One of the best bits of subtle design Mankind Divided does in the Prague hub is the checkpoints coming out of the train stations. You have to go through them practically every five minutes, and if you go through the non-augmented part of the checkpoint, you'll be stopped, scanned, and admonished for using the 'natural' part when you're augmented. At first, I made a point to defy the system and go through the route I was told not to - screw you, unjust prejudice! - but over time, this became annoying and slowed down my gameplay, so I got into the habit of just using the augmented section to speed things up. Then it hit me: I'd just essentially accepted the fact that an unjust system was dehumanising me (or my character) for the sake of convenience and safety. Instead of constantly pushing back, even when there was no actual consequence beyond inconvenience, I'd buckled under and stayed quiet. It's a brilliant illustration of how these systems work and how they force people into following them, even if those who aren't affected by them might think they'd fight back, and it's probably the best way in which Deus Ex uses its medium to illustrate its themes.

That is the least subtle No. 33 I've ever seen.

I love the game philosophy the original creator of Deus Ex had in mind.

The geometry of the streets in Prague are what is viewed by many to be good Urban Design in general. Older cities like Prague with a medieval and earlier structure are appreciated for their ability to organize all/most of one's real life spaces in walkable distances on streets proportioned with enough intimacy to notice the weave of lives that have made it their place. Human Revolution's successor demonstrates what we call good human scale. This sits in contrast to the city built for the car which might say something about how games with such models are best experienced in vehicles; GTA would be agonizing as a pedestrian and the detail while the human depth of Mankind Divided's Prague would barely be noticed as you'd drive past it in seconds. Even adding a few open parking lot parcels or widening the roads in Eidos' Prague would detract from the experience. The speed one travels through the city, real or game, heavily informs your level of engagement with it.

Adam Jensen approves.

FINE, I'll play Vampire before the year is out. Ya big bullies.

100% agree. I'm really sick of bland, gigantic open worlds. Depth over breadth any day.

IMO Mankind Divided is way too underrated.

Between this video and Super Bunnyhop's, the world/stealth systems/storytelling of Mankind Divided is really grabbing my interest. Is it necessary that I play Human Revolution first or could I just dive right into this?

I don't think it's a question of how small a world should be, but rather, the densty of the world. For as big as it is, I can remember about 80% of Bloodborne's city of Yharnam, and I think a level designer should be focusing more on what makes a place memorable, and then on how big to make the world.

This game deserves so much more praise. Deus ex is by far my favorite franchise that square enix owns the rights to. I really hope they make a 3rd chapter

Cyberpunk should have looked to this and Dishonoured for inspiration. Open Environments beats open world.

It's staring to get to the point where "Big world" is synonymous to "Bad Game" for me. Every time I hear a Dev emphasize how Big and expansive their game is I start to worry.

"Open world" has become less and less of a selling point. If you just have an objective in an open field, it absolutely does not matter how many angles you can approach it from, there's no meaningful difference. If you compress everything down and offer actual differing paths then that actually incorperates some decision making into your approach, not just "hm I can go left or right". Haven't played Mankind Divided yet but everything I hear about Prague sounds fantastic. Great vid. Also - those Majora's Mask and The Fly references, a man after my own heart.

Deus Ex's Prague atmosphere is hard to describe. It is a city you dont want to be in and even if you are an augmented secret agent, you still feel unnerved, and your mental and physical states shrinking as you explore at night.

Just finished this game, 48 hours registered (and I still didn't play the Jensen stories); I don't know why the press said this game was "short", I think we're dealing with people who rushes throught the main quest and think they saw everything. That's another point people usually underestimate: most of players don't know how to relish a game like this. When I installed Mankind Divided I've spent maybe 5 or 6 hours just getting inside apartments and appreciating the views - seriously, there is almost zero of reused textures in this game, it's amazing. Now the game sold poorly, we probably won't be seeing a sequel in the near future (IF at all), and even if it comes, it will probably be an open world, like they did with Shadow of The Tomb Raider.

Well, with world size (and this also applies to game length), here's a good way of putting it, I think: volume does not necessarily equal mass.

Small worlds where everything around the player is meaningful to the universe the game tries to build is infinitely more enjoyable than a large world where everything is just kind of "there" to a degree where it feels pointless. The only game I can think of where a game's world is big BUT meaningful at the same time is Fallout: New Vegas, that's a master class in world building without mentioning the characters, factions, sidequests, etc.

Holy Hell, I thought I was alone in this opinion. The past two Deus Ex games are both phenomenal games, I was convinced no corner of KZfaq shared my opinion. Fuck yeah, great video!

Here after CP2077 dropped. Man I didn't respect this game enough. Got to play it again.

Developers have a hard time knowing WHY they're using tools like open world. It's like writing in third person vs first person; or choosing a camera angle while directing. There's no objectively better option, but it's important to know the strenghs and weakneses of each one you have so you can capitalize on it to make a greater game. This is the difference between the success of Deus Ex and the failure of No Man's Sky. The former uses it's ingredients masterfully the same way a chef would, while the latter is more like a (bad) cook, picks and chooses arbitrarily from recipes and mix stuff up in a pot hoping it gets good.

So, that means that Deux Ex Mankind divided did the detective work better than LA Noire?

Its not about size, its about how you use it

I just completed this game yesterday and I'm pretty sure it's one of the best games ever made. Deserves way more prestige than it has. Every room is filled with detail. Everything is connected and everything you do matters. So impressed. Haven't played anything like it. I don't think I've ever played a game that recognizes the player's role in it to this extent.

It's interesting about No Man's Sky. It seems like a failed experiment, but like all experiments, we learn something. Could their procedurally generated tool be applied to something else? A smaller scale city that's different for every player, now that could be really interesting.

I wasn't a massive fan of the Prague setting just because it wasn't as immediately evocative to me as Hengsha or Detroit were in the previous game (although a lot of that could have just been down to the gold aesthetic GODDAMN THAT WAS SO GOOD WHY DID THEY GET RID OF IT). That said, this was a really interesting perspective on something that maybe gets lost in discussions of how badly the game fumbles its larger narrative. Thanks for this! Also I am very happy to see Yakuza talked about in any positive capacity so cheers for that too. gonnae go run a gangster orphanage brb

The island in The Witness is another example of this. What's funny is that nothing is named so you the player have to decide, "Okay, this is the swamp, where the tetris pieces are, and this is the beach, where the symmetry puzzles." You make your own mental labels and apply them to both the physical space you see and the maps you find.

6:37 Honestly, opening a map and manually charting a route with the details I have is something I personally find incredibly satisfying. It's almost a puzzle or test to me.

Mark, you REALLY have to play Gothic 2: Gold Edition. Especially considering the fact that ELEX is just right around the corner. It's 10 bucks on Steam but it's a truly insightful experience on how to build immersive worlds and stories in RPGs.

Perhaps you could make a video about hub areas in general like, Super Mario 64 or the older Lego games.

I loved to play Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, one of my favorites.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided to this day is an amazing game that doesn't get the credit that it deserves and the amount of detail the team at Eidos Montreal put into the game.

throwing in this one for big open worlds that really work - Shadow of the Colossus. It oddly feels small because of how empty it is, but it tells such a strong story with the environment. The land in the game is as much a character as anything else and really deserves particular praise for how well done it was.

Well, this is the video that pushed me over the edge. A new video of yours popping up in my feed is always one of the highlights of my day, the quality is so completely consistent, the content is always fascinating and entertaining... So, looks like I'm making a Patreon account. #GMTK

This is the exact philosophy that pulled me into Prey. The small stories I could make out just by putting pieces together made a psychopathic trip through a space station 50% horror themed and the other 50% tour guide/explorative driven

I love old Gothic games (1st and 2nd). The way that open world worked was connected to rpg elements. You start the game in dangeorus world, powerless, forced to sneak and avoid stronger enemies, while hunting smaller beasts for limited loot and xp. So you had to learn not the terrain or layout, but all monsters hideouts, all safe paths between them. And later, when you get your gear and skills, you'll come back to all of them. That was a great satisfaction, to kill all those orcs you had to run from. Also, it seem so natural, it took no great efford to lern a map, unlike many other games. Years after I steel remember a lot of orc camps, molerat caves and e.t.c. Just who was where. In TES and many others you have this system, where world adapts for your character, monsters grow bigger teeth while you master new spells to fight them. In Gohic world was more or less static, so you had a long path from a cowardly pray to a fearless hunter. So it was not about the depth and detail, but challenge and interaction. You needed to know the map not for estetics, it was vital, not just rewarding. And this is what seem to be missed in many todays openworld RPG's.

It's also a good time to remember just how amazing the "worlds" of truly great "Metroidvanias" and Survival Horror games has been. Even some survival action games (Dead Space comes to mind). Where you remember a tightly packed with details (at least, as much as the technology allowed) small interconnected worlds that are some much more full of character and memorable stuff, than even some of their sequels that went with "bigger and louder" approach and all this amazing stuff got lost as a result.

Cyberpunk 2077 should have learned more from this.

As most of your videos, this is one that I would like twice. The message you leave here: "praise games that make full use of their space" is very important for this industry. Thank you for your job.

You analyze and detail everything we did in Prague in the most perfect way, I couldn't have formulated it better myself ! That's some great videos you have here, and also, thanks :)

GOTHIC 1 and 2 - you should give it a shot. The devs carefully crafted those worlds - you can say "stone by stone" its famous for its authentic feel.

I love your Videos. I just finished Deus Ex today. You are by far my favorite KZfaqr

As a gamer who has been playing since ages, I came across you and your videos just by chance. I love you how explain stuff which most ordinary people might miss, or how certain segments of a game work so much better than other similar games. You have a follower for life!

Definitely one of the most well-deserved subscriptions I've ever made. Full of praise for you, my friend.

I think an excellent example of a smaller open world being made is the Dishonored series. And yes, you may say that Dishonored series is not open world, and it's not. It's mission are however. The huge massive spaces are packed with detail to explore, loot to find, notes to read, and tons of enviornmental storytelling to uncover.

Playing Mankind Divided.. I just never wanted it to end 🙂

I truly LOOVE your series! I'm a commandblocker (a dude who makes games in Minecraft with its ingame commands) and I really appreciate your lectures about how to do stuff and what to watch out for. Keep up the good work!

This channel is great, exactly what I'm looking for regarding video games and the creation aspect of them. Deus Ex Human Revolution's take on Shanghai is pretty amazing and one of the most memorable city hubs ever created. I now need to go finish Mankind Divided.

It's an interesting point in the Corriveau quote that "game design requires us to be of a certain pace": world size and detail should be tuned to the pace of gameplay. The scale of NMS works if you're after a very slow, meditative style of game: more ambient and relaxing than driven and exciting. I enjoy just going for a walk on a new planet for a few hours, maybe with a vague goal in mind, but mostly just taking in the details and the atmosphere (and I'm still finding tiny delights and surprises after 100+ hours). There's a place for tightly-packed narrative games in tiny, densely-designed spaces (Gone Home, for instance), and a place for huge self-directed sandboxes.

Yakuza 5 does something similar with its 5 different cities that are all pretty small but packed with all kinds of stuff from actual Japan

Huge Deus Ex fan. Very informative video. Enjoyed your commentary style so i subscribed. Great job Sir.

Surprisingly, Shenmue crops up to my mind. For a first 3D Open World Game (OPG), it literally nails whatever points you've mentioned Mark. Right from a hyper detailed/compact world to literally asking people for directions. It was immersive as hell. In fact, now in retrospect, my favourite tasks were going to locations just mentioned. Being a new person in town, it felt unbelievably realistic to ask people for the way, thus adding to that sense of discovery.

I personally think that too many games are going open world these days and the devs end up not knowing what to put in them.... cough *wild lands*

3:26 "Why is this corpse here?" Oh boy it must've been one of THOSE nights.

Cyberpunk 2077 made me appreciate DE Mankind Divided a lot more recently.

After the clusterfuck that was Cyberpunk 2077, I appreciate this game so much more. Instead of playing Cyberpunk 2077...I'd rather just go back and replay this again.

I am really really enjoying ManKind Divided. I love the small open world and love the eye to detail in the different enviroments. I agree that more devs should make smaller open world and fill them with meaningful things to discover. Now that I have written this comment I will go back to Prague and explore some more.

I know it's not entirely what you're talking about, but Dark Souls's Painted World of Ariamis is an absolutely exquisite example of utilizing every square inch of usable space. There isn't an inch of wasted level geometry there.

Im playing mankind now, big fan of the saga since the first, dont know why didnt play this one before, I LOVE IT! playing on give me deux ex difficulty, is a beautiful ride!

Only two videos in and I can already tell you're going to be one of my favorite channels; likely of all time.

has anyone played Lord of The Rings online? it's one of the biggest open worlds in an mmo, and traversal can be painfully boring, however for a LOTR fan like myself, the experience of traveling from bag end to rivendell via weathertop Bree, the barrow downs, Tom Bombadil's house, and Buckland in one sitting, a journey that took three hours: the length of time it takes me to read that part of the fellowship of the ring incidentally, was deeply cathartic. besides that, if you are familiar with the games lore, the environment is created in deep realism. when I went off of the beaten track in the barrow downs, I got lost and was marauded by whites (this happens in the book) and this was entirely unscripted. similarly, wandering across landmarks in the game allowed me to navigate based off of the storytelling of the novels in a very similar way that the hobbits and Aragorn did during this part of the novel. this natural and authentic recreation of a fictional world for me made up for the Lord if the Rings On line's many flaws, just a personal opinion.

I think the Hitman series is a great example of a "meter wide a mile deep" philosophy.

Hi! Just founded this channel and I have to say that your videos are very interesting and entertaining. Thank you

Enjoyed the watch, thank you!

To the most extent I agree. I just felt that when you have such a small open world, there could have been a lot more small detail interactivity than there already was. I would have wanted to be able to use the restaurant and cafés the way you would in the real world. It could even have gameplay mechanics (like overhearing/talking to someone that initiates a quest), be able to go to the back room of a weapons dealer to see the weapon on display instead of the computer, buy small minigames at the eletronics store that you could play on Jensen's TV, pick out specific food/healing items at the convience store (instead of the bland directional dialogue choices) etc.. Also, be able to break into every single building, even if they were irrelevant to the quest, with a moral dilemma mechanic that unless you do a mission, you'll somehow be punished by raiding people's home (like having the police investigating/suspecting you easier if you do a lot of crimes). Those are my input notes for the developers if they wanted to make a new DX. Small thing, but the details that would make the game a game with that little extra in it. MD was a great game either way.

This is exactly how I wish to explore IRL world but too afraid of consequences/other people's perception of me just wandering in -seedy- any parts of any place.

Spot on as always, Mark. Keep up the amazing work!

Majora's Mask is definitely my favourite game. Thank you for the video of your games, it has helped me to find more games that I like.

I have to say MD is such an amazing game. People say the story sux, but the real story isn't obvious you have to figure it out and find it yourself just like dark souls in a way. The more you put into the game the more you get out. The real character is the world and it proves you dont need a huge open world to make a realistic world. Anyway the story thats hidden in MD is the true star and its really amazing once you figure it all out. Sadly many people dont bother and just go from marker to marker and miss all the work put into the game. If you are new to MD i would recommend turning all the makers off, explore and try and figure out what the world is telling you and i promise you , you will have a great time.

This reminded me of Shenmue and Shenmue 2, and the first 2 Fallouts. The original Shenmue is enclosed in a small japanese city, people have schedules, I don't remember if you have a map or get one eventually, but you sure don't have any gps or compass, you go to houses on this street, apartment this or that, shops open from x to x hours, you need to rustle this tattoo guy before a certain date I don't remember why, but you have 2 or 3 days only, and it's weekend and you can't find him on his shop so you have to look for him on a few bars, you miss him and you have only monday to find him before that limit date passes, and if you make it in time, maybe you have to do something else but it's too late because you lost too much time following other lead and that train passed so now you have to follow another lead to eventually make it to China for the 2nd game, where everything is bigger, still contained and much more detailed, if you miss a quick time event (yeah, really new) that is not fight related, you don't lose the game and retry, you lose track of whomever you were following and you lose a few days tracking him/her again, you need to work for cash (on the 1st game as well), train and win fights, there are a lot of time limits and things you can do only to a certain point, is not easy to lose, but is not easy to win either, at least not by modern conventions, you can take it slow and follow the leads that take you around town or rush and try to make the deadlines before the early trains passes, and depending on the choices and playstyle your experience is unique, your notebook ends up FULL of missed leads and after the 1st playthrough you can finish in a fraction of time by going straight through the shortcuts and knowing where you are going instead of searching on every corner where is that street, shop, person that can't find since 3 days ago. Awesome experience. And well, Fallout 1 and 2 are much of the same beast on a diff genre, but still cointained games with small but detailed towns, except for the big cities, you rarely have more than 3 or 4 unimportant people on the smaller towns in fallout 1, on the 2nd, everything is bigger and the unimportant NPCs have multiplied, but the importants as well, everyone has their motivations and does everything for a reason, nothing more satisfying than talking the end game boss to kill himself because he is wrong and hasnt seen it yet, great stuff.

That was a Amazing Video you put together! Cool!

I definitely think DE:MD had a lot of interesting choices, but the lack of time sensitivity hampered a lot of side quests.

I’m hella goddamn late, but recently I decided to give DE: MD another try, having had tried it 2 times previously. I ended up loving it and played Human Revolution. I generally preferred human revolution, even though it was the older game. It just got everything right imo

3:37 sewercide

The sheer amount of detail packed into this game's environments remains unprecedented.

Hey GMTK ;) your videos are brilliant and the way you dissect games is inquisitive keep up the awesome work!

Man this game is so underrated. I had a blast exploring Prague.

WTF are you talking about Mark? I love drooling over a game's graphics and vastness while doing the same boring, meaningless tasks for 200 hours.

Another well produced and excellent video. I think what you said about many devs throwing away 3d navigation with a win/fail state accurate. I think that sense of seeing traversal/ 3d awareness as a means instead of an opportunity comes off as short-sighted. It would be interesting to see if player numbers and demographics really line up. You always here the term 'accessibility' thrown in your face. carry on

Man if deus ex:hr was a movie it would have won Oscars in all categories, especially that score

Real shame that it was released unfinished. Everything apart from the actual story and not screwing up with cut content as dlc or microtransactions that the game could do well. It absolutely smashed it. Imo it could be one of the all time greats as a stealth action fan if it wast screwed around with by the publishers

This game is underrated. One of the best ever imo

Thank you for this video! I really enjoyed DX:MD and Prague was my favourite location. I spent so much time walking around, looking in every corner, looking for all the stories being told and it's just so well done! As for the main story being ham-fisted, I don't really agree. I agree that some aspects of the high concept is a bit iffy, but I really enjoy how the game uses privilege in its storytelling. Like, how Adam is part of the augs who are now looked down on, but he's so visibly different from the rest because of the quality of his tech, his nature (not dependent on anti-rejection drugs), his work, etc. He can literally walk into the no-aug zones, like the train, with little to no consequence besides some time-consuming hassle dealing with cops. As someone mentioned in a comment below, you as a player end up using the aug-only train in order to avoid spending time with the cops, and thus conforming to what's expected of you as an aug. It's really well crafted! Back to environmental storytelling: Dragon Age II was also mentioned in the video. I loved and played this game a lot, and also participated in providing feedback to the developers on their now-defunct official bbs. BioWare still interacted a lot with fans at the time and received a lot of great feedback about how the city of Kirkwall, while already very good imo, could have been even better serving the story by changing up details in the city as time progressed (10 years pass during the game). Some of that insight was obviously put to good use in follow-up Dragon Age: Inquisition, but I think the considerable fan-rage at release regarding the smaller scope of DAII compared to its predecessor ended up taking priority during the development of Inquisition. They also seem to have had to cut a lot of major features because of tech limitations when working on what was at the time both current and next-gen technology, which also contributed to the feeling of emptiness in some spaces. I hope they'll go back a bit to Dragon Age II for the next game, and I really believe that DE:MD is a good example that they could use for inspiration. Again, thanks for a great video! Followed, and will check out more of your vids!

great video bro, i love game design and actually this was pretty good for learning something about open small worlds

Yay, someone's mentioning Gothic. I'm craving for a good new RPG in that style since Piranha Bytes (the developer) has gone to shit. Unfortunately, few people outside of Germany seem to know of or care for that series.

Here from 2019: I really hope you played Gothic 1 and 2 by now.

Awesome vid as always mate

I'm from Czech Republic, and it's so amazing seeing Prague in a game and recognizing the language even when I'm so used to English. Shame I can't play this game. But after this video I certainly will. Love your videos and after each one I'm thinking: "I'm gonna play this one when I get a console". Man, you really help me through this pandemic. School is just KILLING me. Keep it up.

I absolutely cannot believe you've never played Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines! It's aged well IMO and definitely deserves your hours. :)

Kamurocho is such a great "open world". Over time you start recognizing all the street names and various landmarks like the millennium tower and the various shops, eateries, and attractions. In Yakuza 0, Nishiki mentions heading over to Pink Street and I didn't have to use the mini map; I knew exactly where I was going! Yakuza is an amazing series and I highly recommend it. Yakuza 0 is cheap and a great starting point!!

What I love about these smaller worlds/hubs is that I actually know them like I know my own neighbourhood. So if a mission asks me to go somewhere, I actually know how to get there without even opening the map. Big worlds get explored through the hud-radar, smaller worlds with your own eyes.

I don't know if it's been brought up (just discovered your channel and I adore it) but there's a relatively overlooked game that encapsulates a lot of the things you're talking about. It's called The Darkness, an early Xbox 360 fps based on an Image comic property that's surprisingly innovative and fun, if a little rough around the edges. What's relevant to your topic at hand is how you get around the world. It's not really an open sandbox, more of a few small open hubs connected by subway, but otherwise it's a great example of environmental navigation. Not only do you not get mission markers showing you where to go next, you don't even have a map menu. All navigation is done through the world. If you need a layout of the neighborhood, check the subway map. If your objective is on a particular street, in a particular building, in a particular room number, you have to read the street signs and building and door numbers to find it. If you have to switch areas, you have to catch the correct subway train by looking at the signs. The world is quite small so it's never a daunting or complex task, and in the grand scheme of things there aren't that many explorable areas so it's perhaps not as ambitious as it could be, but it does an amazing job at keeping you rooted in the world. Which makes it all the more dramatic when you do things like get killer demon tentacles or go to hell. There is also a sequence where, if you choose, you can sit on the couch with your (character's) girlfriend and watch To Kill a Mockingbird in its entirety. It's really quite a game.

The first chapter of Neverwinter Nights is another one that strikes me as doing this very well. Also I always wished Majora's Mask was just clock town! I hated having to leave it to go to dungeons. Also: most people's favourite Elder Scrolls game is Morrowind, which is the smallest - hardly anyone remembers Daggerfall, which is the largest.

Big maps are great for vistas but smaller maps are better for the people and their lives. Unless you talk about a hermit living in the mountains. I think it is rewarding finding something in a space you didn't expect it or had to work for it.

Well, you've just got another sub from this video - great insight for one of my fav games. Loved it. I might be wrong but I was led to believe their were originally plans for a London hub in DEMD and I really can't express how intrigued I am as to how they would've designed that space following similar methodology used for Prague. I adore adventuring and making interesting discoveries but much to the point you've made in this video most of these larger games have such inconsequential areas and assets I don't derive as much enjoyment. No Man's Sky, Just Cause, Far Cry are all great good in their own right but involve spending more time travelling between point A and B than involving the player in an engrossing adventure. My fingers are firmly crossed for another Deus Ex entry. Human Revolution and Mankind Divided really were beautiful, intricate worlds and there's few games that match their attention to detail or environmental storytelling.

One of my favorite game environments ever. Just as fun a second time through. Golem City is amazing too, especially for something you never go back to once you leave.

Shit about Mankind Divided all you wants, you can't deny that the level design is top notch! Also - funny that both No Man Sky and Mankind Divided came out in the same month, and both are contrasts in terms of level design!

I replayed Dishonored 10 times and I still love it, level design is so good

This video, this channel and this game deserve MUCH more views, attention and credit!

This is why I loved Super Mario Odyssey so much. The kingdoms were like tiny little worlds with their own challenges and own secrets to discover. I love having a smaller space to explore, as I tend to want to collect everything more so than I do in larger open world games. For example, I beat BOTW, but haven’t finished like 5 side quests just bc the map is so huge that sometimes the barren space makes me bored? It’s amazing during the first play through as you’re exploring a world all on your own, and the scope is mind blowing. Afterwards though it just feels like too little is in these wide open spaces sometimes. Great video GMTK. I have been binging your stuff so much lately so I just gotta say I appreciate your content so much in helping me understand the mechanics and concepts about game design.