Deus Ex Mankind Divided Review Roundup: All The Scores In One Place
Don’t have time to read all the reviews of the new Deus Ex? Don’t worry! We’ve read them all for you and wrapped them all up in one handy place. Read on!
Summary
Jensen leaps out from hiding like a hunting cat (Read: This Is The Dumbest Cat I Have Ever Seen In A Video Game) and pulls a guard into the vent, eliciting a wet snap as his elbow bends the wrong way around the corner (Read: Ten Of The Best Takedowns In Stealth Games). Muffled screams echo through the metal tunnel. Jensen smirks (Read: Deus Ex Lets You Kill A Man With A Fridge), delivering one of actor Elias Toufexis’ trademark dry quips (Read: The Deus Ex Voice Actor And Feminist Frequency’s Jonathan McIntosh Are Having A Cringeworthy Dick-Slapping Contest On Twitter).
It’s just another day in the life of Adam Jensen (Watch: Adam Jensen From Deus Ex Struggles To Knit The Perfect Sweater) and it’s a solid entry into the series, but I can’t help but wonder if Eidos Montreal (Read: We Begged Eidos’ Creative Director To ‘Bleszinksi’ A Whole Ham) are placing too much emphasis on this new ‘Deus Ex Universe’ (Read: Here’s What You Need To Know About The Square Enix CEO’s Bathroom) and not enough on the Deus Ex ‘You-niverse’?
SCORE: Read: This Is Why Review Scores Are Broken, And We Won’t Be Using Them
Summary
Adam Jensen is back in an exciting new way, robotic limbs popping out of every joint in his body and more augmentations than you can fire one of your elbow blades at – you can fire them now! Men aged 18-35 are going to have a fantastic time with Mankind Divided, and I know I’ll be returning to it again and again to cyber-tickle a guard into a paralysed laughing fit. Thanks to Eidos Montreal’s smart overhauls to the UI system, it’s even easier to see which areas of the guard’s body will respond to tickling and which will result in dangerous levels of offended clucking.
Jensen’s new augs are beautifully realised – from the forearm blender which makes perfect smoothies every time to the Icarus Socks that provide waterproof comfort at a moments notice. I never failed to feel like a badass as my newly-waterproof Jensen waded with snug and supportive ease through one of the game’s beautifully-realised puddles, each of which hid a fantastic new secret to discover.
SCORE: 8.8/10
Summary
The mood was tense in Eidos Montreal’s offices, the launch day sunrise feeling both dreaded and welcome all at once. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s creative director is lounging against an industrial steel pillar when I find them, wearing a custom coat made for the occasion that glitters with a promising excess of triangles. There’s a feeling in the air, the electric grease of expectation, the knife-edge point of a decision that the ancient Greeks called ‘krisis’.
Over the course of several hours we speak about the role of transhumanism in the workforce, and how their childhood memories of playing with Dino Riders toys inspired some of the key action sequences which unfortunately ended up on the cutting room floor. I can’t help but wonder, though – will this wild ambition save a studio that refuses to engage with the politics of the very media it creates? Once the first major patch is released, we’ll update our review score.
SCORE: 8.5/10 (pending)
Thought for the day: Internet ad-based revenue is a dying model
Summary
Ultimately, consumers are right to wonder if the mainstream gaming press – which doesn’t include us – are going to tell them the truth about what Deus Ex: Mankind Divided really contains. More and more it’s becoming clear that the major gaming sites – of which, again, we are not one – are simply out of touch with what gamers really want, to the point where they are becoming actively hostile to the consumer.
We encourage gamers to make up their own mind like the independent and powerful force they are, rather than being beholden to what compromised corporate interests – not us, though – mindlessly shill out in their tainted advertorials.
SCORE: Whatever Reddit Thinks/10
Summary
I am seven years old when I first beat my father in a foot race. His brown eyes hold a painful mix of pride and sadness, overwhelmed with happiness for my achievements but knowing that each one represents another step on my way towards growing up, to finding out who I am – to leaving him behind. Eventually I would leave my father behind, taking myself across the country in pursuit of my dream of becoming an engineer.
From a young age I had always wanted to know how things worked, know what made them tick – to take them apart and put them back together again, better, stronger and faster. I became obsessed with this relentless need to self-improve, to drive towards perfection, no matter how unattainable or what lines I had to cross along the way. In my ruthless drive, I lost sight of what was important, and I hurt a lot of people. My friendships deteriorated, my family turned away from me. I miss my Dad the most. He’s old now, a black cancer eating away at him from within, the inevitable result of 40 years spent working the mines. We see each other occasionally and exchange awkward, stilted conversation. Neither of us say what we really mean, and neither of us has the time to change that. Life is what we make of it, and so is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
SCORE: 7.5/10
