Jesse's Top Five Games of 2016: Number Five

  We're now a few weeks into 2017 and most of the "Best Of 2016" lists have come and gone, but here at The Loud Table we never got the chance to go through our games of the year. The past year saw a litany of high quality releases from big developers and indie studios alike and while this series doesn't comprise the full scope of what I played throughout 2016, these are my personal top five picks of the year. Side note - All of the games in this series have killer soundtracks that you should go check out immediately.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ( Number 5 )

    It’s not often that a sequel makes my list of favorite games of the year, but in the case of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided I had to make an exception. The follow up to Eidos Montreal’s 2011 title Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mankind Divided gets players right into the thick of a world wide conspiracy and controversy surrounding people who have augmented their bodies with cybernetic technology, or augs for short. Players take control of Adam Jensen, an augmented Interpol agent who, after the events of the first game, has become deeply involved in the conspiracy behind a global terror attack that caused millions of augs to lose control and begin killing people indiscriminately; referred to, rather banally, as the “Aug Incident.”

   

  Complex conspiracy driven narrative aside, the Deus Ex series has been known for being a beacon of player choice in gameplay. Want to go into a situation with guns blazing and explosions booming? OK. Would you rather creep in the shadows, silently eliminating your enemies one at a time with brutal stealth efficiency? That’s perfectly alright as well. How about the pacifist route, never killing anyone, never even being noticed by your enemies, or possibly talking your way out of a conflict? Deus Ex provides you with those options as well.

  Not only does Mankind Divided provide players with these options implicitly, but it also does so on a more structural, gameplay based level. Every situation in the game, from navigating the hub cities to the sprawling missions, afford the player with multiple paths to tackle any given situation. Verticality is more prevalent in Mankind Divided than its predecessor, allowing the player to scale buildings or dive into subterranean tunnels to find new ways to approach different conflicts.

   The same level of choice can be found in dialogue in the game. Early on, players have the option of unlocking a conversation augmentation that allows Jensen to read the facial reactions of the people he speaks to. Maybe a Russian Mafia boss requires a more blunt response, while an Aug Rights leader would respond better to a more diplomatic approach. These discussions can sometime have a direct result to gameplay. Jensen can avoid conflict, or cause it, just by opening his mouth.

 In Mankind Divided Adam Jensen himself feels like more of a super agent than in Human Revolution. All of his gadgets are embedded in his flesh and can be unlocked throughout the game, offering the means to tailor to players specific gameplay preferences. Cybernetic shielding from bullets, lightning fast dash moves, an active camouflage stealth system, noise dampening leg augmentations to make running silent, aim enhancing arm augments and
many more upgrades make Jensen feel like the Cyberpunk James Bond.

   

 Compared to Human Revolution, Mankind Divided feels more streamlined and refined. Augmentation tiers make more sense, are more sensibly grouped according to playstyle and can be adjusted if need be. Jensen feels more powerful than in the last game, without feeling overpowered or that the player has no challenges in front of them. The overall pacing of the game has been upgraded as well. While the game keeps Jensen in a single location for longer, it’s not to the detriment of world building, but to the benefit of narrative expansion and deep exploration. There’s still a plethora of things to do, but everything fits together as a whole better than it did in the previous title.

  Cohesion seems the central mission of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The main narrative surrounding the oppression of Augs and the conspiracy behind the aftermath of a catastrophic terrorist attack seem more plausible than its forebearer. In presenting a more comprehensive and streamlined progression system the core gameplay tenants make more sense. By offering players more choices in navigating the world physically and through interaction with characters, without things becoming overwhelming, a more immersive world has been crafted. Eidos Montreal has taken a big step with Mankind Divided towards what made the original Deus Ex so great and forged new ground at the same time.

Jesse McGirr