Deus Ex Mankind Divided Builds a Great World

The world of Deus Ex Human Revolution was an idyllic one, with grand towers of technology, and augmentation seen as a sign of someone who is better. It was bright, and people were mostly happy. Until The Aug Incident...

The world of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes place two years after that, and it does a fantastic job of conveying the unease that an augmented person must feel. After the ending of Human Revolution, where thousands of augmented humans turned -- for lack of a better term -- into crazy zombies, the world went to crap. People with augmentations are now seen by humanity at large as monsters that could kill everyone within reach.

It wouldn't take very many...

It’s the same way that Marvel comics show the X-Men: hated and feared just for being alive. And it’s not just the way that people treat them, with segregation, police brutality and such. The walls are covered with slogans and slurs written in spray paint, people insult Augs to their faces and refuse them service at shops, people looking worried if you’re in the wrong Metro car…

It is easy to settle into a game and shut out the open world. For instance, I can spend hours in Watch_Dogs and never consider the hot dog vendor I ran over, or the traffic light-related accident I just caused. Mankind Divided never lets you forget that you’re hated and feared.

Whilst wandering around the hub of Prague, it’s not uncommon for a cop to stop you -- you’re in the middle of a mission, rushing across town and this guy just tells you to stop! You can’t ignore them, as Jensen stops cold, and won’t let you move until the cop checks your permits, which all Augs must carry at all times. Just try using anything labeled Naturals Only, too!

Even the person looks different

It’s the closest you can get in a videogame to experiencing what life was like for Japanese-Americans during World War 2. Most Augs had nothing to do with the Incident, but all of a sudden they are unable to wander the streets without documentation. What happens to anyone without the right permit? They get deported to Golem City, an Aug ghetto, and unable to leave. If they have the right paperwork, they’re allowed to work under close scrutiny and supervision.

Jensen is clearly one of the lucky ones -- working for Interpol, has his own perfectly nice apartment and has the run of the town. Even though he gets stopped by the police, and occasionally mistreated, it has to be a thousand times worse for other Augs. Almost every side mission you take will remind you of that fact, and it’s horrible.

Limb Clinics make a return...

Eidos Montréal crafted a perfect world. Not perfect in the utopian sense, but it’s perfect in making you feel a part of it and engrossing you. There was more than one instance of me feeling bad for making one choice instead of another, because it was inevitably to the detriment of an innocent Aug.

Their quality of life was already pretty bad...

When I played Fallout 4, I can’t recall any decision I made which I regretted -- in Fallout 3 I sold two children to the slavers in multiple playthroughs! And yet when I had the opportunity to extort money from an Aug in Mankind Divided, I refused. I cared more about that Aug than I did for any character in the Fallout mythos, and the Fallout titles are known for crafting a fantastic world.

So bravo, Eidos, you’ve done a marvelous job.