Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s Breach mode is an interesting hybrid of single- and multiplayer, with a stunning visual style all its own. Breach — which is totally separate from the main story campaign — pits player against player via leaderboards for points, speed, and overall completion for each mission, all while telling its own cyberpunk story exposing corrupt corporations and shadowy illuminati figures.
Let’s take a look at some of the other ways Breach mixes up the Mankind Divided experience.
The Story
Instead of main game protagonist Adam Jensen, in Breach the player assumes the role of a “Ripper,” an anonymous hacker looking to lift information from corporations for credits or justice, depending on your preference. Darknet Files work like missions, sending the player on a series of server raids to gather clues about various shady dealings.
Share the info you gather with sympathetic characters who will help you put the pieces together, for a price.
The Visuals
Breach features a heavily stylized look that visualizes the look of a Ripper hacking into servers in the traditional Deus Ex gameplay. It’s a little more exciting than watching someone coding, to say the least. Lurid neon colors lend it a Tron-like look that’s mixed with the game’s signature geometric patterns and extended to the characters themselves, who appear as an abstract collection of humanoid shapes.
Hacks and Patches
Seeing as you’re an electronic avatar, there’s no reason you shouldn’t tip the scales in your favor with a little hacking power. Equipping a Hack makes your avatar more powerful, giving them extra health, damage, speed, and more.
Patches, on the other hand, weaken your avatar a bit, but give a big bonus to your completion score — useful when trying to knock out one of your friends on the leaderboard.
Challenges
Speaking of leaderboards, each mission in Breach gives you a chance to set a high score by taking out enemies, finding data store servers, and generally completing the mission as quickly and stealthily as possible. Post a solid time? Challenge a friend to beat it. If they do, they get a booster pack containing valuable resources, but if they don’t that sweet booster pack is all yours.
Protip: Challenge your less talented friends as often as you can. Even if they decline, you’ll get a less valuable booster pack.
Speed-Running and Leaderboards
Posting high scores on the leaderboard can be harder than it looks. Avoiding enemies is a solid strategy, but if you want the big points you’ll need to eliminate security patrols and turrets without being seen, and do it as quickly as possible.
Breach has goals for finding all the Data Stores, getting a high score, and finishing the level as fast as you can. Unlocking all of them will require several playthroughs, and beating some of the challenges will require you to do it all, and at lighting speed.
Get In, Get Out
Breach missions are all on a timer. You can only avoid security for so long, and the mission isn’t finished until you’ve extracted. Smart players will plan ahead and make sure they’ve got time banked for their return trip.
But be careful: Once you’ve completed your objective, the stage goes into lockdown, and paths that were open on the way in may be closed on the way out. Make sure you’ve got an alternate route planned or you may find yourself trapped between a turret and a hard place.
For more information about Breach mode and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, be sure to check out the Deus Ex wiki.