I recently got to thinking about what my favorite games were from the previous console generation. The usual suspects went through my mind; Mass Effect Trilogy, The Last of Us, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Super Mario Galaxy, among others. But one game that stood out was Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Unlike those other titles, Human Revolution wasn’t exactly a critical darling or winner of significant game of the year awards. In fact, the first time I played it using OnLive(!), I didn’t much care for it. The graphics looked dated by 2011 standards, the gameplay was taken almost whole cloth from the original Deus Ex, and the story was a convoluted, unmemorable mess. But Human Revolution began to grow on me over time, and really came together once I bought the Director’s Cut edition on Playstation 3 a few years later. The Director’s Cut remains one of the best video game re-releases I have ever experienced, with the excretable boss fights reworked, the addition of an outstanding interstitial chapter, developer commentary, and a New Game Plus mode. In total, I have played through Deus Ex: Human Revolution five times and will likely revisit that flawed cyberpunk gem in years to come.

I mention this preamble to provide some context as to why I irrationally adore Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the recently released series entry that is as flawed as its predecessor in many ways. It’s been five years since Human Revolution, and yet, Mankind Divided feels like an expansion pack. The gameplay remains almost identical to before, the story does little to advance the overarching conspiracy narrative, and the game world feels more enclosed. Despite all this, the core Deus Ex loop shines through and more than makes up for the game’s shortcomings.

Like in previous games, Mankind Divided gives players plenty of options to accomplish their objectives, with a heavy emphasis on stealthy play. Thanks to protagonist Adam Jensen’s body augmentations, he has access to a wealth of abilities, including x-ray vision, enhanced jumping, and invisibility. These augmentations allow him approach any scenario in whatever manner the player wishes. As before, there are terminals to hack and vents to traverse that make the environments feel decidedly non-linear as you move about them. In addition to the suite of abilities he had in Human Revolution, Jensen has been outfitted with additional, experimental augmentations that are presented as powerful upgrades, but are in practice quite extraneous (with the notable exception of remote hacking). This all results in a game that feels almost exactly the same as Human Revolution, barring a few quality of life improvements like remappable controls, smoother gunplay, and a locked framerate. And you know what? The game works fine as is. It’s still fun to mess with brain dead enemy AI and knock out an entire level’s worth of guards without triggering an alarm. It’s still fun to hack into a vault, take the vent inside across the stage, and complete a hour-long mission in 10 minutes. And it’s still fun to defuse tense situations through debates I win by using my augmentations.

The level design compliments the this gameplay quite nicely. Instead of the globe trotting adventure like last time, the majority of Mankind Divided will be spent in Prague. What we lose in setting diversity is offset by the fact that the city feels both large and dense. There are countless hidden pathways and stashed away goodies, and I spent quite a few hours just breaking into every store to steal the valuable contents within. Occasionally, this extra-legal snooping will turn up clues to start side quests where some of the game’s best writing shines. One particular side quest involved hunting down a serial killer targeting augmented people, and it ends on a very memorable twist that trumps anything the main story attempts. Unfortunately, due to story events, the final third of the game has Prague under curfew, and the streets of the once bustling city becomes swamped with patrolling guards who make it very difficult to traverse safely. This really slows down the pace of the game, especially if you’re focused on a stealth or no-kill playthrough, and makes completing side quests a real pain. The best advice is to try and complete as much of the optional content as early as you can to avoid the hurdles imposed by the curfew, but you’ll still be stuck with additional missions that don’t unlock until the last part of the game (including the aforementioned serial killer plotline).

The game’s main plot takes place two years after the end of Human Revolution, where all augmented humans worldwide were hacked to become mindless killing machines. Despite Jensen managing to stop the hack soon after it was enacted, millions of people were killed or wounded by their augmented friends and family. After blowing up the villain's lair, Jensen was found in the ocean and transported to an Alaskan medical facility as a John Doe to recover. Fast forward two years, and our protagonist is working for Interpol out of Prague, where a great many augmented people had congregated over the years due to job opportunities in the Czech Republic. In the wake of the global trauma experienced by what is now known as “The Incident”, discriminatory laws have been passed to segregate “augs” from “naturals”. It’s all an intriguing setup to tell a more intimate cyberpunk story regarding the societal effects of augmentation, but the game as a whole feels like the first act to something bigger. The story ends with Jensen foiling a terrorist attack, but very few of the series’s bigger questions are even addressed by the end. It’s not a huge strike against the game for me, but it does leave me craving more story, be it on DLC form or in a full-on sequel that doesn’t take five years to develop.

In addition to the main story (which does come with New Game Plus if you were wondering) Mankind Divided has two additional modes; Jensen Stories and Breach. Jensen Stories are original standalone story and gameplay segments that fit into the game's plot, with the first involving the investigation of a bombing from the start of the main story. It’s a short little thing, taking me no more than 30 minutes to finish, but it provides additional content to come back to. Additional Jensen Stories are on the way, and hopefully they will help flesh out some of the story beats that the main narrative failed to acknowledge. Breach, on the other hand, are repetitive missions that put you in the role of a hacker trying to extract data from the oligarchical corporations that oversee the world of Deus Ex. The actual hacking is essentially the same moment-to-moment gameplay of the main game, but divorced from the real world and with no narrative driving the experience, the mode just feels hollow.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is for me a game that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Mechanically and narratively it feels like a retread of 2011, and even with the shiny new coat of current-gen paint it still looks pretty rough. But it still has that compelling Deus Ex DNA embedded within it, and for that I adore it so. I originally intended this write-up to be a review, but decided against it when I realized that I couldn’t take a dispassionate look at the game. If you are a reasonable person that can enjoy a flawed game that has a compelling gameplay loop and a great cyberpunk setting, Mankind Divided is worth picking up on sale. If, however, you love everything Deus Ex (including the maligned Invisible War because it gave you more Deus Ex), then Mankind Divided is a must-play. May the machine-god have mercy on your augmented soul.