• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

New Deus Ex: Mankind Divided gameplay footage (showing new gameplay mechanics)

Hystzen

Member
I hope they stay tight lipped on most of the story elements for this chapter. I want to see whether the events of the Statue of Liberty will occur and see Page/Simmons in the game!

I need to see the start of Project D especially after that HR tease at end.
 
I just feel like I read this before, pretty much every time a dev decides to move away from its slow, restrictive, clumsy, half-ass action/rpg thing. Mass Effect 1 to 2/3, Dark Souls to Bloodborne, System Shock to the Bioshocks.

Well, Deus Ex has always cared a lot for that kind of long term, methodical, considered and introspective gameplay, i don't see what's strange with being strongly affectionate to that kind of play style.
 

Metal B

Member
The new hacking strikes me as an unfortunately lazy and less interesting solution to HR's hacking crutch. Being able to hack cameras on the fly hurts the metagame of trying to find and access security terminals.
This is true, but i guess, they wanted to include Wifi-Systems. In our modern time Wifi connection are already an standard, why shouldn't a future sociality not have more wireless systems. So it would look strange in Deus Ex, if technology would go backwards in this regards. But security systems should be one of the few elements, which even in the future shouldn't be wireless (at least not all of them).

In my opinion to make hacking less gimmicky, they go the route of Shadowrun Returns (and Shadowrun in general) and have hacking work like the main-mechanic of the game. If you hack a system, your avatar get transported in a small, virtual scenario, while time in the real works slows down. This scenario could be anything. If you hack into a bank, the virtual space is a office; if you hack into a military server, the virtual space is a battlefield; and so on. Instead of humans or robots you have IC or other Users as your opponents.

The game-mechanics work the same way as in the real world. You take cover, shot with virtual weapons and stay out of sight. You can either Bruteforce a system and fight your way to your goal or you sneak through the system without leaving a trace.

Inside the system you have terminal, where you can read emails, disable cameras or steal data. Or you could talk to other users and trick them into helping you. Hacking should be a short side-scenario and a timers clicks down, which in the end throws you out of the server. If you sneak by the opponents, the clocks counts down slow, if they catch you, it counts down much faster. If you're smart, you can find hints for Backdoors through the game. They are literally backdoors in the virtual space to skip dangerous parts of the scenario and enemies.
 

Seronei

Member
Wait, you can play this in 3rd person view now? Jensen don't usually move in 3rd person when walking around in HR (except when climbing) but now you seem able to do this.

Jensen was 3rd person in HR while using the cover system. Just like here.
 

Iscariot

Member
Yeah, I'm glad the hacking gameplay is back, but "less time on the fly" just isn't Deus Ex to me. Stuff that makes experimentation faster and more accessible says to me that they're doubling down on the moment-to-moment play rather than the broader intricacies of level design and navigation. HR had problems where certain augs/skills were so essential and overpowered you'd be a fool not to pursue them, like computer hacking. But the solution to these problems isn't to bring that simplicity to the moment-to-moment gameplay, it's to broaden your options via the level design and aug specifications so players are forced to adapt to their build's strengths and weaknesses.

I think it should be noted that the PCgamer article about their hands on mentions that remote hacking is limited to certain targets and is an aug or some sort of modification, not a default ability.

I definitely agree that a limited economy is critical to DE, but I might not feel as strident as you in respect to builds but this is mostly due to me suspecting the majority of that sort of balance in the final month or weeks of development.
 
I think I've seen and read just about every preview so far. It really seems like they're building on the strong foundation HR has in a lot of areas. HR always had a strong art direction, but the tech was weak. Its not mindblowing now, but it much stronger across the board from the 2011 release. While we haven't seen the social hubs yet, the level design in the combat zones seem stronger, larger but densely packed with several routes and increased verticality. More lively lookin with the new engine. The previews mentioned how the Prague theater was part of a larger hub, instead of some separate area you fly to in-between cutscenes/load times, so it feels like its part of the world and not just another level.

Controls are generally slicker. The UI more intuitive. Combat isn't total garbage, a controversial change for many Deus Ex fans I'm sure. The retinkering of the Aug systems encouraging more improvisation and experimentation in your playstyle. There's a flexibility, a grey area between stealth and combat you can dynamically gauge based on your tools, the level, the enemies, and the objectives. Its a much smoother, more fluid game, right down to the takedown animations no longer having that clunky screen fade before awkwardly resetting you.

The side quests sound interesting, conceptually. Maybe they're important to Jenson personally, or reflect the core themes of the game in an interesting way, or shed light on some of the factions operating in the world. They'll feel like main missions, instead of wandering around to find 3 Buffalo Butts. There are also little side objectives like "Don't kill the undercover agent" in the tutorial mission. If you kill him, some of ya buddies call you an asshole, and maybe that will change the game in a major way. Or maybe a small way. Or maybe not at all. They don't make everything have obvious GIANT RAMIFICATIONS so you're pretty much forced to do them, but they're not all meaningless either so you can't be bothered. So you can just play the game, make your choices, and live with them. There's no GOOD or EVIL options or meters. Choices you make in the first few hours of the game will impact the end. The choices you make that affect the narrative won't just be in the big obvious conversations or cutscenes, but in the moment-to-moment gameplay as well.

The last game's soundtrack had three phases: ambient, stress/proximity, and combat. Mankind Divided has a wider range that dynamically changes based on AI states(suspicious, alarmed) and proximity, and the combat music when there's a dozen guys is much bigger than when there's just two dudes left to hunt down. These kind of audio cues gives the player more information about their surroundings, and aids further in immersion within the game.

They know everybody hated how restrictive the bosses were in HR. If you went all in on hacking and stealth(and since combat was ass in the game, you did), you felt useless against the bosses. Now they'll be more options no matter what path you decide to go down, even non-lethal ones. Which is how a boss fight should be, testing your knowledge of the abilities and options at your disposal.

So they got a lot of really sound parts here. If they can put all those together with the conversations/social hubs/atmosphere/world-building and characterization fans expect from Deus Ex, it could really be a hell of a game.
 
I'm still a bit worried about hacking being too overpowered like it was in HR, so much that there is no point in getting passwords at all. I liked Deus Ex 1 giving you a time limit in hacked computers and security terminals even at max skill - the perk of finding a password was unlimited time.

One of the reasons everyone has installed Deus Ex a dozen times was because in your next playthrough you just might find another datacube you never knew existed! The ATM codes were especially rare.
 
just let me upgrade the sniper rifle with a larger clip, semi-automatic bolt, and quicker rate of fire - then - let me upgrade my arms so that I can wield the sniper rifle like an assault rifle.

towards the end of HR, I'd whipped out that artillery when I got into a bind... hip firing was gloriously wasteful.
 

Brockxz

Member
Looks good but i'm a little bit disappointed they still use third person (gears of war style) cover system. And also I'm not a fan of those flashy one button hit insta-kill/subdue moves. I hoped they will make a little bit more closer to original DX. Those was my only negative moments in HR and I see it still will be in the MD. At least story and other gameplay elements seems will be great.
 

Shredderi

Member
That is a lot of sharpening and the rain looks really off. In the video the rain seemed to run at lower fps than the rest of the game. It's propably just me on that last one. But new Deus Ex? Fuck yeah babymama!
 
I'm not a fan of the graphical style. Is that seriously rain? I swear the first screenshots looked way better (bullshots?). Anyway, they're clearly looking at other games for inspiration. Blink from Dishonored, Gears cover system, Bioshock 2's quick hacking, Crysis' weapon mods, and more. Most gamers would probably find them to be fun, useful additions and I'm not complaining. They've said AI is better and more aggressive to balance stuff so I'll wait and see what the challenge is like.
 

Dunan

Member
The only thing I dislike is the font they're using. It's looks horrible.


Was just about to post this; I loved the use of Eurostile all the way through DE:HR.

This new font (Gotham? It's overused and has no flavor) even has non-monospaced numbers, which can be really distracting when a number is changing rapidly.

And seeing things like the number of bullets in your gun moving around the screen and even rotating and warping into odd shapes is even more distracting than variable-width numbers.

They aced the UI with Human Revolution. Minor tweaks to that are all you need.
 

Bl@de

Member
Looks great. Always love some new Deus Ex.

Well, except Deus Ex 2. That one just sucked.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
I'm not sure if it's the video quality, but something looks off to me... I mean, it seems there's too much on the screen that I barely can notice the details.
Maybe its outlines?
 

Yeoman

Member
Looks fantastic, thank goodness they're overhauling the energy system. Like the voiceover guy I practically spent the entire game waiting for that one battery to recharge.

The soundtrack in this game sounds like it is going to be epic as well.
 

Sn4ke_911

If I ever post something in Japanese which I don't understand, please BAN me.
Speaking of graphics only i think it looks terrible, i mean we're talking about an early 2016 game here.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
Speaking of graphics only i think it looks terrible, i mean we're talking about an early 2016 game here.

Reading some people saying it looks fantastic, and I can't see that either.
The more I watch and pay attention to things, the uglier it looks! lol
 

Alebrije

Member
Due to the MGS franchise dead is good to have Deus Ex since both share similarities and is hard to find more games like them.

I am glad that the last generation game (also ported to WiiU ) got a good reception and now we have a new Deus Ex game.
 

Sn4ke_911

If I ever post something in Japanese which I don't understand, please BAN me.
Reading some people saying it looks fantastic, and I can't see that either.
The more I watch and pay attention to things, the uglier it looks! lol

Lets also not forget it's a next-gen/current-gen only game too, everything just looks so bad... the rain, the animations, lighting etc. nothing screams "NEXT-GEN BABY".

Now i know graphics is not everything but seriously for a game that comes out early 2016 this is inexcusable.

I thought HR was an ok game but i always, always hated the graphics in this game.
 

Shredderi

Member
Lets also not forget it's a next-gen/current-gen only game too, everything just looks so bad... the rain, the animations, lighting etc. nothing screams "NEXT-GEN BABY".

Now i know graphics is not everything but seriously for a game that comes out early 2016 this is inexcusable.

I thought HR was an ok game but i always, always hated the graphics in this game.

Doesn't look as hot as the first screenshots for sure, but there is still one very nice looking thing intact: Adam's hair. Looks really good IMO.
 
Top Bottom