Square Enix’s Project CKP Leaked: It’s Deus Ex Mankind Divided [Updated]

We’re currently in the second day of Square Enix’s three-day-long tease for “Project CKP”, the publisher’s next Western release. Although gamers have been quick to identify Deus Ex hints by the first day, any lingering doubts have been put to rest thanks to a leak earlier this morning. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the name and it’s coming to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The leak appears to originate from NeoGAF user arturkrang, who discovered an article and accompanying images on Russian website Kanobu (link directs to a cached version). This revelation was quickly supported by GameInformer announcing their May cover story, featuring the cyberpunk game in question.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set two years after Human Revolution. Adam Jensen makes a return, teaming up with “an Interpol-funded task force aiming to hunt down and capture augmented terrorists in a world that now hates and fears transhumans.” As usual players are free to approach problems from any angle they wish, although the extent of that player freedom is still up in the air. There isn’t a release date but it’ll be current-gen only.

The following information comes from a Google translated version of Kanobu’s article.

Mankind Divided unfolds in different parts of the world, such as Prague in Czech Republic (which coincides with hints from the Twitch stream so far). Jensen will need to settle things with one Victor Marchenko, an officer in the Augmented Rights Coalition – how Marchenko fits in with the terrorism narrative is unclear at this point.

Enemy AI has advanced quite a bit. Hostiles will now travel in groups and can summon backup when players raise suspicion. To help deal with the greater threats Jensen has access to a few new toys, including remote hacking, a nano-blade projectile, and a bullet-deflecting nano-shield. There doesn’t appear to be any major changes to his physique however so the improvements seem subtle.

Now here’s the interesting bit: Developers Eidos Montreal have no plans for save transfers, meaning all our decisions in Human Revolution were for naught. They’re even regarding the four different endings to be non-canonical. That’s quite a huge call and something we’ll need further confirmation on.

While some folks at Square Enix are no doubt upset by the leak, the gaming community in general isn’t too bothered. The interactive stream so far has been dull to say the least, with the ARG elements lacking in both complexity and execution – “CKP” turning out to be “Can’t Kill Progress” was a huge giveaway considering the transhumanism tensions they played up for Human Revolution’s marketing. In comparison, Valve’s Portal 2 and Atlus’ Persona 5 announcements were far more engaging.

Nonetheless, we’re still waiting for a full-blown trailer, which an official tweet says will be out tomorrow at 9AM PT (tomorrow midnight SGT). The stream’s hints do help to establish the setting too, so if you’re starved for content go ahead and keep up with the NeoGAF thread starting from page three.

Update – 4 Apr 2015

The CGI trailer is out!