Now I know haven't really played the game yet (got my hands on an early copy two days ago, but played it only for a few minutes, I'm still finishing Human Revolution and having a blast with it) but knowing what I know of the previous game and skimming through several other reviews it seems that they've delivered on a "bigger, faster, stronger" type of sequel (at least), with the same attention to detail, and overall vision. I know 7 is a good score (despite what the gaming community thinks) but i feel it'll end up as a bit low for this game. Just walking through the streets of Prague – the title's hub area – makes for a very interesting visual experience. As you'd expect of the cyberpunk series, there's a futuristic edge to everything, from vehicles to weapons to clothing, but it's all just realistic enough for it to seem plausible. Mankind Divided may seem a little cobbled together at times, but there is one element of the release that does its best to tie everything together – and that's the game's great sense of style.
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If you find yourself yearning for quick stints of Deus Ex action outside of the main story, we heartily recommend it. Breach offers its own background narrative about edgy hacker groups, but don't let the hashtags put you off – Breach is actually an addictive little time sink, complete with its own progression and rewards systems. An entirely separate and optional mode of play, Breach essentially takes the core gameplay mechanics of Mankind Divided and throws them into a set of smaller scale missions that take place in cyberspace. Meanwhile, if you're not quite up for the seriousness of the campaign, you can always test your skills in the title's Breach mode. Thankfully, there's an unlockable New Game + option to help you with that, which allows you to carry over all of your skills and items to a fresh run. Put simply, this is a clever, intricate game that rewards you for using your head, and, as you can imagine, it's a release that practically begs to be replayed. Some missions can conclude differently depending on how you approach them, and at times, you can even impact the outcome by taking matters into your own hands and following up on leads that aren't identified by a quest marker on your map. When it comes to the length of the story, you could probably blitz through Mankind Divided in about ten hours if you ignored side missions and rushed down the critical path alone – but you'd be missing out on a lot of what makes the title tick. It's a shame, too, because aside from some extremely hammy East European accents, the voice acting is largely on point. While Jensen himself and other main members of the cast don't suffer too badly from this, it's difficult to take lesser personalities seriously when their mouths don't match their speech whatsoever.
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Overall, the story's an engaging one, but to fully enjoy it, you'll have to get used to the sometimes shockingly poor character animations that occur during dialogue. Whether you're comfortable sneaking your way through enemy territory without alerting a soul or you prefer grabbing your favourite rifle and spilling some blood to get things done, the vast majority of missions can be tackled any way that you like. Working as a field agent for an anti-terrorism task force, Jensen is usually called upon to do the dirty work, and how he handles each objective is almost entirely up to you. Player choice is at the core of Mankind Divided. Combining role-playing game elements with stealth and shooting, it's a title that tries its hand at just about everything, but its desire to stretch across numerous different genres isn't necessarily a weakness – it's actually part of what makes Adam Jensen's undercover adventure so compelling. Like 2011's Deus Ex: Human Revolution, new-gen sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a jack of all trades, but a master of none. Republished on Wednesday 27th December 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January's PlayStation Plus lineup.