As with all major games to date, at some point a live action trailer is released. Today was the turn of Square-Enix and Eidos-Montréal as they revealed their Live Action Trailer for the much-anticipated Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. This trailer takes us into the world of Deus Ex, providing us with an insight into how things have changed since the original events in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. How the human race shifted from the golden era of augmentation to the Mechanical Apartheid.
In the year 2027, mechanically augmented people all over the world suffered from extreme psychotic delusions, lost control of themselves, and started attacking people. Millions died and hundreds of thousands were injured and maimed. Society became divided by hatred, prejudice, and fear, with many countries enacting harsh laws. The most notable of these laws was the highly controversial “Human Restoration Act”, aimed at isolating “Augs” and keeping them away from “Naturals”.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will launch on August 23rd 2016 for Xbox One.
Square-Enix® and Eidos®-Montréal have released a brand new trailer for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. In this official 101 trailer Adam Jensen, who we all know from previous games, takes us on a short investigation allowing us to gain insight into the storyline behind the game. We get to learn about Jensen’s improved augmentations and see brand new footage of his apartment and new locations in Europe and Prague.
Jensen must choose who to trust, in order to unravel a vast worldwide conspiracy and whether going rogue or by the book, choices never come without consequences.
Along with the latest trailer comes information about the various editions that will be available to buy.
BOXED EDITIONS (Xbox One)
Day One Edition – £54.99 / €69.99
o Extra in-game mission
o Covert agent packs: this pack contains a compilation of in-game items, including various weapons, re-skins, and upgrades. Using the wide variety of items included in this pack, you will be able to both sport a custom look, and obtain additional tools to support your play style of choice
o Digital OST Sampler
o Digital Books (Mini Artbook + Novella + Comic book)
Collector’s Edition – £109.99 / €129.99
o All Day-One Edition content
o Exclusive Black and Gold Prism box
o 9” Adam Jensen Figurine
o 48-Page Artbook
o Steelbook
DIGITAL EDITION (Xbox One)
Digital Standard Edition – £49.99 / €69.99
o Extra in-game mission
o Covert agent packs: This pack contains a compilation of in-game items, including various weapons, re-skins, and upgrades. Using the wide variety of items included in this pack, you will be able to both sport a custom look, and obtain additional tools to support your play style of choice
Digital Deluxe Edition – £74.99 / €99.99
o All Digital Standard Edition content
o Season Pass
Deux Ex: Mankind Divided can now be pre-ordered on the Xbox Live online store. Anyone who secures these Digital Editions will receive the Digital OST Sampler, Digital Novella, Digital Mini Artbook, and a Digital Comic Book.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will launch on August 23rd 2016 for Xbox One and the Season Pass will also be available to buy on the same day.
The Ultra Edition of Killer Instinct’s Season 1 heads up the New Year for Games with Gold on Xbox One. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 gets DiRTy with DiRT Showdown – remember to download this via xbox.com – which will be making its way to the Xbox One’s backwards compatible list, as do all Xbox 360 titles released on the Games with Gold program.
From January 16th, Xbox One owners will be able to get a brand new title, Zheros and Xbox 360 gets Deus Ex Human Revolution.
January’s games need little introduction save one… Zheros. Check out the ID@Xbox GDC trailer below – Streets of Rage anyone?
Square Enix and Eidos would like to know your thoughts on their proposed content for the Collector’s Edition of Deus Ex Mankind Divided.
There are ten options to choose from – like a lunchbox, similar to the Fallout 3 Collector’s Edition, or a material tattoo sleeve so you too can have a bionic arm. You can select the three that you like the most (in order of preference) then wait to see which ones make the final cut!
Square Enix have confirmed rumours of a new Deus Ex title today by announcing that, the direct sequel for the 2011’s title.
Mankind Divided will be set in 2029, a whole two years later than the previous title, where you will once again revive the role of the returning, Adam Jensen, who has new abilities such as remote hacking, a projectile ‘Nano blade’ , and a Nano shield (which is said to be pretty much impenetrable, according the blurb)
If you have played and finished, Human Revolution and had one of the four endings possible in that game, you will be disappointed to hear that your actions seemingly won’t carry over to Mankind Divided.
We’re yet to get a launch date for the game, so expect to see more about this game in the coming months.
TiX Crowd Funding Spotlight is our latest weekly feature showcasing a selection of projects on the likes of Kickstarter and IndieGoGo that are either being primarily developed for Xbox platforms including Xbox Games for PC/Windows Phone or include stretch goals that will see the project released onto either of those platforms.
In our first weekly edition we have an old PlayStation game ‘Fan Edition’ looking to make its way to Xbox One. A 2006 Xbox 360 classic looking for a revival. An RPG drawing inspiration from Thief, Deus Ex, BioShock, Skyrim and Dragon Age and finally a fan art book looking to raise money in the fight against cancer.
Strength of the SWORD ULTIMATE
Originally a PS3 game, Strength of the Sword gathered a massive following. Now Ivent Games, a two-man team, are hoping to re-release this ultimate fan edition on as many platforms as possible.
The entire original game is ported and polished as part of the new ULTIMATE game. Every location, every blood-thirsty monster from the original campaign will be back with as much bite if not more. New features include a PvP mode, CO-OP mode, Dark mode (hinted at as an awesome asymmetrical PvP marathon!) and an extended single player mode bringing the new ideas of Ivent Games to fruition.
Towards the end of the week, Ivent Games dropped the stretch goal for a current gen console release from $100,000 to $82,000 but there is a catch… backers of the project need to vote here for their console of choice. The winning console, well wins. To see this project released on Xbox One, click the link just gone and get voting!. Currently they’ve raised just shy of $51,449 and have 9 days left. Having passed $43,000 the game will see a release on PS Vita and the Wii U, which although we are happy for Ivent Games we want to help push them to Xbox One. So check out the project using this link and donate if you’d like to see an Xbox One release.
Crystal Quest Classic
Crystal Quest Classic is a revival of the 1987 award-winning video game. The original was played on almost every Macintosh computer in existence before being ported to the Apple IIgs, Amiga and the Game Boy – followed many years in 2006 by a reawakening on the Xbox 360.
All the addictive levels and mesmerising gameplay of the original have been retained in the design of Crystal Quest Classic. The goal is to match the mechanics of the original with even better sound and graphics. Plus the developers want to get it on as many platforms as possible. Although the initial plan is to release it for PC, Mac and Linux, with a little more support and funding Crystal Quest could see itself back on the Xbox platform.
Crystal Quest Classic has only managed to raise just short of $3,000 towards their $14,000 target. That said there are still 7 days left to back the project. So check out the full project page on Kickstarter here support them if this revival is up your street.
Game Artists unite to battle cancer
Gamer for Life is a Fan Art Tribute book. 283 game artists came together and donated 476 art pieces to be used in this campaign to raise funds for the fight against cancer. In 2012 Kevin, a game developer at Blizzard was diagnosed with stage four Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma, an incredibly rare cancer with no cure and no clear treatment path. This project came to be when those close to Kevin decided they had to do something for their friend and fellow game developer, Kevin Kenai Griffith (KKG). Unfortunately in Oct. 2014 KKG passed away, as the content for the book was completed.
The initial goal for the funds raised by the book was to cover Kevin’s medical expenses. When Kevin passed he had no unpaid medical expenses. Gamers for Good were able to financially support his memorial event. Now 4 months on, word has spread beyond those with personal connections to Kevin and gained interest from around the globe. Artists from Blizzard, Riot, Carbine, Activision, Microsoft, Ready at Dawn, GREE, Tencent, Turtle Rock and many more have all come together to contribute to this book.
In order to try to stay as close to the original intent of the project, the organisers we will be splitting proceeds of this campaign between 2 charities in KKG’s memory; Games Changers and CureASPS. With 18 days left this project is almost there having raised $38,847 of the $40,000 target. Donators will receive a variety of thank you gifts so check out the project page on IndieGoGo and donate what you can.
Underworld Ascendant
And finally another project that caught our eye was Underworld Ascendant the rekindling of the Underworld universe. Ultima Underworld (and Ultima Underworld II) are fantasy RPGs that influenced RPG titles like Neverwinter Nights, Skyrim and even BioShock. The project has been picked up by The OtherSide Entertainment who between them have worked on over 25 award-winning games like Deus Ex, Neverwinter Night, Dishonoured, Medal of Honor, Uncharted, Last of Us, BioShock Infinite and many more.
Far more than a dungeon crawler, Underworld Ascendant features a dynamic, player driven narrative, an improvisation engine, intense combat and inventive magic, create your own character class feature and new ‘stretch RPG’ mechanics.
Although not immediately set for a console release, they have a mystery stretch goal yet to be announced. One has to hope that the team with their experience of releasing titles like Dishonoured and BioShock Infinite will make the jump to console, now that would be the perfect final stretch goal. I for one would love to see Underworld Ascendant make it that far.
With 5 days to go until the project runs out of time, The OtherSide Entertainment have managed to raise just their initial target of $600,000 towards development. You can check out the full KickStarter page here including additional detail, concept art and videos.
Square Enix Europe has filed a word trademark for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided under the computer software, video-game software and online computer games services. This is an obvious assumption the next title in the Deus Ex series will be Mankind Divided with online multiplayer functionality.
The trademark was spotted by eagle-eyed NeoGaf members and can be viewed in more detail on the OHIM website although nothing specific about the game or it’s story can be sourced from the information given. If you cast your memory back to October 2013 – you may recall that Deus Ex Universe was announced and confirmed for Xbox One by Studio Head David Anfossi:
For now, I hope you are excited about the future of this game that we love so much. Deus Ex is coming to next-gen, it’s early so don’t expect to hear much more from us just yet, but I wanted you to know.
It would seem likely that Mankind Divided fits into the Universe and I wouldn’t expect a lot more information about the game just yet. With E3 2014 now just a mere few months away (I know where has the time gone?) I would start thinking about the reveal around May/June this year.
Developed by Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix, Deus Ex Human Revolution was released on Xbox 360 back in 2011. For me and many others, it was a strong contender for game of the year and was a refreshing return to the classic style of allowing the player to control how they chose to play the game by not limiting the choices in gameplay style and giving the level of freedom of movement in order to explore the world presented in the game. This Director’s Cut is a release of the original game with its DLC ‘The Missing Link’ now incorporated into the story instead of being a separate add on and the issues found with the original game in terms of boss battles now tweaked and improved on.
Human Revolution is set in the year 2027, 25 years before the events of the original Deus Ex game released back in 2000. Multinational Companies have grown powerful, even stronger then World Governments. Advances in science have allowed human cybernetic augmentations with Sarif Industries the leading Biotechnology Corporation in the World. In fear of the potential threat of protests against the use of augmentation by political movement Humanity Front, Sarif Industries hire ex swat member Adam Jensen as Head of Security.
The opening to the game leads the player into the role of Adam Jensen who escorts Megan Reed, (Head of Research for Sarif Industries) through the research labs giving the player a look into the biotechnology being looked into including a military project Typhoon system, on route to a meeting with David Sarif (founder and leader of the corporation). Terrorist’s attack and Adam finds himself battling through the facility never coming in direct contact, but able to see the attackers who are all all augmented soldiers. As Adam makes it to Megan’s office he is brutally sideswiped and literally hit through a wall leading to multiple injuries and the prologue ends with a gunshot to the head finally putting Adam down. The story then picks up six months later with Adam having undergone major augmentation surgery in order to save his life and called back from recovery early in order to deal with a hostage situation at a Sarif Industries plant.
The opening serves as both an introduction to the world of Deus Ex but also a tutorial for the movement and combat in the game. It shows off a cyberpunk world very much in the tone of Sci Fi greats like Blade Runner and very much in the familiar style of the Deus Ex series.
The beauty of Deus Ex Human Revolution is its open choice world. The player can upgrade and add new levels of skills via the augmentation that can be catered to suit whichever play style the player has in mind. The game has four key areas for augmentation. Combat, Stealth, hacking and Social. There are augments available in each category that can be enhanced during the game for stronger abilities that will aid in any situation the game throws at you. It is the theme of ‘choice’ that runs through everything in Human Revolution. As the player you choose which and how you upgrade your augmentations, you choose the style of play using more stealth or guns blazing combat or a blend of the two. It is rewarding which ever style you pick up but for me, going for stealth and a non lethal style of combat gave the game more of an edge.
The freedom to choose goes beyond more than just character development and combat. The environment itself also provides multiple choices for the player. If a mission calls for you to enter a building surrounded by enemies you can choose to try and infiltrate the building using stealth by discovering different entry points such as roof access or discovering a ventilation system access that will avoid encountering the enemy. Or you can take out the enemy and hack your way into a building. The hacking mini game is made easier with augment levelling up in the right areas or with tools collected alone the way such as viruses you can use in the mini game to hamper the security program or to speed up your hacking. Doors, computers and security systems can be hacked and it is an integral part of the game’s style. I found it quite tedious at times especially when it came to hacking computers, hoping to find some secret to add to the experience but often only to find mundane emails which added nothing to the actual story but had me using up various programmes collected.
Interacting with characters can open conversation chains that will help uncover information which can be used later in the game. Choosing the right reply is key to gaining such information, and it is something that some of the side missions you can undertake in the game rely on. Sometimes you will be asked to get information from characters but choosing the incorrect response can lead to that character refusing to help you any further. Reading the character right is paramount to gauging which responses will be the most successful although in some circumstances, even failing the conversation will not mean failure in the side mission as the game can offer other ways to obtain the information such as discovering the character’s apartment, gaining entry and then hacking their personal computer station and reading emails that will reveal the information needed.
Human Revolution has lost none of its greatness in the two years since its original release. The story and freedom of player choice still stand out as best examples of their use in an RPG of this generation of gaming and returning to it after two years for me as a player still felt fresh. The Directors Cut did improve upon the boss battles as far as the enemy AI has been fine tuned to give a better fight for the player then just throwing grenades but sadly the Typhoon system the player can augment their Adman Jensen with still makes the battles a quick affair. Visually the game is one of the best on the Xbox 360 and one of the most poignant musical scores in a game.
Sadly not all the new additions to Human Revolution work well though. The game now comes on two discs instead of one, and there is no option to install them to the console hard drive (either from the disc or even from the dashboard) which means you have to put up with the noise of the disc spinning in the drive during play unless you use a gaming headset. With the game being on two discs means some disc swapping and rather annoying load times for game sequences. Smartglass was also added to the game, so that the hacking parts, entering codes and reading emails could all be viewed on a Smartglass device, but sadly I never managed to get the ‘Dual Play’ mode to work! The Smartglass on my Windows Phone just would not trigger the features and the game sadly lacked an option to just turn it on.
Deus Ex Human Revolution: The Director’s Cut is a must have for any Xbox 360 collection, the original version certainly was and despite the new two disc format and lack of working Smartglass feature, with the DLC now incorporated into the main story, this is the most complete version of one of the best RPG’s on Xbox 360 this generation. The story is rich and dark, plenty of choices which leads to replay value to see how other choices would affect the game and with up to 20 hours of gameplay in a playthrough, this version is definite value for money for RPG fans.
A story on 360Magazine this morning reveals that Eidos does indeed intend to continue the Deus Ex franchise on Xbox One.
In a chat with 360Magazine, Studio Head David Anfossi said the following:
“For now, I hope you are excited about the future of this game that we love so much. Deus Ex is coming to next-gen, it’s early so don’t expect to hear much more from us just yet, but I wanted you to know.”
With only the above piece of concept art to show, there is an awful lot left for us to ponder and ask questions about. I for one am extremely excited and will make sure we bring you all the updates over the coming weeks and months.
Ah, stealth. The art of sneaking around and using nothing but your reactions and wit to overcome the towering obstacles in your way. There’s nothing quite like a good stealth game. Great stealth like Metal Gear Solid, Tenchu, Hitman, Deus Ex and not so much these days but Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell is hard to come by in this day and age. Enter Dark, a new stealth-based game published Kalypso Media and developed by Realmforge Studios. Now Dark might sound like an amazing prospect to the uninitiated. It’s a vampire stealth game. That means using the shadows to your advantage while teleporting toward your prey and sap their rich from their veins. Sounds amazing, right? Very, very wrong. More on how terrible the game is as we go on.
The story centres around Mr. Eric Bane, a poor gent who just so happens to be a newly turned vampire. Get this, he has amnesia! The story is riveting already. Eric soon learns that his transformation is not yet fully complete. In other words, he hasn’t even reached his final form. In order to avoid becoming one of Nosferatu’s minions, Eric must drink the blood of his sire. The game then becomes who’s who of tired clichés. Such as angels appearing to him, leading young Eric down the righteous path. It is the angel that sets blood-sucking Eric Bane on a journey to recover his lost memory, a journey that will either see him revert back to his human form, stay as he is, or turn into a hapless ghoul from a Blade movie. Dark’s story is as dull as anything you have ever played. The characters you meet along the way do nothing to stimulate the story, or evoke any kind of emotion from the player. It’s as if there is no personality in this game whatsoever.
Enough story bashing, let’s talk about the awesome gameplay. Or how it’s not awesome at all…not even a little bit. So this is a stealth-action game, that means lots of hiding, sneaking, and quiet killing. You’ll find an abundance of furniture and chest-high walls to call your home due to this. Moving in and out of cover is easy enough. You can lock on to a piece of cover while already being in cover, and simply teleport straight to the next bit without being seen. The issue with this is that sometimes the game will simply bug out and throw you to the far right, far left, on top of, or literally inside the piece of cover you’ve intended to hide behind. There is a nifty feature called vampire vision. This allows you to see through walls and slow down time to help attain what your plan of attack will be. This is the only part of the game that works as it should. It’s not innovative or new, it just works.
The problem with the stealth in Dark is that there is no surprise, only routine. Games like Splinter Cell or Deus show that sometimes having a plan of attack may not be enough. There might always be one enemy you’ve neglected to highlight who can send your entire plan astray. So having an escape route and or means of cutting off any kind of alarm system is key. Not here, there is only route learning and killing. Plus most of the other top stealth games I mentioned before have several means of completing a mission or route. To this day I’m still seeing things I could’ve done on Hitman: Blood Money and Absolution that I had absolutely no idea about. In Dark, there will only ever be one option, or the other. The main problem with the stealth aspect of the game is that it’s so repetitive it becomes a borefest. There may be one saving grace that could attract certain niche market of gamers. The game can be hard, very hard. But that’s not because of any kind of actual difficulty implemented into the game’s system. It’s because sneaking up behind an enemy and simply stealth killing them is a chore. The button prompt to kill your foe doesn’t appear until you are basically touching their backside, and sometimes you actually are touching their backside. This prompts all of Dr. Evil’s henchman to sound the alarm and shoot you with their…”lasers” (there are no lasers, but there’s gotta be something fun associated with the game). No, they just raise an alarm and shoot you dead because there is nowhere you can hide where they will not find you. There is no plan B, there is only succeed at this thing, or die a slow vampiric death.
We’re not quite finished yet; Dark has broken another one of gaming’s golden rules. RPG elements where they do not belong. Getting through areas without being detected and getting kills will award you with XP. For every thousand points of experience, you earn something called a ‘power point’ that will allow you to upgrade whatever power takes your fancy.
There’s not much to be said for how the game looks. There is a comic book/noir type feel to the game. This basically means cel-shaded with neon lights, for the modern era. It’s not great looking; it’s just not bad looking. This is probably the most positive thing I have to say about the entire game. The voice acting is bad, real bad. It’s not the kind of bad you can forgive like a dub gone wrong on a Japanese game, or voice acting so terrible it’s funny like Shenmue. The delivery was poor, like the actors were mumbling the words to themselves with no emotion as if they were at home reading a novel in their armchairs. I actually find it quite shocking that somebody oversaw the work that went into this and didn’t think to say “hey guys, do you mind sounding like people when you read these lines”. But then again, with the lines they were given, I’d probably phone it in too.
To sum it up, Dark is a horrible bore of a game. A genuine contender right alongside The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct for the worst game this year. The story extremely boring and predictable. The only fun came from me switching it up between doing a horrible Tom Hardy impersonation every time the name Bane was mentioned, and pretending the character was actually called Eric Bana. The gameplay is rigid and broken. Stealth barely works, and when it doesn’t, combat doesn’t work either. The sounds and voice acting are some of the worst I have ever heard in a game, and it’s just a 9+ hour agonising struggle to get through.
If you’re a stealth enthusiast, just play any of the other stealth games you’ve already completed a thousand times rather than this. You’re guaranteed to have a better time. If you’re a vampire enthusiast, just watch Twilight. Seriously, Twilight is a much better time than Dark.
Basically, stay away from Dark. Do not buy Dark, and kill Dark with fire.
