Review: Deus Ex Mankind Divided

G’day there guys and gals!

The Deus Ex series has been incredibly popular since the turn of the century, and has had a loyal fanbase for over a decade. Arguably, it was Deus Ex Human Revolution that truly thrusted the title forwards, with stellar gameplay and a world overloaded with lore, not to mention the many memes and jokes that came along with it thanks to a particular rugged voice. And in the now famous ending(s) for Human Revolution came the obvious fact - a sequel to the prequel was in bound. Enter Deus Ex Mankind Divided: set two years after the events of Human Revolution, Adam Jensen has become obsessed with the mysterious figures that continue to pull the strings of the globe, and as the divide between humans and the augmented continues to decline, Adam is tasked in bringing to light those responsible who are looking to destroy the last remains of a peaceful world.
Does Mankind Divided live up to its predecessor and then some? Is one of the endings for Human Revolution made canon? Do the developers acknowledge the jokes and memes of the previous title?
In short: Absolutely.

As previously mentioned, you play as Adam Jensen, as an agent of Interpol’s Task Force 29 in the heart of the Czech Republic, Prague. Working in plain sight, it’s up to you to piece together the unending clues to a conspiracy that has endless heights, casting suspicion on many around you. First and foremost, the gameplay is utterly incredible. One of the key features I have to gush about in Mankind Divided is its choice in a set of game controls, a feature many games do not offer. Players can choose the Dev’s preferred choice for the game, Human Revolution traditional controls, even a standard First Person Shooter control set. These can be changed at any time in the menus, which makes it ever more better, and much more personal to the player; console players are not forced to a set of controls they have to learn or endure to use, which in turn makes the gameplay itself fantastic from the get go. This is not even beginning to mention the smoothness of the gameplay, how it flourishes from the old style, especially with the returning abilities and the new ones. As Adam discovers a whole new skillset and learning to control them by shutting down unused augs, players have four slots to choose which primary augs (such as Tesla, Titan, Nano-Blades, silent footsteps, invisibility etc) are used in the hot key. Players are limited via Biocells for recharging their aug bar, but can be bought or crafted via crafting items.

This brings us to the new system of crafting and aug upgrades. Players can still upgrade their augs via the same system, and can earn praxis points via how they play the game (exploring closed off areas, sparing enemies, successfully pulling off CASIE conversations etc) and can apply them in the skill tree of their choice. Crafting is a new feature to the recent instalment, allowing players to pick up crafting parts and using them to create additional ammo for the Tesla fist, Nano-Blades, Biocells, the auto-hacking device the Multi-Tool, and more. Players choosing the stealth gameplay style will definitely be relying on making Biocells whenever possible.
In conclusion for the gameplay, the combat has been improved upon immensely; the majority of weapons return in upgraded version; the tranquiliser rifle, stun gun, combat rifle all make a return, and every weapon is upgradable with silencers, laser targeting and even improving the weapon with crafting items as you go. All of this and more furthers my deep admiration for the amount of detail in the gameplay.

Not only in the gameplay, but the depth of lore and story is even more impressive this time around. Many complained of the literal deus ex machina ending of a Deus Ex game (the irony dripping from that sentence alone), but in here player choices lead to different conclusions, but other than the last, will not truly affect the outcome. This in itself is a bit of a let-down, but the choice at least matters in the moment, whereas many games simply ignore it all together. The five choice ending is gone, and is down to two (although there is only one if you’re good enough!) and overall wraps up your progress with all your completed side missions as well. In the end, personally I was left with more questions than answers. Many questions about Adam’s past over the previous two years are left unanswered (unlike a lot of the big questions in Human Revolution) although the answer to which ending was canon is answered once you put the pieces together (SPOILERS – it’s the Destroy option).
In saying all of this, with the mass amount of ebooks, newspaper scripts and even more background on NPC characters and side missions galore, there is well over 17 hours of gameplay at your fingertips. To be fully personal, I was delighted to see an Australian based character (with an Aussie VA!) in a Triple A title, and to spend a huge amount of time with them: this is where the full on depth of lore can be seen because those passionate about learning it will be grateful for every eBook, newsletter (although they will only update chapter to chapter) and scrap of info. I was delighted to see an Australian flag (although technically it was hung incorrectly!), hear of Bendigo and New South Wales, and learn that there was an Australian Civil War! This does not even begin to mention the amount of detail on European countries, the history of the Czech Republic, its people, the huge areas of exploration, Golem City and so much more. But I digress.

Players can choose to stick to the main missions, and the side missions, but for the first time in Deus Ex history, players are offered a time trial online mode called Breach. You play as an unnamed hacker under the orders of Janus and his team, and your task is to hack into the privatised data bank that hosts dirty company secrets. The gameplay is the same (and even appears in the main story) with the aim to unlock glowing purple shafts. Of course, it isn’t as easy as it sounds, as you must navigate your way past or through enemies, obstacles cameras, alarms, laser grids and more, all of which on a time limit. The graphics and styles are plain here, but they are bright and easily identifiable; think of the memory cores from Assassin’s Creed Revelations with a dash of Deus Ex FPS fighting. The mode itself is quite fun and players of Mirror’s Edge will surely love beating their friends’ scores.

The voice acting is greatly done, especially by Mr Jensen himself Elias Toufexis; his cold and still voice has come to life and shows much more humanisation this time around. The harsh and hating Adam is still there, but there is plenty of flirting and light-heartedness to experience. There were a few off times with the cast, specifically with NPCs losing their accent, but overall their performance was immersive and very well done. Sound effects were perfectly done, as was the musical score. Very rarely did music repeat (except the Interpol HQ and surrounding nightclubs), and each in-game movement was executed incredibly well. Lastly, I must mention the graphics, which are utterly phenomenal. Cutscenes are absolutely beautiful and incredibly lifelike, with a LOT of small detail on Adam – from rain to his eyes – there is a lot of minor details people may see with a good amount of diligence. Cutscenes and gameplay cutscenes are unfortunately noticeable, but only due to the lighting, camera angles and the return of the limited animation (the Shoulder-Roll-And-Karate-Chop animation has been replaced with Shoulder-Lift-And-Arm-Flick), which is slightly immersion breaking, but still enjoyable. 

Finally, I must unfortunately report the bugs I’ve presently found in the game build at release, and there are quite a few, with the majority being reloading auto/manual saves. Reloading a save inside toxic gas will allow the player to travel through the gas without harm or depletion of the Aug energy bar. Reloading saves before CASIE arguments will also randomly disappear, but the flashing lights and prompts will still appear. The same is also said about Infolink; text and the black background will become transparent (a look I weirdly like) and will not reappear until completing an objective, leaving an area or reloading a checkpoint. I also experienced two Kick To Dashboards; once when finishing the Breach cutscene and a second during the final boss fight when a frag grenade exploded a turret.
I would be remiss in not mentioning the small issues I experienced with the game: first and foremost, the ending boss. The boss was built up to be this incredible, difficult challenge, and indeed he was. The hype for him being your enemy was somewhat lacklustre and short, but effective enough to reduce me to rubble when fighting him over and over, and Stealth players will struggle with him a LOT. However, it is very very easy to cheese the final boss fight if necessary, and to that I will keep my silence for you, the player, to experience the fight in your own way. Rare was the side mission that was boring, but a few were incredibly short, but these being mostly related to the secret Augs and Dvali storylines.
To sum up my experience with Deus Ex Mankind Divided is almost impossible; the ending is shocking and quite surprising, and the story building up to has more questions than answers. It was slightly disappointing to see no one from Human Revolution make a return except Sarif and Megan (Sarif’s voice actor being different and Megan limited to three lines didn’t help either) with Pritchett returning only in text form, but in my eyes, the developers wanted to live up to and go beyond the expectations of the game. It has its faults; the topic of prejudice against the different is mentioned and talked about, but never fully addressed until the last two hours of the game, although the game does incredibly well to bring it up in-game, as Aug and “Naturals” are separated during specific areas. As an Aug, if you ride the Naturals train, you will be stared at by those aboard. If you go through a Naturals checkpoint, people will comment on it. And doing these things, and even at random, the police will check your papers and registration. Some are nice, and some are barely containing themselves. NPCs, especially barterers, will often repeat their conversations over and over, even after only leaving the building, and will complain whether or not you buy or sell from them. In saying that, the special Jensen Memories DLC was also a small disappointment, barely adding an additional half an hour of gameplay, a new area with no new lore to the story and answering a question that won’t be resolved. Once more, I digress.

Mankind Divided is flawed, to that I will happily and readily admit, but the massive amount of content there makes up for it. This is a game you will replay, if only for the missed achievements, or discovering more of the story. When it comes down to it, we as reviewers must ask ourselves ‘What is most important to me when buying a game?’, and that answer for me is the gameplay, the story and the immersion, and no once can resist the lure of a good story. You can do no wrong in purchasing Deus Ex Mankind Divided, even with its flaws, for it excels in these areas like very few titles in 2016 have so far.

Deus Ex Mankind Divided: 9/10

Out now for the standard price of $99

Review: UNO (Xbox One)

G’day there guys and gals!

So many of us grew up with siblings either too old or too young for us to play the standard games that all children play. It is here where friends, or distant family, comes into play; the greats that have withstood the test of every generation’s time and order, the legends that are still here, and may very well still be here, long after we are gone as well. UNO has always been one of the rarities that join the likes of Monopoly, Battleship, Chess, and so many others. The Ubisoft team have definitely put in a lot of effort in recreating this classic on the heels of the fabled Carbonated Games and Gameloft developers who were there on the previous generation of consoles. The game will definitely allow you play with friends and family alike, but there are plenty of issues that plague this new addition to the genre.

UNO, in a sense, is simplistic and plain but effective in its addiction to the gameplay, but the game isn’t without its flaws. For the young or the older looking for a refresher, UNO is a simple card dealing game, where the aim is to dispense your selected amount of cards into the colour that is present in the middle. Players can also use special cards to flip the turn ratio, add more cards, skip the next players turn, or change the colour that is currently present.
Players can choose single player mode and challenge four AI characters, who are surprisingly hard at times. The secondary modes also offer two verses two, and both modes allow the player to control the set of rules for each match and the score limit. Most players, much like myself, would be more interested in the multiplayer aspect; players can choose to create their own match, or join a lobby/in progress match, whether being in the Classic mode (Four people) or two verses two team mode (the goal being to aid your team to win Uno first). While it can be frustrating to join a match with rules that you do not enjoy (mine being Draw-To-Match), finding matches are mostly fairly quick and easy to get into.
Gameplay wise, the controls are limited to your left joystick and A and B, so there isn’t much depth to add to this review with this. The animations in the effects are well done and look fluid, especially in the background animation. Graphics are plain, but bright and shiny, sound effects and musical score are incredibly well done and take up at least 75% of your main focus while playing incredibly long round. And to those waiting for this piece of information, yes, chatting via mic and video makes a glorious return. To all those aware of the “reputation” the previous UNO game had, I would warn parents that this trend of adult themed gameplays may make a return, although luckily I have yet to run into any adulteresses yet.

In saying all this, I must unfortunately report the abundance of bugs that have been plaguing the game since its launch last week.
Games can unexpectedly freeze and KTD players for the following reasons: waiting on the main menu too long, joining a multiplayer game, waiting to join a multiplayer game too long, changing your settings and updating the game with Ubisoft Club items.
I’ve also experienced audio glitches and the red cards oddly disappearing into the background, but I digress.

Could we have expected a card game turned video game to be breaking boundaries and making splashes worldwide? Of course not, nor can we expect every single game to be released without bugs. But a lot of these bugs present, especially the elongated pause bugs, are (in the lack of a better word) Game Design 101, and are among the very first things I was taught during QA testing. 

For its price, the incredibly easy achievements and the fun moments, the bugs can be excusable but not forgettable. Cautious optimism will work the best for you.

Out of 10, I give UNO a 6/10

UNO is out now for the standard price of $15