In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, humanity is undergoing a drastic change thanks to “augments,” or powerful technological upgrades humans have implanted into their bodies. Think more powerful eyes to see better, or stronger artificial limbs to carry more and run faster. How does humanity react to all this revolution? Look no further than the subtitle to the game’s sequel: Mankind Divided.
In Mankind Divided, the world is still recovering from the Aug Incident, the day when millions of augmented humans were controlled through their augments to commit mass amounts of damage and destruction. This resulted in the deaths of more than 50 million people, and the world re-thinking policies on human augmentation.
Jean-Francois Dugas, the game director for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, talked with iDigitalTimes about the upcoming game, and his thoughts regarding human augmentation and the future of humanity.
“The first game is about the main character Adam Jensen coming to terms with his new augments and new abilities,” Dugas told iDigi. “He was not fully in control of who he was, and he was trying to accept it.”
The difference this time around, according to Dugas, is Jensen now accepts who (and what) he is. “For the new game, now he accepts he’s a weapon. He’s trying to take what he was given to make the most in the world and make a difference.”
This has some gameplay implications, because Jensen is now comfortable pushing himself towards becoming a better weapon. This is most seen in the updated combat.
“We worked a lot on combat to make it more impactful and more visceral,” said Dugas. The development team is aware players felt Human Revolution played too heavily towards stealth, and wants action gamers to find their niche as well.
“With the way we balanced the last one, it may have felt too reliant on stealth,” he said. “This time we’ve reworked that to make combat as much a viable option as it can be.”
Despite changes to combat and rebalancing encounters, Dugas and the team at Eidos Montreal still wanted to make sure that Deus Ex’s distinctive flavor was never lost with the changes. “We tried to make an updated and fresh experience, without getting too far away from the Deus Ex experience,” he said. “It was a balancing act between to get new features and maintain the ideas of the first game.”
As for real life, Dugas mentioned he thinks that augmentations aren’t just the future, they are already here.
“I believe in augmentations,” Dugas said. “When you look at humans, you can see how we’ve evolved through the ages. We started mastering fire and making tools and weapons. As scientific knowledge increased, we always found ways to improve ourselves.”
Dugas explained that, for a long time, the only option for people with weak eyesight was to wear glasses. Now, thanks to technology, anyone with bad eyes can have laser corrections done to improve their vision.
“With technology improving, getting faster and smaller, it’s just a question of time before we include all of those things within us,” he said. “Agree or disagree, I think it’s already starting to happen and will only continue.”
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided comes to PS4, Xbox One and PC on Aug. 23. To feel like an augmented human yourself, you can even play with an eye-tracking headset.
So what do you think? Are you interested in seeing the new changes coming to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided? Do you think Deus Ex-style augments are coming any time soon, or do you agree they’re already here? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
