Deus Ex: Mankind Divided one-time use DLC angers fans

Fans who pre-ordered Deus Ex: Mankind Divided were given a variety of items in exchange for giving Square Enix money before finding out the PC version isn’t working well. Those same fans are a bit upset to learn that many of the "free" bonuses can only be used once.

The game’s developer explained the situation in a Reddit post:

Hi everyone. Here's how things work:

Consumables (Praxis Kits, Ammo, Credits, Crafting Parts) are one-time use items. They will be in the storage section of your inventory, until you decide to add them to it. Once you do, they will be 'consumed' in your current playthrough, and not re-usable. Consumables work the way they do due to first party constraints.

Durables (Weapons, Skins, Augmentations) are not one-time use. They will automatically be available in all of your playthroughs, once you have downloaded and installed them.

So these guns and augmentations can be used over and over, but the crafting parts and credits are locked to one save game. Once you use them, they’re gone, and no other playthrough will benefit from having those items.

There’s also the small matter that the game wasn’t designed with these items in mind, so you’re messing with the game’s balance if you’re playing with this content.

"We’ve read your concerns, and we just wanted to step in and clarify things here," Eidos Montreal’s community manager wrote on Reddit. "We have not, and will never, compromise the balance of the game in order to direct people towards microtransactions. The game was balanced 100% independently of the microtransactions available in the store."

The one-time use limitation is also reportedly in place for the items you get in the game’s season pass, and players aren’t happy with this limitation.

"Every redeemable item is only usable for one save game, which is ridiculous especially for a singleplayer game," one wrote. "Disgustingly greedy."

"The DLC for this game apparently is artificially subdivided into 'durable' (multiple use) and non-'durable' components (restricted to single use)," another stated. "Nowhere in the advertising material is it made at all apparent that this is the case. In the attached advertisements, 'durable' and non-'durable' components are listed together with no distinction, and no information whatsoever on 'durability'."

They continue:

Non-'durable' DLC of this nature is completely unprecedented in the long history of DLC in this industry, and thus this is entirely unforeseeable and unexpected on the part of all buyers.

You can read our review of the game itself if you’re torn, and hopefully the word will get out about the nature of the DLC before people decide to buy. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a trend.