Let's just say that Mankind Divided follows in the footsteps of its predecessor when it comes to continuity:
- The notorious hacker Windmill is mentioned on one of the computers in Task Force 29 headquarters.
- Task Force 29, the Interpol agency Jensen works for, is the beginnings of UNATCO police force from Deus Ex. They are even commanded by the same person, Joseph Manderley.
- A TF29 operative expresses joy that the Harvesters are losing ground... then laments that the organization they're losing ground to, the Red Arrow Triad
(which appears in the original game) is gaining ground, and says that they'd be in trouble if they got any bigger. - At the end of the Samizdat questline, the Samizdat editors flee to Paris to restart their efforts against the Illuminati. During the epilogue, Eliza mentions rumors that they have rebranded themselves Silhouette, one of the major resistance groups from the original game.
- An email conversation between Bob Page and Morgan Everett in the Palisade Bank vault discusses how Lucius DeBeers is planning to enter cryostasis due to his failing health.
- Another conversation has Page confirming what many thought during the first game. Page mentions that the new, Illuminati-loyal Eliza will be the foundation for another AI - which he plans to call something like Master or Morpheus.
- A news broadcast can be seen about an antibiotic-resistant strain of tuberculosis ravaging India, and two citizens in Prague can be heard talking about a child dying of what appears to be a resurgence of the 1918 Spanish flu. Both are mentioned in the original game's bible document as having decimated Earth's population during the 2030's.
- Notably, the Orchid's effects in its Flawed Prototype state is disturbingly similar to how the Gray Death will work several decades later, so it's entirely possible that Morgan Everett eventually fashioned his bioweapon using VersaLife's researches. Likewise, the Orchid's neutralizing agent is a call-forward to Ambrosia, which was made expressly to counteract the effects of Gray Death.
- The VersaLife vault in the Palisade Bank contains an e-mail about the company setting up a base in Shackleton ice shelf in Antarctica, likely referring to the base that appears in Invisible War. This is also one of the rarest and most open acknowledgements of the Invisible War canon in the new games.
- The Picus vault in the Palisade Bank contains a "work in progress" news graphic about a major earthquake along the west coasts of North and South America, presumably in preparation for the 2030 earthquake.
- A number of gameplay elements have shifted from their appearance and function in Human Revolution to be more in line with the chronologically later games:
- Multitools have replaced the "Automatic Unlocking Device" and function similarly to their original Deus Ex counterparts.
- Many weapons now feature multiple ammunition types, as was the case with many weapons in Deus Ex.
- The new Remote Hacking augmentation has an interface similar to the hacking augs in Deus Ex and Invisible War.
- The arcology (architecture/ecology) concept seen in several cities in Invisible War seems to have originated with the Santeau group and Rabi'ah. At least, Rabi'ah is described as an arcology; the fact that it hasn't been built (at least not yet) kind of leaves that in doubt...
- The Big Board within Task Force 29 has an entry for the NSF, the terrorist/militia organization from the original game. Emails on some of the TF29 computers mention Juan Lebedev, one of the leaders of the NSF and whom JC Denton is sent to arrest midway through Deus Ex.
- The System Rift DLC introduces automated defenses with thermal imaging systems, against which Jensen's cloaking augmentation is completely ineffective. This ties in to the original Deus Ex, in which JC Denton's cloaking system could be configured to be invisible to either organic enemies or automated sensors, but not both.
