New Deus Ex Trailer Shows A Man Conflicted, A Humanity Divided

For the past three days, Square-Enix has been teasing a reveal of one of their North-American produced titles with an audacious, frustratingly obtuse interactive promotion campaign through Twitch called 'Project: Can't Kill Progress'. Neogaf however had other plans, blowing the lid on Eidios Montreal's Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the highly-anticipated follow-up to their critically successful reboot/prequel to the Deus Ex franchise.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set in 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution, with players re-assuming the role of Adam Jensen; the Cervantes-bearded and lethally-armed (pun entirely intended) protagonist of the previous game as he is recruited by an newly-formed Interpol-funded task force aimed to hunt down and capture augmented terrorists in a world that now hates and fears transhumanism. With a new suite of mechanical augments that allow him to stealthily navigate, socially manipulate and offensively eliminate threats as never before; Jensen must once again maneuver through a shadow-net of proxy-conspiracies and double-agendas in a personal mission to uncover the truth and, by doing so, seek absolution for the havoc he helped to inadvertently unleash.

Human Revolution was one of my favorite titles of 2011, with my only complaints being the gratingly lackluster Boss encounters (a problem partially remedied by the game's Director's Cut Edition) and an overwhelming desire for more free-roaming areas to explore that were cut throughout production (for example, Upper Hengsha and ground-level Montreal). The sobriety and fatalism in this first trailer is chilling. As a long-time fan of the series, I'm looking forward to how this title narratively bridges the gap between Human Revolution's transhumanist renaissance period and the original game's dystopian oligarchic society shepherded by disease and information warfare.

No release window announced as of yet, though if I were to venture a guess, I'd say quarter four of this year only to be inevitably delayed for another quarter or two. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is slated for release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

'Ex Machina' Looks Like A True Transhumanist Thriller

The latest sci-fi opus from director Alex Garland, responsible for writing such films as 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Never Let Me Go,  opens later this month in the U.K.

Ex Machina stars Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb, a timid programmer who, in a Wonka-esque twist of fate, wins the chance to spend a week with the reclusive CEO (Oscar Isaac) of the company he works for in his luxurious compound estate secluded in the mountains. However, Caleb soon realizes that he's been chosen to participate in a bold new experiment in artificial intelligence; An experiment that could yield profound and terrible consequences for both himself and the human race.

The film comes out on January 23rd in the U.K., with an official theater release run in the U.S. on April 10th courtesy of A24 Pictures. I would love to write-up a review on this one when or if it comes out via streaming.

I'm a little worn-down with immensely promising premises being diluted and squandered on SFX-saturated popcorn action-thrillers, but if Garland's track record is any indication we might have a true trans-humanist thriller on our hands. Besides, any film that has a trailer scored by DJ Shadow circa '96 is already a winner in my book.