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'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' Gives Us One Of The Best Live-Action Game Trailers Ever

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Photo: Eidos-Montréal

Shame on me, I almost forgot about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which comes out this August, which is weird, considering Deus Ex: Human Revolution was my Game of the Year back in 2011. But now Eidos has come along with a new, breathtaking trailer that should get anyone and everyone excited about the sequel.

Deus Ex already has what I would consider the best game trailer of all time, in the form of the powerful Human Revolution trailer than ran ahead of that game’s launch. This one might get a few points knocked off for not featuring any actual game footage (or even cinematics), but even among a recent trend of games making high-quality, live-action trailers, this one stands out.

While not introducing specific characters from the upcoming game, nor showing hero Adam Jensen at all, the trailer serves as a powerful introduction to the war-torn world of Mankind Divided, showing how “mechanical apartheid” is tearing the world apart after a hack causes “augmented” humans to go temporarily crazy, and therefore become untrusted by the general public and the government.

The spot focuses on a specific unnamed couple, the woman with an augmented arm, who tries to kill her husband during the hack. Over the course of the four minute spot, the two go through a wide range of emotions, from the shock of the hack, to the acceptance of the issue, to fear it could happen again, to horror when they’re finally ripped apart by new segregation laws. All of this is set against the backdrop of wider unrest in the world, and it’s set to yet another amazing soundtrack from composer Sascha Dikiciyan.

This is honestly one of the best game trailers I think I’ve ever seen, perhaps not for showing off the game itself, but for setting the stage? Absolutely. Hell, if you told me it was a movie trailer, it’s something I’d be seeing on opening night. No, the writing and acting isn’t quite A-list, but it’s really damn good all the same, and I’m not surprised that the game that gave me my favorite trailer of all time five years ago is backing trying to do it again today.

Watch the spot for yourself to see what I’m talking about. Whether or not you think live action trailers are “cheating” for games, it’s hard not to think this is pretty compelling as its own little piece of fiction.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is out August 23rd, 2016.

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