Five new Deus Ex: Mankind Divided abilities revealed

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided received a scattering of videos at E3 this week. The E3 trailer set up more plot and showed some in-engine action, and we saw the first gameplay footage at The PC Gaming Show. That means we know a bit more about what sullen bionic supersoldier Adam Jensen can do. There's a new UI, a new energy system, and homing knuckle tasers that can quietly neutralise guards. Let's take a look.

There's a new energy system

Human Revolution's batteries are gone! Before we get to the abilities let's examine the resource that will let us use them. From the looks of the in-game demo shown at the PC Gaming Show, when you activate cloak a chunk of energy is consumed. Moving while cloaked then continuously saps a portion of recoverable energy that restores when you pop out of cloak. It's not clear how you restore that chunk of completely consumed energy—Human Revolution's energy bars could yet return.

The new system seems to give you a lot more juice than Human Revolution's system, though the energy bar could be super-filled for the purposes of the demo. The short-term recoverable energy seems designed to limit your abilities in a particular fight, while the long-term erosion will encourage item-usage and resource management over the course of a level.

Jensen has a high-tech dash move

In a fizz of gold electricity Jensen shoots up to the second floor. You can see the relevant dash ability icon turn red at the bottom corner of the screen, which suggests that abilities will have cooldowns as well as an energy cost. The same electrical effect seems to apply to Jensen's explosive landing in the E3 trailer. Is this a dash upgrade, or a more aggressive version of the Icarus Landing System?

Jensen can become bullet-proof

The blocky shield effect you see at the end of the Mankind Divided debut trailer is indeed an in-game ability. It's called the Titan Shield, and appears to give Jensen temporary bullet immunity by turning him into a black chunk of militarised quartz. You can evidently still move and shoot with the shield active, making it a very useful option for loud players.

Armblades can pin enemies to walls

You can shoot your killer arm-chisels at enemies in Mankind Divided. You have a limited supply of armblades (where is Jensen getting them from?) but they seem to kill instantly while granting you an experience boost for a "close shave". More importantly they can pin enemies to walls, which jeopardises any intentions I had of performing a ghost run. It's functionally a stake gun, and we love stake guns.

Augmented vision can see enemy loot

This shot from the E3 trailer shows that Jensen's wallhack vision mode can see what enemies are carrying. You might need to buy an upgrade to add this feature, but it could be very useful if you're looking for a particular keycard. As in Human Revolution, it can see through walls and highlight enemies, and the mode looks a lot cleaner than it did in Human Revolution.

Homing knuckles can target multiple enemies

You have a limited stock of charges, but your retractable taser knuckles can KO multiple enemies at the same time, giving quiet players a way to pacify a whole room of guards. It's a powerful option, so I'd be surprised if the full homing attack is available right away. Perhaps you'll have to unlock extra tasers, one knuckle at a time.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is due out early next year. Are there any abilities you'd like to see carried over from Human Revolution?

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.