UNDER MY THUMB

DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED

(Eidos Montreal / Square Enix, PS4, XB1, PC)

The Deus Ex cyberpunk series has been digging into the topic of trans-humanism since Y2K. This fifth entry, set in 2029, is the story’s chronological midpoint, but just two years after Human Revolution’s “Aug Incident,” when a hatemonger turned the world’s cybernetically “augmented” humans into crazed killers to turn everyone else against Augs. You play Adam Jensen, an Aug working for terrorist-hunting Interpol as well as Illuminati-hunting hackers. The series’ signature open-ended mechanics mean you move through near-future cities like Dubai and Neo-Prague while sticking to your own play style. While the Aug underclass acts as an allegory for oppressed social groups, the game’s narrative convolutions prevents the politics from landing as well as the gameplay.

THE TOMORROW CHILDREN

(Q Games/ SIE Japan Studio, PS4)

The complaint that there’s not enough uniqueness in modern gaming is upended by this post-apocalyptic, Soviet-inspired “social experiment.” A scientific disaster has wiped out civilization. “Projection clones” (i.e., players) are tasked with rebuilding the world via post- Minecraft resource mining and town management while fighting off giant kaiju monsters. The characters’ look is based on ’60s-era wooden puppets while the Marxist setting largely draws its aesthetic from USSR propaganda posters. The building that looks like a massive pig is all theirs. It’s one of many distant structures that you will explore for materials to bring back to your town. Other players will be helping build the town, too — each is its own persistent instance — so Tomorrow Children acts as another effort to expand multiplayer beyond current conceptions.