Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - System Rift For Mac

The Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Season Pass, which is composed of Narrative DLCs and in-game items, is loaded with content that will help to further flesh out the lore of the Deus Ex Universe. Here is what it contains: Two new story DLC’s - “System Rift” and “A Criminal Past”. Deus Ex thrives within constrained design.System Rift is characterised by a singular goal: infiltrate the well-guarded Palisade Blades bank. Because this is a standalone experience, Jensen is stripped of his augments and the player is given a handful of Praxis kits with which to re-spec. Belltower Hires Ex-Military Soldiers. Wide-ranging cutbacks in the British, American, German, and Russian military put many trained soldiers out of work; Belltower cherry-picks the best of these soldiers to bolster its own forces. Advance further into the Deus Ex Universe with two gripping new stories, and for an extra edge load up on state-of-the-art weapons and items. System Rift: Re-unite with Frank Pritchard, Adam’s friend and former colleague at Sarif Industries, and assist him in hunting down information on the mysterious Santeau Group. Deus Ex Mankind Divided System Rift DLC Trailer Follow me on Twitter - SUBSCRIBE - Subscribe to MKIce.

• • Platforms:
  PC | PS4 | XBO |
• Developer: Eidos Montreal
• Publisher:Square Enix
• Release: August 23, 2016

It has been just over a month since Deus Ex: Mankind Divided hit store shelves and already Square Enix is not only releasing brand new story content for the game, but charging for it. When other RPGs such as Dark Souls 3 and The Witcher 3 take close to half a year before new content starts rolling out, or even Destiny which is basically an annualized franchise at this point, Eidos Montreal is wasting no time getting the ball rolling. The first is more of a throwback to Human Revolution than anything else out there as Adam Jensen is approached by former colleague Francis Pritchard, a somewhat egomaniac individual who worked for Sariff Industries under their cyber-security division, who is in need of some help. Since Jensen is in Prague, it only seems right to help an old “friend,” even though that means breaking into another Palisade bank and hacking into their servers to recover valuable information. While this brings Jensen to yet another location with a plethora of possibilities, System Rift seems to suffer from a lot of the problems Mankind Divided had.

Access to System Rift can be found in Jensen’s Stories, a subsection in the main menu instead of integrated right into the core experience, and this can be a bit puzzling. The big concern with a piece of DLC coming out so quickly is whether or not that content could have been implemented as a side quest. The answer isn’t entirely clear as the location Jensen heads to in the world is brand new, but quite limited in scale. It could have easily been added as an optional train ride, similar to that of one of the earliest missions in Mankind Divided. It’s a very sectioned off location, to the point where Jensen doesn’t retain any of his abilities, and is instead left with a handful of praxis kits and weapons. To a degree this brings out the best in System Rift as our protagonist becomes far more vulnerable, especially if you’re used to a supped-up, post-game Jensen, so working around the limitations becomes a thoughtful challenge. At the same time, it would have been great for everything that occurs in System Rift to count towards the overall progress, as in the end it feels unnecessary.

Similar to Mankind Divided, the biggest problem with System Rift is the story. It does incorporate everyone’s favorite Pritchard and even brings in The Breach’s ShadowChild in a small visual role, but other than the catering to Human Revolution fans, there’s not a lot of intrigue surrounding the plot. Pritchard approaches Jensen in hopes of obtaining help accessing servers within a new Palisade location so he can steal some information, but nothing ever goes as planned. Surprise surprise, Palisade isn’t the shining beacon of hope they’re made out to be, but we already knew this from playing through the main campaign. What’s here is well written and acted, but there’s very little that expands the Deus Ex universe that we didn’t already know.

Probably the best part of System Rift, though, is the multi-floored Palisade office that’s constantly being patrolled by armed guards, with some office workers spliced throughout. This is an interwoven location that requires a good amount of skill to get through, and even more so, contains plenty of exploration potential. After getting past this, though, things drop off a bit. The next areas are a little more unique as everything is heat sensitive, but it fails to utilize on the massive possibilities. There are simply turrets and drones that are setup to catch intruders, and blind to anything that radiate immense heat. There’s conveniently placed barrels and panels on the ground that hide Jensen from these mechanical death machines, but it would have been far more intriguing trying to avoid humans, some equipped with goggles that pick up only heat, and other regular guards. It seems like a wasted potential that could have led to some frantic moments. Jensen also goes into a terminal, taking over an avatar to solve a number of puzzles, similar to that of when Jensen had to impersonate Jim Miller in the story. This is one of the more interesting portions of the DLC, having the utilize a certain ability to uncover invisible platforms, but it’s over far too quickly.

Adom (ancient domains of mystery) crack.
Closing Comments:

System Rift is a short but sweet experience. Mankind Divided itself wasn’t incredibly lengthy, but when you take into consideration the last piece of post-release DLC we received in the Deus Ex universe, The Missing Link, this is far less appealing. The core content will run roughly two hours in length, with exploring every room and area extending the playtime by another hour. Fortunately, the general setup is well done. One of the biggest issues with Mankind Divided was the quest structure and progression, as the only mission that left a mark was Golem City. If this was somehow implemented within the main game, it would have been one of the more memorable missions. That’s not to say it’s without its flaws, though, as the latter section felt underutilized for the amount of potential there was there and the story lacked any satisfaction. Had Eidos Montreal added an extra couple of sections or puzzles, System Rift could have been something great.

Version Reviewed: PlayStation 4

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - System Rift For Mac Download

Deus Ex Mankind Divided App

Published on November 13th, 2016 | by Dakoda Barker

Summary: System Rift focuses on the strengths of Deus Ex to craft a satisfying stealth romp.

Deus Ex thrives within constrained design. System Rift is characterised by a singular goal: infiltrate the well-guarded Palisade Blades bank. Because this is a standalone experience, Jensen is stripped of his augments and the player is given a handful of Praxis kits with which to re-spec. At first, I was critical of this—adjusting to a non-optimal Jensen again is difficult—but the reduced skill set forces the player to adapt and improve. Be smarter. No longer can Jensen just blunder down whichever path he arrives at first; he must seek out a path that his restricted augments can allow. And these different augments can drastically alter the path Jensen takes through the building.

Breaking into the Palisade Bank was one of the stronger elements of the main game. Revisiting this concept—but trimmed of the fat—is clever design. Mankind Divided struggled to do anything meaningful with its Aug Rights narrative and its absence from System Rift is only beneficial. Its replacement, moralising cyberpunk Robin Hood hackers, is not a significant improvement, but Jensen largely opts to ignore this in favour of the best bit: sneaking. While the multiple alternative pathways concept is not exactly new to Deus Ex, it does feel different in this context—outside of the scope of a larger game. In some ways, I suspect System Rift is testing the waters for future episodic Deus Ex games; episodic shouldn’t necessarily replace the traditional stealth RPG we have, but more of this tight, self-contained design would be an appreciated addition.

In System Rift, perhaps more than ever, the option of a lethal approach seems like a pointless inclusion. The joy comes from sneaking through vents, from avoiding patrols, from hacking computers and doors, from hiding unconscious bodies under staircases. Open combat, by comparison, is bland and unsatisfying. Stealth affords other benefits: the ability to eavesdrop on guards and Palisade employees, all of whom have fun dialogue. My most memorable moment: listening to a guard complain about the bank’s lack of danger, moments before I leap over a staircase, stun gun his partner, and then knock him out. Priceless.

The last—perhaps most shocking—point is that Adam Jensen has actual character. Mankind Divided robbed Jensen of a defined personality and made him a flat player-proxy. But with the return of Frank Pritchard, a man Jensen alleges to dislike, we see him experience some real, human emotions. Pritchard jokes about Jensen stopping to help random civilians; Jensen adamantly insists, to both Pritchard and hacker ShadowChild, that he won’t break into Palisade Blades—right up until the point where he does. It’s clear from these kinds of interactions that Jensen, the character, exists: he likes to help people, he likes to sneak into places. System Rift’s final interaction between Jensen and Pritchard even suggests that the surly, robotic demeanour is an act. At the very least, Jensen likes Pritchard far more than he’s willing to admit.

System Rift is a good sign for Deus Ex.

Game Details
Developer: Eidos Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: Stealth action role-playing game
Platform(s): PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC
Rating: MA15+