All Articles: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

“Huge Upcoming Game Gets Delayed” has been a common headline over the last few months. Today, Square Enix and Eidos Montreal added another one onto the pile with the announcement of a six-month delay for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Previously scheduled to launch on February 23, the futuristic first-person shooter will now be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on August 23, 2016.

David Anfossi, Eidos Montreal’s Studio Head, apologized to fans for the delay, citing a need for time for “refinement”:

As you may have already seen by reading and watching the many previews for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided our aim is for it to be a worthy successor to Human Revolution and to improve upon that game in every way possible. I know that expectations are extremely high and we not only want to meet those expectations but exceed them.

We’re confident and proud of the game so far. However, as we are now playing through the game in full we can see that it will require more time in post-production for tuning, iterations, and refinement to meet our high standards. In order to achieve this we need to move the release of the game to August 23rd, 2016.

With this delay, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be released exactly five years to the day after the release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Remember that rather baffling “Augment Your Pre-Order” program that Square Enix announced for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided a month ago? Well, you can forget it now. The publisher has seen the error of their ways and canceled the whole thing.

In addition to a wide variety of in-game items, Square Enix also offered to release the game four days early if enough players pledged to pre-order the game. With the cancellation of the “Augment Your Pre-Order” program, this offer is now off the table too. In an attempt to apologize for their blunder, Square Enix has decided to give all the “Day One” content to anyone who pre-orders the game. Writing on the official Deus Ex website, a spokesman for Eidos Montreal described the reason behind this decision:

We quickly noticed that this approach created even more frustration than before, resulting in a resounding amount of negative feedback.

We’ve spent a lot of time reading through all of your comments, working to understand how we can try to make things right for you.After much thought and reflection, we decided to close down the program and make of the incentive content available to anyone who pre-orders Deus Ex: Mandkind Divided or purchases a Day 1 Edition of the game. Additionally, the release date will no longer be changed in accordance with pre-order numbers, and everyone will gain access to the game on February 23, 2016.

But don’t forget, a Collector’s Edition featuring a 48-page Titan Art Book, a nine-inch Adam Jensen figurine, and a limited edition Steelbook case is still available for pre-order. Sadly, we’re not getting that for free.

After three days, Square Enix’s “Can’t Kill Progress” livestream has ended with the announcement we all expected (even before Game Informer spilled the beans)… a sequel to Deus Ex: Human Revolution is in development at Eidos Montreal. I admit, I didn’t watch very much of the stream, but the nearly four-minute announcement trailer that Square Enix just revealed for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is its opposite in every way. I’m sure a lot of people would say the hype event was sleep-inducing, but this trailer is anything but. Adam Jensen is back and his “super-augmented” skills are on display the entire time.

But underneath all the cyberpunk-style chaos, Eidos Montreal also wants to push the Deus Ex story in new directions:

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes place in 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution and the infamous “Aug Incident” in Panchaea that resulted in the death of millions at the hands of those who had installed augmentations. This event has created a huge divide between those who have augmentations, and those who do not. Amongst this emotional turmoil are various factions looking to manipulate the public by twisting public opinion of augmentation to further their own agenda and hide the truth of what really happened.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided also continues the story of Adam Jensen, a former biotech company security chief turned super-augmented, anti-terrorist agent playing by his own rules. Jensen has been empowered with all new augmentations, enabling him and the player a greater sense of self-control as they explore all new locations in-game. As social and political tensions reach a major turning point, Jensen and conspiracies surrounding the Illuminati continue toward an inevitable crossroads … and possibly, an epic showdown.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. A release date will be announced “at a later date.”

Poor Square Enix. Their three-day “Can’t Kill Progress” event is turning out to be a bust. Viewers of the livestream have spent the majority of the last 24 hours watching an imprisoned man sleep and (occasionally) scream at his captors. If you’re still interested, by all means, keep watching. But the rest of us no longer need to as Game Informer has confirmed their next cover story will be Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which is in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Oh, and a Russian gaming site also leaked the news a few hours ago. So even this big reveal turned out to be a bust. Whoops!

It may have been a clumsy announcement, but fans of 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution should be thrilled to see the story continue in Eidos Montreal’s next game:

Set in 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution, Adam Jensen returns and joins forces with an Interpol-funded task force aiming to hunt down and capture augmented terrorists in a world that now hates and fears transhumans. Jensen has a new suite of augmentations that allow him to cleverly navigate stealth, combat, and social interactions, but how Jensen chooses to solve every problem is entirely up to you.

At the end of Human Revolution, the Illuminati caused every transhuman to go into a fight-or-flight response and attack anyone near them. In the next issue of Game Informer, you can find out how this event caused humanity to hate and fear those with augmentations. We spent two days in Eidos Montreal’s studio, talking with the team and learning about how they build a realistic future. We go in depth on some of Jensen’s new augmentations that help improve the stealth and combat systems, such as the ability to remote hack electronic objects, fire off his nano blade from a distance, and surround himself with a nearly indestructible nanoshield. We also got some great examples on how the game will be as open ended as ever, allowing players to carve their own path through the world. You can only get these details in the latest issue of Game Informer.

A release date for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has yet to be announced.

Square Enix is attempting to perfect the slow burn announcement with their three-day “interactive reveal” for “Can’t Kill Progress.” Though it’s unlikely that “Can’t Kill Progress” is the game’s final title. However, we can’t prove that it’s not, either.

As of right now, all we know for sure is that the game is in development at one of Square Enix’s western studios. All three of Square Enix’s western studios have previously-announced projects in the works that are still mostly shrouded in mystery, but I think it’s fair to discount Crystal Dynamics’ Rise of the Tomb Raider. The sci-fi theme of the teaser image doesn’t suit Lara Croft’s style. Besides, what we’re seeing at the Twitch livestream could easily be hinting at IO Interactive’s Hitman 6 or Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex Universe.

So far, the livestream has mostly featured a captive man trapped in some kind of prison. If you’ve been watching, you’ll see that he screams a lot about not knowing where he is. When he’s not doing that, he sleeps a lot. It’s definitely not much to go on, but Square Enix has promised an online vote to “decide what happens next” will occur at 6:00 PM (Eastern Time). More votes will take place tomorrow (1:00 PM, 6:00 PM, and 8:00 PM) and Wednesday (11:30 AM). A Square-Enix-run Instagram account is also cataloging some of the stream’s “Archive Footage.” There’s scary doctors and grainy footage of something… it’s real 1984-type stuff.

If we all keep watching, we’ll eventually find out what “Can’t Kill Progress” is all about by Wednesday. But I’ll be very surprised if it’s not related to Deus Ex Universe in some way.

Eidos Montreal has announced their brand new Dawn Engine, a “state of the art game engine that will be the cornerstone to the development of the Deus Ex Universe projects at the studio.” Based on their version of the Glacier 2 engine by IO Interactive, the engine “features new technology that allows for improved rendering capabilities, real-time physics, and advanced artificial intelligence programming.” They included their first screenshot, which is the image above.

David Anfossi, Studio Head at Eidos Montreal, said, “The technology behind any game is a key component in ensuring that gamers are able to develop both an emotional and visceral connection to what they are experiencing within the game world… We’ve worked tirelessly over the last few years developing this engine, building upon and improving both the visual and immersive artistry in our games. We truly believe that our engine will help us to strengthen both the gameplay and storytelling experiences we strive to create.”

The in-game screenshot above is gorgeous, and we look forward to seeing more of what the new Dawn Engine (and Deus Ex Universe) can achieve.