Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Having Issues on PC; Preorder DLC Has a Big Asterisk

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is out today on all platforms, but PC players are running into issues, and many of those who preordered on any system are finding they feel misled.

The early user reviews on Steam are labeled as "mixed," with many of the hundreds of negative reviews taking issue with the game's microtransactions. Some of those reviews, along with threads on the game's Steam forums and subreddit, also complain of various technical issues. These include low frame rates, mouse acceleration that can't be disabled, crashes, and other issues.

Both crashes and mouse acceleration are listed as "under investigation" in a developer post covering known issues. (One specific crash at the train station has a few possible workarounds, including running the game in windowed mode and turning off subtitles.) Some players are finding that mouse axis settings are the opposite of what they should be; developer Eidos Montreal's advice is to "ignore what they are seeing in the menu and use what they are noticing in-game." A fix is said to be on the way for that problem.

Resolving performance issues include the obvious solutions--updating drivers, namely--but there are also some game-specific workarounds. These include:

• Turn off MSAA
• Turn off Contact Hardening Shadows
• Keep Volumetric Lighting to on or off
• If you have a 4 GB GPU, use settings up to High
• Use 1080p resolution
• Enable Exclusive Fullscreen

These PC performance issues are, sadly, not all that uncommon, particularly with multiplatform releases, but it is disappointing to see once again. It's possible the September release of DirectX 12 support, which was recently delayed, will help some players.

More frustrating to some are the specifics of the game's preorder/Day One Edition DLC, which is available on all platforms. Called the Covert Agent Pack, this comes with various in-game items, such as weapons, skins, and upgrades. Setting aside one issue--that the game was designed under the assumption you wouldn't have them--there's one other problem: they're one-use-only.

As pointed out on places like Reddit, the first sign of trouble was when the Covert Agent Pack was renamed on Steam to the Augmented Covert Agent Consumables Pack. When you download this on PC or consoles, you can only access "consumable" bonuses (Praxis Kits, ammo, credits, and crafting parts) a single time. As explained in a Reddit post by an Eidos Montreal community manager, these bonuses are located in your storage area until you claim them, at which point "they will be 'consumed' in your current playthrough, and not reusable. Consumables work the way they do due to first-party constraints."

That means if you were to claim the bonuses and then decide to start over with a new save, you'd no longer have access to them. This limitation is apparently only true of the aforementioned consumables, but not "durables" like weapons, skins, and augmentations. These will "automatically be available in all of your playthroughs once you have downloaded and installed them."

It appears the reason for the one-use limit is because the Covert Agent Pack simply provides you with some of the DLC packs available through microtransactions--something that was unclear before today.

Mankind Divided lets you spend real-world money to buy in-game cash and items for the main campaign and Breach mode (this despite being a full-priced, $60 game, which is another reason many players are angry). There's also a season pass available which includes some of these consumables along with more substantial content that's on the way.

This is all somewhat unfortunate, as the underlying game itself is quite good, which you can read about in GameSpot's review and review roundup.

We'll continue to monitor the status of the PC version of the game in the days to come. For now, you may want to keep an eye on your playtime and leverage the two-hour period on Steam during which you can get a refund.