Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Deux Ex Mankind Divided.png
Studio Eidos Montreal
Nixxes Software (Windows)
Feral Interactive (macOS, Linux)
Publisher Square Enix
Feral Interactive (Linux)
Senior Developer Jean-François Dugas (Game Director)
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 23rd August 2016
platform Windows , macOS , Linux , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One
Game engine Dawn engine
genre Action RPG
Subject Cyberpunk , transhumanism
Game mode Single player
control Game controller , mouse , keyboard
system advantages
preconditions
  • OS : Windows 7.1 SP1 or better (64-bit)
  • CPU : Intel Core i3-2100 or similar
  • Graphics card : AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2 GB) / Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 (2 GB)
  • RAM : 8 GB
  • 45 GB of free hard disk space
medium DVD-ROM , Blu-ray , download
language German English
copy protection Steamworks
Age rating
USK from 18
PEGI from 18

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a computer game from the Canadian development studio Eidos Montreal for Windows , macOS , Linux , PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and the fourth part of the Deus Ex series . It is the direct sequel to Deus Ex: Human Revolution and continues the story about the protagonist Adam Jensen. Like its predecessor, the game deals with the topic of transhumanism in a cyberpunk scenario. The background to this is the increasing social division between wearers of biotechnical prostheses, so-called augmentations, and non-augmented people, triggered by the fears associated with the ongoing optimization of the human body through technology. The social conflict addressed in the game was described by the developer as "mechanical apartheid ".

action

Mankind Divided is set in 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution , and continues the narrative marked by numerous conspiracies and obscure machinations. Jensen's previous investigations led to an incident in which augmented persons worldwide briefly lost control of their prostheses, with sometimes fatal consequences for bystanders. The trigger was the activation of a secretly implemented software, which the secret society of the Illuminati wanted to use for the global control of all augmented persons, but was ultimately used by a group of opponents of progress to bring the new technology into disrepute. While the Illuminati can successfully disguise the truth, society subsequently separates into augmented and non-augmented people, with augmented people being treated as outcasts. The consequences are known as "mechanical apartheid".

The main character Adam Jensen has switched to the Interpol special unit Taskforce 29 and is pursuing a terrorist group of augmented people. At the same time, however, he is also trying to uncover the machinations of the Illuminati with the help of the Juggernaut collective, an association of hackers and political activists. The scene of the action is the futuristic Prague , where the augmented in the area of ​​the suburb Útulek Station, colloquially just called Golem City, were interned. In contrast to the predecessor, the action takes place exclusively within Prague, apart from a few missions.

development

Mankind Divided was officially announced on April 8, 2015 as a sequel to Human Revolution . As with Human Revolution , Eidos Montreal outsourced the simultaneous work on the Windows version to the Dutch development studio Nixxes Software . The game was originally scheduled to go on sale on February 23, 2016. In November 2015, however, Eidos Montreal announced a postponement to August 23, 2016 in order to have more time for optimization and post-processing. On July 30, 2016, the preliminary completion of the development work was announced with the so-called gold report. On August 19, 2016, Square Enix released the game on Steam for preload, the early download of the game files. At the same time, a first update with bug fixes and new content was announced for the day of publication. On November 3, 2016, the Linux version ported by the British development studio Feral Interactive was released. A port for macOS followed on December 12, 2017.

technology

For Mankind Divided , Eidos Montreal developed the Glacier-2 engine from IO Interactive (used for Hitman: Absolution ), which was one of the most advanced engines when it was first used and, among other things, was able to display numerous characters at the same time. The version further developed by Eidos Montreal was named Dawn Engine. It was conceived as the technical basis for the Deus Ex Universe , a working name for all Deus Ex projects at Eidos Montreal. The focus of further development was on improved rendering, real-time physics calculation and AI programming. Many improvements have been made with a view to improved possibilities for staging and rendering the plot, which is a mainstay of the game concept. There were innovations, for example, in the conversation system or the tools for the cinematic cutscenes. But the AI ​​tools were also optimized with the aim of providing game designers with extensive tools without having to rely on the support of programmers. Like Glacier 2, the Dawn engine originally used the DirectX 11 graphics interface . Support for the newly released version DirectX 12 was promised by the developers before the release, but postponed to a program update after release due to additional optimization efforts. Starting with an update on September 9th, it was gradually integrated into the program, but according to test reports it initially had little effect.

reception

Marketing controversy

The game received criticism through various marketing campaigns prior to its release. In August 2015, Square Enix presented a complex pre-order system called "Augment your pre-order" for the North American market, based on the game's skill trees. Depending on the number of pre-orderers, additional bonuses should be activated for pre-orderers in five steps, similar to Kickstarter crowdfunding projects. As soon as a bonus level had been reached, the player could have chosen between different bonuses, such as a digital artbook or the soundtrack as a download. At the highest level, the publication should be brought forward by four days. The press and the public saw this as a method of encouraging as many players as possible to pre-order. Pre-orderers should therefore be encouraged to also encourage friends to pre-order in order to unlock further bonus levels. In order to receive all the presented bonuses instead of just a selection, pre-orderers would have had to opt for a Collector's Edition for the price of 150 US dollars, which was perceived as overpriced. After persistently negative feedback, the group decided to end the program after a month. All pre-orders were converted into a so-called Day-One-Edition, which should contain all planned bonuses.

The term “mechanical apartheid” used in the presentation met with criticism in places, as the use of the term was understood as inappropriate, racist and as a trivialization of the actually practiced racial discrimination in South Africa. Jonathan Jaques-Belletête of Eidos Montreal described the allegations as ridiculous, as they would deny games their status as works of culture. As such, however, they would have the right to deal with critical issues. Mankind Divided merely reflects a gloomy vision of the future and a pessimistic basic attitude towards human interaction. People would also hurt and exclude one another in the future. This does not mean that the studio approves of this stance, but merely points out the danger that always exists, especially in connection with the technical progress dealt with in the game. In a later published concept image of the game, the slogan "Augs Lives Matter" could also be seen. This has been interpreted as an allusion to the contemporary Black Lives Matter campaign , which was directed against deadly police violence against blacks in the United States. In this case, too, the developers were accused of a lack of tact. The executive brand manager of the series, Andre Vu, called this an unfortunate coincidence. In fact, the concept image was created before the political movement in the USA. Critics, such as the BioWare developer Manveer Heir, were bothered by the exploitation of such allusions for marketing measures. The abbreviated reproduction in advertising would only create effects and misuse them to increase awareness, but the necessary in-depth and differentiated discussion of the topic was not possible in this form.

Ratings

The game received mostly positive reviews ( Metacritic : 82/84/83).

“It would be easy to dismiss Deus Ex: Mankind Divided as a good, but not fully developed project based on its technical weaknesses. However, that would not do justice to the playful core. Game director Jean-Francois Dugas and author Mary DeMarle have created an interactive novel that combines play and narration in a very mature way. "

- Benjamin Schmädig : 4Players

In the period from August 22 to August 28, 2016, Mankind Divided replaced the space game No Man's Sky at the top of the sales charts of the online distributor Steam, and in the subsequent period from August 28 to September 5, the title slipped to second place behind the expansion Ark: Scorched Earth .

Extensions

At the beginning of September 2016, the first expansion of the system split was announced for the end of the month. In the new mission, Jensen supports his former work colleague, Sarif's former IT manager Frank Pritchard, in finding information about the mysterious Santeau group. This leads the two to the heavily secured banking company Palisade Blade. Jensen hopes to get information about the identity of the Illuminati in return.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Colin Campbell: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and the problem of 'mechanical apartheid'. In: polygon. July 6, 2016, Retrieved September 3, 2016 (American English).
  2. ↑ a b c test (evaluation) to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (role play) - 4Players.de. Retrieved September 3, 2016 .
  3. ^ Wesley Copeland: Square Enix Officially Announces Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. In: IGN. April 8, 2015, Retrieved August 20, 2016 (American English).
  4. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - PC version is created by Nixxes - GameStar. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: Postponed to August 2016 - 4Players.de. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Action role-playing game has reached gold status - GameStar. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - System requirements and exact times for the preload - GameStar. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Day-One-Patch several gigabytes in size - GameStar. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  9. ↑ The future is on the march with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, now also for Linux. Retrieved November 3, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided released for macOS. In: Steam Community. December 12, 2017, accessed April 4, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Eidos Montreal: New Dawn Engine for the Deus Ex Universe and Hitman - Golem.de. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  12. ↑ How the Dawn Engine is powering the next wave of Deus Ex games. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Launch without support for DirectX 12 - GameStar. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Deus Ex Mankind Divided: So far, the Direct3D-12 patch has not convinced - Golem.de. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  15. ↑ 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' Has The Worst Pre-Order Bonus Structure Of All Time. September 3, 2015, archived from the original on September 3, 2015 ; accessed on August 31, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Christopher Grant: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided gets release date, tiered pre-order campaign. August 31, 2015, accessed August 31, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Controversial pre-order program abolished. Retrieved August 31, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Ben Kuchera: Deus Ex developers respond to 'mechanical apartheid' complaints. In: polygon. June 19, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2016 (American English).
  19. ↑ 'Augs Lives Matter' banner in new Deus Ex concept art draws criticism. Retrieved August 31, 2016 .
  20. ^ Allegra Frank: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided PR calls 'Augs Lives Matter' reference coincidental. In: polygon. August 3, 2016. Retrieved August 31, 2016 (American English).
  21. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-mankind-divided
  22. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/deus-ex-mankind-divided
  23. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/deus-ex-mankind-divided
  24. ↑ Review: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. In: Destructoid. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  25. ^ Deux Ex: Mankind Divided review. Retrieved September 16, 2016 (American English).
  26. ^ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Review - Big Heart, Mechanical Soul. In: Game Informer. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  27. ^ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Review. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  28. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Test (PC) - The opposite of Human Revolution - GameStar. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  29. ^ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided review. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  30. ^ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Review. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  31. ↑ Vince Ingenito: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Review. In: IGN. August 19, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016 (American English).
  32. ^ Test du Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, une aventure réussie sur PC et consoles. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  33. ^ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided review. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  34. ↑ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided in the Test - Victims of Commerce. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  35. ^ Arthur Gies: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided review. In: polygon. August 19, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  36. ↑ Matt Peckham: Review: 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' Is a Must-Play for Fans. In: TIME.com. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  37. ^ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Review - VideoGamer.com. Retrieved September 16, 2016 (American English).
  38. ↑ Steam Charts - New number 1: No Man's Sky overthrown - GameStar. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  39. ↑ Steam Charts - New number 1 and crash of No Man's Sky - GameStar. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
  40. ↑ Deus Ex: System split continues Mankind Divided - Golem.de. Retrieved September 3, 2016 .