The finale of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided wasn’t much-loved by fans, which was surprising because you’d think Deus Ex: Human Revolution would have lowered expectations. But it’s like the classic bad restaurant joke, where the food’s terrible and what’s worse, the portions are small. Mankind Divided’s climax wasn’t just an underwhelming battle against a guy who seemed more like a miniboss—when the credits suddenly roll afterward you realize you’re not going to get a second hub city and another dozen hours of hacking people’s emails to find out if they’re in the Illuminati or not. It’s just over.
Mark Cecere, a writer on both Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, was recently interviewed by From Script to Life (via Kotaku), and agreed with much of the criticism of the ending. “It’s definitely not finished,” he said, explaining that final villain Marchenko was originally intended to be “the halfway boss” and after defeating him you’d get to travel to the augmented city of Rabi’ah. “He was never the brains behind the thing, right? He’s the muscle. To me that’s why it feels unsatisfying.”
Mankind Divided had a rough time in development, with Eidos-Montréal splitting resources between the singleplayer campaign and a tacked-on multiplayer mode. “We had to chop the game up a lot because of studio problems and funding and all that stuff,” Cecere says. “I don’t disagree with most of the criticism, especially when it comes to the ending.”
While the questions left hanging by Mankind Divided might have been answered by a sequel, the odds of actually getting one seem low. Eidos-Montréal instead went on to develop Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (speaking of games I’d love to see get a sequel) before being acquired by Embracer Group. While development of a new Deus Ex game apparently picked up at Embracer, a couple of years later it vanished in a sea of layoffs.
“I was not involved,” Cecere says of the Deus Ex game in development under Embracer, “though I was in contact with people to try and get back in and be on the team. And then it went away. I would have loved to be there to finish it off, but so far no news since then.”