When I first got into this game a few years ago, I had pretty high expectations after watching the badass trailer and playing through the entirety of Mankind Divided's Prequel, Human Revolution.

Needless to say, I found myself more than satisfied.

STORY:

The game places you in the perspective of Adam Jensen, a former SWAT team leader who became heavily augmented with the best cybernetic technology money could buy (thanks to the head of leading biotech firm Sarif Industries in Detroit, David Sarif), two years after the events of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. With Sarif Industries completely dismantled after what became known as the Aug Incident, an event where the creator of mechanical augmentations, Hugh Darrow, broadcast a signal to augmented users' biochips which caused everyone but Jensen to aggressively attack anything on sight, Jensen found himself joining Interpol's Task Force 29 unit in the Czech Republic on behalf of a large group of Spec Ops operatives and hackers dedicated to shutting down large organizations and greedy politicians for the sake of the people called the Juggernaut Collective, who Jensen is working with in order to discover the Illuminati's intentions.
After re-arriving in the Czech Republic city of Prague after a faulty operation in Dubai, terrorists bomb the train station in which Jensen arrives in: Ruzicka Station. Due to this, Jensen suffers a major glitch in his systems, forcing him to revisit black market biotech expert Vaclav Koller, who discovers a number of experimental augmentations spliced into Jensen's system. With terrorists aiming to pin public acts of aggression on the Augmented Rights Coalition, a non-violent organization seeking a peaceful solution to the co-existence of Augs and Naturals (led by Doctor Talos Rucker), Jensen must find the people responsible for manipulating the strings in the shadows while he searches for the man who developed augmentations only he could use.

GAMEPLAY:

As with many titles in the Deus Ex franchise, Mankind Divided revolves around a system that rewards players successfully completing missions whilst staying undetected. Players must spend their precious Praxis Points, which are used to unlock augmentations, wisely, as any misplaced points may lead to severe struggles in the long run. The experimental augs introduced within this newer title allow players to expand upon their play-style tremendously, with augs that let you hack from a distance, quickly dash to a location, and even materialize an indestructible TITAN shell, as the aug name suggests. With all these new additions, along with the original tactics from Human Revolution still familiar to regulars of the franchise, this game is much more than an enjoyable experience.

GRAPHICS:

My god. Just aiming down the scope with the Tranquilizer Rifle shows a massive improvement in video quality. Even if your computer can only handle the game with every graphics setting turned off or to low, the game looks absolutely spectacular. With the interface having a much more clean, futuristic look, as well as minor details like the cover revealing a wireless hacking module in Jensen's left hand when he uses his Remote Hacking aug, the game certainly aims to please the eye.

OVERALL:

I wanted this game because it looked badass and I knew the story would be good. Both aspects exceeded my expectations. With the Deus Ex franchise and the Metro Redux games being my all-time favorite stealth games, this one has by far come out on top.

If you like stealth, long lore conversations and tech, buy this. You won't be disappointed.

10/10 - Sistine