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We can rebuild it. We have the technology.

As video game enthusiasts, we tend to want sequels to be these huge shifts from the previous iteration of a series, sporting tons of new features and locations while retaining the core concepts that made the game fun in the first place. It’s a tall order, and obviously some sequels nail this formula while others miss the mark entirely. Then there are games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which is “just” more of the same mechanics and progression as seen in 2011’s Human Revolution. While there is little to set Mankind Divided apart from its predecessor that isn’t a bad thing, is it?

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Traversing the uncanny valley

It was in the late 1970s that Masahiro Mori first observed what was later termed the uncanny valley. Through his work in robotics he noted that the human emotional response to his machinations would become more positive as they became more human in appearance and mannerism. This general upward trend in positive emotional response would continue until the robot achieved a level of near human realism, at which point the human reaction would drop off to the point of revulsion. The human reaction would remain in this uncanny valley and would only rise again once there was no discernable difference between the robot and a living, breathing human being.

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