnJ having its own line of dialogue to declaim to you in the event of interaction.

Everyone talks about their problems, and the feeling of being only a lost person in the middle of the city is omnipresent. Finally, icing on the cake, it is also in its level of detail that Deus Ex Mankind Divided manages to breathe life into its universe. Like its predecessor, the title offers a very large amount of things to read, listen to, see. Hacking a PC can certainly sometimes help you directly to progress in the adventure, but it will often happen, if you take the trouble to access the various terminals that you will find, to simply obtain some information about the people you meet, on their life in general, which greatly contributes to the feeling of evolving in a world that breathes. And of course, the immersion is reinforced by one of the cornerstones of the Deus Ex license: the quality of the artistic direction.

AN INSPIRED ARTISTIC DIRECTION, A TECHNIQUE THAT IS A LITTLE LESS
If we take care not to reveal to you what are the different places where the adventure of Mankind Divided will lead you, know that each zone crossed benefits from a particularly neat aesthetic, which fits easily into what the Cyberpunk universe has better to offer. The old architectures mingle with thanks to the more modern buildings, the light effects could not be more charming and greatly contribute to the credibility of the atmosphere of the game. Unfortunately, technically, it would seem that the case known on Human Revolution is tenacious and that the technical shortcomings are still current. The animations of the characters and their facial expressions are a bit rigid, some textures lack finesse, while overall, the displayed result does not fully justify the PC configurations required for the game to run at full speed. A real optimization work remains to be done for the time being and unfortunately, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is technically speaking nothing dated. But to be honest, the atmosphere of the game is such that we easily forgive this pitfall to focus fully on the essentials: the atmosphere and the scenario, of course, but also the gameplay.

What is the PS4 version worth?

We were able to test the title on a PS4 version to find out what the console version of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was in the womb. The picture is relatively mixed. In terms of performance, the set suffers from some slowdowns when many characters are in motion, mainly during the combat phases. The frenzy of action combined with the numerous explosion effects repels the resources of the machine which struggles to display a constant framerate.

However, the whole is pleasantly taken in hand and the game remains as usual rather pretty, greatly helped by the quality of the artistic direction which manages to make forget the small technical glitches.

DEUS EX: GAMEPLAY EVOLUTION

As usual, the principle of any good self-respecting Deus Ex lies in the choice left to the player to adopt a stealthy behavior or get into it. We will focus first on the infiltration dimension of Mankind Divided, which undoubtedly does honor to the standards imposed by the original game, even pushing the possibilities to a degree much higher than that of Human Revolution. It's very simple, and with the exception of the introduction to Dubai, the different maps of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided are like real playgrounds for anyone who likes to find hidden passages. More vertical than before, the different areas are full of possibilities, hidden paths, hidden windows and sprawling undergrounds favoring your infiltration. Thus, entering a building with the beard of the guards becomes a real pleasure, if however you take the trouble to look up, to show a minimum of observation and patience before moving.

Naturally, you will benefit from some new increases to promote your discretion: temporary invisibility, nano-blade allowing to neutralize without killing ... there is no shortage of options even if you should not expect - and fortunately - to be able to activate them by loop. Your increases require a lot of energy to be used, and your gauge tends to empty very quickly. Finally, and we know you are very keen to find out, yes, it is perfectly possible to finish the game without killing anyone. Exit therefore, the obligatory death of the bosses of Human Revolution, which should no doubt cause a sigh of relief in the most fervent defenders of the pacifist approach. If all the confrontations cannot be avoided, some of them on the other hand can be circumvented, in particular by the dialogue system based on the analysis of the behavior of your interlocutor. Unfortunately too few, these phases are always a success and the feeling of stepping on eggs with each choice of phrase is omnipresent. In short, Mankind Divided knows how to take advantage of the strengths of Human Revolution while improving them, and that's good.

Side nudge, you will not be outdone since Deus Ex Mankind Divided erases a lot of flaws that tainted the action phases of Human Revolution. A particular effort has been made in particular on the various weapons of the game, which offer sensations of power and recoil clearly more credible and dynamic than before. In addition, the ability to change the firing mode, ammunition at the touch of a button and quickly access the weapon's customization accelerates the pace of combat in a very beautiful way. In a more anecdotal way, you can also amplify the range, the precision, or the damage of the weapon by spending “spare parts”, small objects which you can glean everywhere with the liking of your explorations. The new increases meanwhile, are frankly pleasant to use and increase the feeling of power that emerges from Adam. Shield, bullet-time, dash ... the capacities are original, complementary, and prove to be very pleasant to use.

OLD HABITS HAVE A HARD LIFE
Unfortunately, nothing is perfect in this world and if the two approaches will give you a lot of pleasure, it will be a bit counterbalanced by an artificial intelligence which does not seem to have progressed much since Human Revolution. AI, especially in the infiltration phase, is far too permissive and it will not be complicated to neutralize a guard almost under the beard of his colleagues without the latter reacting. Remote hacking (camera, turret, lasers ...) is extremely exhilarating and streamlines the discrete phases, but cuts the game off for a good part of its challenge, even in the highest difficulty mode.

Adverse behavior during the action phases is slightly better without being transcendent. Your opponents, however, show a little more cunning than before, do not hesitate to bypass you and react (sometimes) to a door that opens by itself or a box that you move a little too noisily. On this point, however, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided sounds a bit old-fashioned and recites, moreover, certain mechanics which show a certain age. For example, dragging a corpse is not very intuitive because the inert body is in fact an unwieldy ragdoll, while theft is not reprimanded in the game world. No wonder, therefore, to be able use it in the fridge of an apartment whose door you have just forced, without its occupants ever reacting to your presence. A rather unfortunate fact given the work done on the credibility of the story and the surroundings.

Finally, it's difficult to talk about the end of the game without spoiling yourself. Just know that it seemed to us to intervene in a brutal and somewhat expeditious manner, no doubt because we would have liked to have had more content. To those who fear a conclusion that is too rigid in their choices, as was that of Human Revolution, keep in mind that this is not the case here and that some of your actions will impact, sometimes frankly, sometimes significantly , the progress of the conclusion of the adventure. Note that on our game session, in stealth mode and taking the time to explore, search and read what came to hand, all in high difficulty mode, displayed 35 hours on the clock. A lifespan a bit higher, therefore, than that of Human Revolution.

Finally, note in the register of complaints that the French version is a little below the remarkable work done on the original version, which shows more conviction than its French counterpart. Note that on our test version, the television news as well as the dubbing of atmospheres, very important for immersion, did not benefit from any French subtitles when we opted for the VO, this which can be very disabling without a good understanding of the language of Shakespeare. Hopefully this will soon be corrected for the release of the game. The French version is, however, fully dubbed.

BREACH, A REFRESHING EXTENSION TO THE EXPERIENCE OF DEUS EX
At the end of the adventure, you will not be quite finished with Mankind Divided, since you can launch yourself headlong into the Breach mode, which had already been revealed in the course of the various presentations of the game. In multiplayer mode based on leaderboards, Breach puts you in the shoes of a hacker, who virtually materializes in the computer networks of large corporations in order to expose some of their most shameful shenanigans.

You are therefore in a universe whose aesthetic is located halfway between Tron and Superhot, and it is up to you to access various data blocks that must be downloaded before evacuating the area. Your entire route is timed, and your behavior will depend on the score achieved once the level is completed. Thus, collecting optional data, quickly completing this or that level will earn more points, which will allow you to rise to the top of the leaderboards.

The gameplay itself takes exactly that of Mankind Divided. You will therefore find the same game mechanics, the same weapons and the same increases. Note that some stages will have to be completed according to different objectives: some will require to be covered only in stealth mode, while another will require the elimination of a certain number of targets.

Each mission earns you experience, favoring the purchase of new increases, and some of your achievements are rewarded in the form of boxes containing ammunition, various bonuses and weapons. The whole being scripted and intimately linked to the world of Deus Ex, Breach goes through without displeasure and should easily occupy you a handful of hours for its history, much more if you are obsessed with scoring. Ultimately, Breach is a very good alternative to discover all of the game mechanics introduced by Mankind Divided, and allows, for example, to better get to know the increases that you had left out during the main adventure. We will also salute the work done on the level design of the different maps, which in no way clash with the basic game as well as the artistic direction, frankly successful and who knows how to get straight to the point.

Note that since there is no small profit, you can if you wish to acquire rewards boxes with real money. At the time of writing, we do not have details of the prices charged by the store.

In short difficult to sulk his pleasure in front of this Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, solid in more than one way, which manages to make forget most of its faults thanks to the manifest love brought to the universe of the game. formula adopted by Human Revolution, Mankind Divided is an evolution and logical consequence, facing which it is difficult to remain unmoved.

The notes
+ Positive points
A living, rich universe full of details
History and treatment of serious subjects mastered
Side quests as neat as the main
Simply impeccable soundtrack
Inspired art direction
The different approaches (stealth / frontal) reworked in a beautiful way
New original and effective increases
An ingenious Level Design, offering great freedom of action
Ability to finish the game without killing anyone finally brought up to date
Real replayability
Solid lifespan (25-40 hours depending on the difficulty mode and the way you play)
Breach, an original extension of the base game

Negative points
A VF that lacks conviction
Certain key subtitles for subscribers absent in Vost on our test version
Often strawberry ai
Technically uneven
A lack of challenge that is felt, in infiltration as in action
Some inaccuracies when going under cover
Anecdotal weapon customization

We wanted Deus Ex: Mankind Divided to be perfect. We would have liked to avoid deploring an overly permissive AI, a sawtooth technical aspect or a bit of a speedy finish. But difficult not to ignore these few pitfalls as the work of goldsmith made on the whole adventure is obvious. With its immersive atmosphere, its breathtaking scenario, its neat artistic direction and its exemplary level design, Mankind Divided is an intelligent game which easily manages to grab the player for hours, while offering it a high degree of replayability. Taking advantage of a universe that pays homage more than inspired to the best of cyberpunk and a breathtaking soundtrack, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an achievement that is only missing a few adjustments to be flawless. Warmly recommended.