Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Square Enix Reveal new Deus Ex)

[pre]

When playing these classic franchises there's a lot of nostalgia. I remember the 1 level demo of Deus Ex on the UE engine - was genuinely as revolutionary as HL was IMHO in the number of ways you could do in things in an age when everything else was linear. It was like the CP2077 prologue reveal for my generation.

The subsequent release Invisible War built in stealth, hacking routes but the novelty of choice wasn't as impactful - nor was the difference in graphics and polish. Whilst Mankind Divided was never going to live up to the original it was still a fun release.

I look forward to the day that games can leverage AI to procedurally generate choices and scenarios - rather than just environments.

 

[TNA]

When playing these classic franchises there's a lot of nostalgia. I remember the 1 level demo of Deus Ex on the UE engine - was genuinely as revolutionary as HL was IMHO in the number of ways you could do in things in an age when everything else was linear. It was like the CP2077 prologue reveal for my generation.

The subsequent release Invisible War built in stealth, hacking routes but the novelty of choice wasn't as impactful - nor was the difference in graphics and polish. Whilst Mankind Divided was never going to live up to the original it was still a fun release.

I look forward to the day that games can leverage AI to procedurally generate choices and scenarios - rather than just environments.

So far procedurally generated stuff has been utter rubbish. But in 5-10 years who knows?!

I think by the time I am in my retirement age there will be games I can get lost in for ages. Who knows, sometimes I think might be in one right now.

 

[Stu999]

Worth a play for sure, but damn the story was a let down and the game ending was stupid and unsatisfying.

I never asked for this.

 

[LizardKing]

Cant say how many hours i lost to the first Deus Ex, one of the first games that really rewarded you for exploration and taking different routes (how many people found the base in the sewers or Daedalus or was that Icarus - i cant remember, one was a low key interaction...), it never felt like you were on rails bar the main plot line, actions had consequences throughout the game and i've yet to encounter a game that really had that level of impact on the dialog/outcome. Invisible war was great as well but never really had that repeatability and MD, i kinda gave up after a few hours, lacking that connection to the original and felt clunky.
Might give this another shot though just to see it through.
The original Deus Ex MP was good fun as well and being able to spam duplicate health packs/ammo thanks to lag, the joys of 56k

 

[Caracus2k]

It's another story of late-stage capitalism gone utterly mad.

They are about 1-2 billion in debt, depending who you ask. They borrow money and buy up studios. Then they borrow more money and buy more studios.

This isn't the first time they've run aground and needed to "restructure" aka lay off hundreds of staff.

The investors lend to them on the grounds that they will grow forever. They need to keep buying more and more studios. When a deal falls through, investors get scared, they can't borrow more money, and have to service their (staggering) debts.

It's absolutely insane, but this is what "entrepreneurship" looks like in 2024. Debt-laden madness based on infinite growth for infinite returns to investors, and then all the actual workers get ******.

Isn't this more specific to the gaming market in particular?

I know it's very popular for people to blame 'capitalism' for societies woes but the computer game industry is in a bit of state currently because the 'big' games are getting hideously expensive to produce and the era of cheap borrowed money that was fuelling a lot of development has dried up.

The market for circa £70 at release supposed 'AAA' games is somewhat saturated aswell.

Basically the games industry is going to have to go through a brutal for some period of downsizing.

Of course any outfits thar leveraged themselves with lots of debt to try and secure market share are going to be in a particularly precarious situation.

It is a shame about the Deus Ex franchise being affected liked like this. The original was truly grand breaking.

 

[Rroff]

Cant say how many hours i lost to the first Deus Ex, one of the first games that really rewarded you for exploration and taking different routes (how many people found the base in the sewers or Daedalus or was that Icarus - i cant remember, one was a low key interaction...), it never felt like you were on rails bar the main plot line, actions had consequences throughout the game and i've yet to encounter a game that really had that level of impact on the dialog/outcome. Invisible war was great as well but never really had that repeatability and MD, i kinda gave up after a few hours, lacking that connection to the original and felt clunky.
Might give this another shot though just to see it through.
The original Deus Ex MP was good fun as well and being able to spam duplicate health packs/ammo thanks to lag, the joys of 56k

Something I found interesting as well is that you can force some outcomes that were never officially intended i.e. you can avoid confronting Walton Simons (though a bad guy in the game he is also something of a tragic figure if you look at the backstory stuff in the game). And some mechanics seem intentionally bugged in a useful way almost as if the developers thought "In 10 years time someone replaying this will probably find this too tedious".