All of this plays out on the gorgeous but conflicted architecture of near-future Prague, where the old 19th century brickwork clashes with bright neon lights and sleek, angular millennial designs. The strained, politically charged world of Mankind Divided is a richly detailed and sometimes accurate portrait of our own world, and it does things that the 2000 original did – things that Human Revolution missed – it takes common issues of the day, refocuses them and holds a mirror up to our own world, and sometimes, it’s a little hard to look at ourselves.įollowing on from ‘the incident’ that occurs at the end of Human Revolution we rejoin Adam Jenson in a world frought with terrorism, “racially” charged politics and the series staple of rich people getting away with industrial scale murder and backstabbery. What else you got?īut I’ve been sleeping on the latest Deus Ex game, and that’s a huge shame. Oh, a sequel to the best immersive sim of the last few years? Good for you Eidos. You don’t often get to make that kind of claim. Games so good that they somehow made Mankind Divided seem somewhat humdrum in comparison. 2016 was a jaw dropping year filled with great releases. So it’s really weird, then, that I let Mankind Divided pass me by.ĭespite adoring the kindly 2011 reboot/homage Human Revolution, I didn’t feel any kind of urge to pick up the latest neo-noir conspiracy epic. Primarily because true immersive sims are such a rarity but also because I find the genre so absolutely fascinating. As a result, immersive sims like Dishonoured, Prey and System Shock et al always make me sit up and take notice. The seamless blend of genre bending and philosophy really captured my teenage heart and held it tight until way into my 20’s, and it took something with real heavyweight pedigree like Dark Souls to slightly dislodge it from the top of my silly little illusiory list. The classic turn-of-the-millenium FPS/RPG hybrid for PC was, for a very long time, my undisputed favourite. But prior to Dark Souls coming into my life, that spot was inhabited by another. For a few years now, Dark Souls has occupied the top spot in my imaginary, pointless list of preferences. As trite as it is to pick a favourite, I still do it anyway, despite how arbitrary it is.

Deus ex too dark