Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was already one of our favorite games of last year, but both add-ons in Jensen's Stories have kept the game feeling fresh long after release. "A Criminal Past" was a bit more enjoyable than "System Rift" if only because "System Rift" took place in the same confines as the main campaign, and this new DLC lets us see someplace new and different we haven't been exploring for hours on end already. Whatever Square and Eidos have in store for Deus Ex in the future, "A Criminal Past" and Mankind Divided show there are plenty of ways to keep us coming back for more.
Criminal Past is a great finale for Mankind Divided, and only makes the desire for more Deus Ex stronger. The ending is pretty open, and with faces new and old it does a great job of giving us something different while being faithful to the franchise.
This DLC is longer than the others and tells a more complete, believable, and exciting story. It’s one part Deus Ex and two parts Prison Break (the first season... the good one). I can’t say enough about how much I loved the story coming together the way it did. You feel like you know what’s going on, but gradually things get more and more violent and chaotic, right up until the end. This is easily the best DLC for this game or the prequel.
An outstanding DLC with top quality voice acting and writing. Gameplay and level design is also top notch with great replayability! I was really impressed by this DLC, highly recommended!
The new Deus Ex: Mankind Divided DLC offers a nice, challenging experience for the player, thanks to a rich and complex new mission, a hefty level design (whereas the prison setting fits perfectly) and a lot of choices that favour the stealth gameplay.
If you think about Mankind Divided, A Criminal Past feels like a more of the same: the plot is nothing special and the level design is not as brilliant as it was in the main game, but the prison is a fascinating scenery and the way you have to deal with the lack of augmentations make things way more interesting.
A Criminal Past is a decent last hurrah for Mankind Divided. Its story is fine, but doesn't really add to what's come before. However, the Penthouse is a wonderfully designed and unique level that's well worth exploring for the half-dozen or so hours you're there. It also cleverly demotes your abilities, forcing you to change up your approach. It's a strong effort that tries a lot of new things, and while it's certainly not essential, a little more Deus Ex is always welcome.
Upon seeing the mixed score, I've decided to say a few words in defense of the Criminal Past.
This DLC to Deus Ex Mankind Divided is so consistently (that's important) good that I'd probably say it is better than the main game. Where MD could fall to being boring at times, CP keeps the bar throughout the experience.
Firstly, story-wise it is entirely self-contained, with a whole set of new characters, and from my point of view, it's great. As I'm not a hardcore fan of the series and I didn't beat Human Revolution (got bored at some point and abandoned it), MD's plot at times didn't make a lot of sense to me and I probably didn't catch many references to the other games. CP, on the other hand, could easily serve as an entry point into the Deus Ex universe. The plot itself isn't too original, but it works well.
But what I mainly enjoyed is the non-linearity that fully shows here. CP is finally a proper "immersive sim" experience that Deus Ex should be, much like Dishonored or Prey. You are basically placed in a quite sizeable sandbox with numerous sideways, vent shafts, corridors, etc., so there are always many ways of to complete your objective There is also plenty of optional stuff, and exploration is well-rewarded - while you start off without any augs or equipment, by exploring the prison's corners you can eventually get your full arsenal back. Another welcome change is that there is much less emphasis placed on hacking things, as that mini-game got old pretty fast.
From the downsides I'd note that this add-on is a bit buggy, as I experienced a couple of crashes while playing.
Anyway, in my opinion, A Criminal Past is a great DLC that's a must-have for the owners of the original game.
A Criminal Past allows you to be able to play it in two different ways, but often times the level design can feel like it demands both. There is also a really bad game-breaking bug in which it stops auto-saving after a certain point, and doesn't allow you to manually save. Luckily I was able to survive the entire second half in which the DLC had already started breaking. Maybe I'm the only one who experienced this. Regardless, it hurt my opinion of the expansion as a whole.
I wanted to give this a positive score, but I just can't ignore the messy and confusing level design of it compared to the main game and System Rift, along with a possible broken save system. It does have a ton of replayability and different outcomes in regards to the story, but you will most likely not want to play through it more than once with the severity of it's flaws in gameplay.
4/10
SummaryExperience Adam Jensen’s first mission for TF29, set before the events of Mankind Divided. Posing as a convicted criminal, Jensen is transferred deep into a hostile, high-security prison for augmented felons. His mission: Track down and retrieve sensitive information from a fellow undercover agent who has gone dark. Success will help the...