Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Daylight Robbery and a rant
When referring to daylight robbery, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, I'm not referring to the act of stealthily dispatching an appropriately placed foe, from an appropriately placed ledge, or an appropriately placed nook in a wall.
I'm talking about how I purchased the game in daylight, yet feel robbed. Robbed of many things, my time, my memories, and the damn good name of the Deus Ex brand. Mankind Divided deserves none of these things, and is a frustrating, subpar mess of a game.
These are all grand; but a true next generation Deus Ex game will never be possible until it is one that is truly open world, and evocative of the atmosphere that pervades so much science fiction writing on the topics of post-humanism and general cyberpunk-ery.
This is not a review
As such, this post isn't a review of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but rather all the things that I would expect of a future game in the series. Watch as I get no royalties from game development companies for sharing my ideas.
This is a wish list
- A true open world
Being able to wander around and hear the inane (not two or three scripted lines) of citizens of a world where people are mechanically and computationally enhanced, to see their stares and their reactions at your choice (to, or not to) become augmented and have this shape the way in which the narrative unfolds.
- Numerous factions vying for your loyalty
Not the other way around. Give me, the player, some genuine choice, some emotional baggage as to the consequences of choosing one path over another. Give me sweet rewards that influence and allow me to become exceptional in one field, but not able to do other things. You can't do everything all at once, and this is what gives us replayability.
- Lip Sync your fucking voice acting
Seriously, within the first three seconds of watching a character's mouth animate using the exact opposite shapes turns me off from whatever tale you're trying to weave. If Half Life 2 could perfect lip-syncing ten years ago, and you can't do it in a title released in 2016, get the fuck off my zippy m.2 SSD, peasants.
- Convince me about the universe with real dilemmas and haunting facial animations
I'm talking about nothing incredibly generation-leaping or uncanny valley. Get your facial expressions on par with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and do this for all the cast of characters. Get me involved. Show me compassion, show me fear, show me contempt, or show me that you simply don't care about my place in the world.
And maybe, just maybe, do it in VR.
Enter the inevitable "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided VR Edition."
I've heard nothing but bad things about this game. One of the biggest complaint's I heard(that ultimately kept me away), was about the missed opportunity to explore controversial aspects of the story. Like they had this crazy cyber-apartheid premise, but then played it safe.
Lame.
To be fair, I never really liked this series to begin with. Not even the original. Just not my cup of tea gameplay wise.
I enjoyed the first title, and thoroughly, I was a younger, less bitter man, with a 200mhz pentium processor. :)
Nothing captures the feeling of Cyberpunk like the Shadowrun reboot that was released a few years back - the cross between xcom style gameplay, rpg, and plot was really addictive and immersive.
Yes, the Shadowrun games are great. I've still not finished the last one. Thanks for reminding me!
I just got that game for free on PSN, curious to check it out, even though people been crapping all over it.
"Do it in VR" would definitely do the trick for me haha.
Cool post, upvoted and followed mate,
In the meantime, shall you be interested, here's my new VR gameplay at: https://steemit.com/dlive/@crypto3d/e529a6d0-fc43-11e7-820d-57dcbb6f8901