Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The best RPG series that probably won't come back

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If you take a look at the lowest price for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided over the years, you'll notice that it's only about a few bucks and that it reached that level quite quickly despite its relatively recent release. However, this is not due to selflessness or generosity of the developers, but rather a desperate desire to make more money on their product, which – to put it mildly – didn't take the market by storm. And it's by no means about the quality of the product, because this, despite being on the shorter side, made the grade in terms of both gameplay and story. It just sold poorly – that's the whole secret.

It's a shame, of course, because we're talking about a series that got its start on the eve of the 21st century and became one of the few successful RPGs set in a cyberpunk reality that made it into the market. Deus Ex played around with these ideas even before it was trendy, although unlike Cyberpunk 2077, it opted for a darker and more toned-down universe.

Interestingly, according to online rumors, a new part of Deus Ex had been in the works for a few years, but the financial flop of Mankind Divided negatively affected the project and eventually forced the developers to suspend the works on it. Currently, Eidos Montreal studio is working on several games – but there's no Deus Ex among them. Its fans must brace themselves for more years of waiting.

Two Worlds 2

Two Worlds series has never been one of the most outstanding representatives of action-RPG, but we've always looked upon it with a slightly kinder eye – probably for purely patriotic reasons. It was one of the few Polish games set in an open fantasy world. At times, it resembled such productions as Gothic or even Dragon Age. Besides, it was appreciated by foreign gamers and critics – especially the second part, which look like the AAA competition even more.

Unfortunately, after releasing a few expansions and not-so-successful standalone titles, the Krakow-based studio Reality Pump faced a pretty big crisis. A crisis so big that some portals even announced the collapse of the company. These reports proved to be exaggerated, however, since in 2016 the developers announced that they were working on more DLC for Two Worlds II as well as were preparing for the third instalment. They kept the first part of their promise, but the second one – not so much.

Admittedly, 2018 delivered a pretty clear message – Two Worlds III is still in the plans, but it won't be out any sooner than in four or five years. So the developers still have some time and we are rooting hard for them. There's just one problem – we haven't learned anything more since that announcement. Zero information of any kind – from both the official and unofficial channels. While we'd love to believe that this is the calm before the storm, our common sense tells us that it is a typically grave silence.

Alpha Protocol

Stealth games may not be the most popular genre around the globe today, but series such as Hitman or Dishonored prove that there is quite a large group of players willing to pay for such a product. However, when talking about works of this type, we have a certain image of them in our heads and it is rather difficult to imagine them in a roleplay convention. However, fortune favors the bold, after all, and this bizarre project, a spy-themed stealth/action RPG, was the offspring of Obsidian and Sega. What about the results? It was both great and horrible.

As it happens in games of this type, in Alpha Protocole we have to deal with quite creative combat system allowing both direct confrontations and stealth kills. However, the title stands out due to the depth of the storyline, which the player has a direct impact on through an original dialog system and multiple, very significant choices.

Alpha Protocol was relatively well received, and was certainly a breath of fresh air in the industry, though there's no denying that Sega wasn't satisfied with the financial results of that production and prevented Obsidian from working on a sequel (although the developers were eager to do so). So it's hard to talk about the chances of a potential sequel, especially since the last major news involved the expiration of Sega's publishing rights to the Alpha Protocol brand. Fortunately, they turned out to be half-truths, but such news only increases skepticism about a possible part two.