Remember all that old talk about the "Deus Ex Universe" and how Eidos's Montreal location was working on the future of Deus Ex? Yeah, I'm with you, it all got a little blurry for me, too. It always felt like a proper sequel to Deus Ex: Human Revolution was the sort of obvious move that would get fast-tracked and shipped a couple of years after the previous entry. But the years came and went with no new cyberpunk thriller from Eidos-Montreal. Actually, I never finished Thief. Maybe it gets all weird and computer-y later on, I have no idea.
Anyway, there's been a bit of a countdown running this week for a Square-Enix reveal. It looked just computer-y enough to look like it was probably a Deus Ex game. And thanks to a leak that traces back to a Russian site, everything got set in motion a little early. The leak pinned the game down as "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided" for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Game Informer has since gone on to say (and I'm paraphrasing here) "hey, that's our May cover story and yes, it's coming out on those three platforms."
Adam Jensen will ride his augmented bike back into the leading role, from the looks of things. The cover line for Game Informer reads "a cyberpunk thriller where player choice defines the world." That... sort of sounds like every modern video game ever once you get to the player choice bit, but GI is holding back the details that back that up for people who get their magazine.
The official Twitter account of the Deus Ex franchise chimed in, too, primarily to promote the Wednesday morning reveal. Marketing plans are still marketing plans, y'all. Still, smart of them to at least confirm the leaks instead of playing coy for another day.
It was bumpy at times (OK, pretty much just the boss fights), but I really appreciated Human Revolution. There was a ton of cool stuff in there, and I'm excited that the sequel is finally moving forward and getting announced. "Mankind Divided" sounds like the sort of subtitle that sets up a "pure humans vs. transhumans" sort of conflict, which has a lot of potential. Think they'll roll in some reference to people hating Google Glass as the "start" of the "war?"
There's no release date attached to any of this, but considering Thief was an early 2014 release, I'd be surprised if this was out any sooner than mid-2016. Let's hope I'm wrong, I could really go for some more Deus Ex in my life.