Mankind Divided takes place two years after Human Revolution (which itself was a prequel, set 25 years before the original Deus Ex). It once again stars augmented protagonist Adam Jensen, but much has changed in the time between the two games. At the end of Human Revolution, augmented humans — people with technological add ons that can often make them seem superhuman — went haywire, resulting in a massacre that left the rest of the population weary of the dangers of human augmentation. Human Revolution was set during a period described as the "cyber renaissance," a time when humanity was just realizing the possibilities of this burgeoning technology. Mankind Divided, meanwhile, is more like going back to the Dark Ages; augmented humans now live like outcasts, shuttered into ghettos away from the rest of society.

Story aside, Mankind Divided doesn’t stray too far from the formula laid down by Human Revolution. You still play as Jensen — now working for an anti-terrorist organization — using crazy augmentations to infiltrate areas and kill lots of bad guys. The difference is that Mankind Divided feels bigger, with more layers to dig through. "It really is what we did in Human Revolution, but plus plus," says executive art director Jonathan Jacques Belletête.

Who's the boss? Human Revolution was largely well received, but there was one aspect that was almost universally reviled: the boss fights. These big, tedious battles weighed down the experience, and felt disconnected from the rest of the game. They were especially frustrating for those who played the game in a non-combat role, focusing on stealth instead. Put simply, everyone hated them. "Like 80 percent of the criticism we received last time around was about the boss fights," explains Dugas. "That was an easy one [to fix], it was like this big elephant in the room. What is cool about this one, is that when we started to work on it, Human Revolution was out, the reviews were out, so we were receiving a lot of feedback. And just from that, you already have the building blocks for the next game in your mind."

This extends to virtually every aspect of the game. The areas you’ll explore feel more dense, with more things to do and places to go. During one portion of the game, which takes place in a grimy, rainy Prague slum, you’re tasked with infiltrating an old theater. Figuring out how to get inside is a problem with multiple solutions. The outside area is teeming with armed guards, including snipers on the roofs and a robot that looks like a cross between the ED-209 from the original Robocop and an AT-ST. On first inspection, it seems like an impossible task.

During a hands-on demo I tried multiple times to get in the front door. I used guns to get rid of guards, sound dampeners so that my mechanical legs were quiet when I ran, and even a cloaking feature so that I was literally invisible for brief periods. But I kept dying, over and over. Eventually, I gave up and decided to do some exploration. In a back alley I found a ladder that provided a clear view of the roof, where I could take out the pesky snipers with a tranquilizer (you don’t always have to kill in Deus Ex). I was then able to climb onto the roof, hack a security camera so I wouldn’t be spotted, and find a skylight I could slip down into. That was my ticket — from there I could pick off the guards inside without being seen, before delving deeper into the building.

Discovering a new path is thrilling. Clearly I’m not good at going the direct route, but Mankind Divided provides multiple options. If I hadn’t gone up the ladder, I could’ve snuck up to the roof using a cherry picker on the other side of the building. Or I could have turned on my shield and tried to shoot my way in. Once inside I kept discovering new paths through the theater; there were windows to jump through, hidden areas under the stage, and a locked back door that could be hacked if you weren’t spotted. The myriad options at your disposal depend somewhat on how you customize your character — I had access to premade load-outs with a focus on stealth and combat — but they mean that players will all have a different experience depending on how they like to play. "In terms of possibilities, I think there is more richness and there is more depth," Dugas says of the sequel.

This flexibility extends to the storytelling. While I didn’t get to try out this aspect of the game myself — in fact, the Prague demo had the narrative bits ripped out to focus on gameplay — the team says that your choices will play a much bigger role in Mankind Divided. Human Revolution featured moments of choice, but the impact on the overall story was minimal; things played out pretty much the same no matter what you did, with only minor variations. "We wanted to push that even further and have it so the decisions you’re making at the beginning could totally change things," explains Mary DeMarle, executive narrative director on the game. "You could meet a character early on, and depending on how you deal with that character, they may go away, but they may come back and that could totally alter something farther down the line."

"There is more richness and there is more depth."

Before working on the new Deus Ex games, DeMarle served as a writer on the third and fourth Myst games, as well as Homeworld 2, so she knows what it’s like to tackle an existing, beloved property. "At some points it’s daunting because you have to really understand the universe that you’re building in," she says. "Especially with something like Deus Ex, where you have fans who are so in love with the universe, and anything you do they’re looking at you like ‘How dare you!’ There’s always that little fear inside of you. At some point you have to just shut out those voices from outside."