Deus Ex Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Breach is an alternative game mode in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It is set in the virtual world of the Neural SubNet, but the augmentations and weapons used in this game mode are largely analogous to Adam Jensen's.

Breach was released as a standalone game, Deus Ex: Breach, on January 24, 2017. The standalone version is free-to-play and does not require Mankind Divided.

The System Rift expansion mission serves as the prologue to Breach.

Premise[]

See The Breach for additional background information.

A hacker called ShadowChild sends out a message to countless other hackers, telling them that a "Breach" in the Palisade Blades' security has emerged. She urges these special hackers, called "Rippers," to take advantage of this weakness while they have the chance by extracting data from the Palisade servers.

In Breach, the player takes on the role of one of such Rippers invited by ShadowChild to attack the servers.

Darknet Files[]

Darknet Files are humanitarian cases that involve investigating corporations on behalf of clients who have turned to Rippers for help. Darknet Files integrate Breach's gameplay into an interactive narrative.

The player will need to not only clear certain case-specific servers, but also call upon ShadowChild's contacts who have experience in the military, medicine, and analytics for assistance. ShadowChild's contacts will usually ask for a standard fee of 10000 credits for their services.

The set of Darknet Files are as follows:

  • Just What the Doctor Ordered – The parents of a 6-year-old girl with leukemia ask for help uncovering the details of her alleged demise within a VersaLife experimental treatment facility.
  • A Life's Work – A man claiming to be a former engineer at Steiner-Bisley wants help recovering his designs for a special battery that can refuel combat robots with biomatter.
  • New World Problems – Canadian architect Christoph De Luca is trying to find out what happened to his wife, Mila, after she left to work on Rabi'ah and transferred their life savings to a bank there owned by the Santeau Group.
  • Sleight of HandPicus is pulling all their corporate data out of the Palisade servers in light of the Breach, so it's up to the player to get as much of it as possible before they do, but they've paid the player's Ripper rival to throw the player off.

Darknet Files are unlocked in the sequence listed above. The final outcome of the Breach storyline is dependent on the choices made by the player. Choices made in Darknet Files are permanent. It is not possible to reset the story progression to see the outcome of a different choice.

Gameplay[]

A typical objective of a map in Breach is to capture servers and download the information from them until you reach the minimum amount needed for that map. Once the minimum amount of data is reached or exceeded, you have to escape and return to the spawn point before the timer runs out. Some servers are hidden behind fake walls and secret doors, while others hang above on what initially appears to be inaccessible platforms. On average, Breach maps can be completed in five minutes or less.

There are also various security features that you must get around. Obstructing both infiltration and escape are a host of cameras, sentinels, drones, turrets, humanoid guards, and later, the more powerful Prime guards. These opponents do not present much challenge in of themselves, but can still delay a player.

Strings of kills and other feats will boost a score multiplier, as will unlocking all the servers. Completing a server yields currency that can be used to buy booster packs of five or six cards. Each card unlocks a set of assets, which include weapons, modifiers, items, weapon abilities, and nuke viruses. More expensive packs provide rarer items. These packs can also be purchased through real-world currency, called chipsets. Chipsets can also be used to buy premium items, such as avatar skins and special weapons.

An additional score multiplier is time. The faster a player completes their mission, the higher the score multiplier. Additional rewards will also be unlocked for completing a server within the designated speedrun time, extracting all the data from each data tower there, and for beating the designated high score. Modifiers can be used to enhance the player's abilities or to provide a score bonus for an added challenge.

Servers[]

The challenges of each server largely depend on the corporation its associated with.

  • Tarvos servers rely on tight corridor environments with a mix of rooms, cover, and crawlspaces. Their defenses tend to focus around chokepoints, using a mixture of guards, cameras, and turrets.
  • VersaLife servers rely on vertical layouts that can be confusing for avatars without jump or dash augmentations. Their defenses focus on using Sentry Robots, Drones, Turrets, and Hazards to automatically defend and protect sensitive areas.
  • Steiner-Bisley servers rely on wide-open spaces, where enemies can attack you from multiple angles. Their defenses focus on guard patrols with a mixture of static turrets, so use of cover is recommended.
  • Santeau servers are filled with wide expanses and enormous towers above bottomless drops, and are guarded by standard patrols and turrets. Jump augmentation software and scoped weapons are recommended.
  • Picus servers rely on misdirection. Decoy towers, invisible floors, fake walls and more await. Traps are everywhere, so use of Smart Vision is recommended.

Soundtrack[]

Breach features an original soundtrack composed by Ed Harrison. The soundtrack was released on Soundcloud on May 30, 2017.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Concept art and sketches[]

Videos[]

Advertisement