Plenty of more keyed-in writers have tackled the tone-deaf approach to storytelling before Deus Ex: Mankind Divided even came out. The game validates the criticism leveled against the marketing, where "mechanical apartheid" and "augs lives matter" were bandied about, by not only fence-sitting on the very real issue of prejudice its creators so strongly believed they were handling seriously, but also by doing nothing interesting via interaction that has a tangible effect on the player. It's really hard to feel oppression when you're a badass cyborg that can kill, sneak, or even hormonally influence your way through any obstacle.

Okay, so there is one thing of note that is successful in depicting systemic segregation through player interaction. When you need to fast travel to another point in the central hub, the objective marker always points you to the furthest panel in all of the train stations. I never questioned it and dutifully followed the waypoint. I forget why, but I decided one time to check a panel that's closer to the stairs and was mildly surprised it worked all the same. What jarred me to realization was that the loading animation differed from the single one that played out when you boarded the train from the far panel.

Instead of the usual group of tired-looking citizens with cybernetic prostheses keeping to themselves, Adam Jensen stood out in that crowded car of "naturals", with a little girl looking straight at him, the mother bringing her in closer while giving him the side-eye.

It's this tiny little detail, the compelling sidequests that are more fleshed out than the main plot, the bits and pieces of dialogue that hint at an odd sense of humor within Jensen's black trenchcoated robot heart, the depths of Prague that you can plumb for hours and still not discover everything, and the insane, game-changing yet totally plausible theory of the Jensen you're playing as is a clone(!) that keep Deus Ex: Mankind Divided from simply being a mechanically better sequel to Human Revolution.