Will Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s season pass finish the game?

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be released tomorrow, and I’ve been wrestling with the question of whether or not I’m going to buy it. There were a few things in our review that make me really hesitant, not the least of which is the fact the game doesn’t seem to have shipped with an ending.

"The most frustrating thing about Mankind Divided is how abruptly it’s all over," our review stated.

I’ll quote the whole paragraph, because it’s important:

I try not to exaggerate in reviews, so believe me when I describe my reaction to Mankind Divided’s conclusion as "stunned." There’s a host of story threads presented that are explored over the game’s 30 hours and dropped without comment or resolution after a fairly anticlimactic boss battle. Very little of the conspiracy Jensen is investigating is revealed, and by the end, there are few answers and a pile of new questions. There’s only a faint whiff of resolution, and the prospect of waiting another five years to see how Eidos Montreal’s mechanical augmentations ultimately give way to the nanotech dystopia of the original Deus Ex left me feeling pretty deflated.

This wasn’t a controversial opinion when you look at the reviews for the game. The Wrap even called it "half a game" in its headline. The Guardian remarked that the inclusion of Breach Mode is "by no means a worthy replacement of, you know, the end of the story."

"I'm left hoping that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s developers have an aggressive post-launch plan to continue the game’s story beyond its surprising endpoint," our review concluded. And I have to agree with that. Who wants to start a story that has no satisfying conclusion, or even the plans for one?

I took a look at the game’s $30 season pass, which includes the following items, according to retail listings online:

• Two story missions titled "System Rift" and "A Criminal Past"
• Two weapons packs
• Four Praxis Kits
• 5,000 Credits
• Five Booster Packs of randomly generated content normally acquired through the purchase of microtransactions and 20 "Chipsets" for the Breach game mode

This is the Steam description:

The Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Season Pass, which is composed of Narrative DLCs and in-game items, is loaded with content that will help to further flesh out the lore of the Deus Ex Universe.

What we don’t have are any details of how extensive those two story missions will be, if they continue the story or just "flesh out" more of what we already knew and any idea of a release date for this content.

Which is frustrating, because the rest of the game sounds great. This abrupt ending may not concern you as much if you’re not as interested in the game’s narrative, but I’m one of those individuals who plays Deus Ex games primarily for the freedom of play and the stories they tell. Without an ending for that story? I may sit this one out.