Customer Reviews

Deus Ex: Invisible War

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you've heard of the original Deus Ex before, then you've probably heard some things about it's sequel.

Depending on where you look, Deus Ex: Invisible War (i.e. Deus Ex 2) is either a refreshing breeze in console gaming, a horrifying example of what happens when you "dumb down" a game to appeal to a broader audience, or the worst thing ever subjected to the video gaming public.

Hmm.

I bought the game (mixed reviews or no) and went through it in three days, determied to come to my own conclusions. And now, I can safely say, that nearly every review I read was spot on. Depending on how you look at it, this can be a fantastic game, a death knell for intelligent game design, or a steaming pile that you accidentally stepped in and now it's stinking up the house.

That said, I'm not going to get into the plot of either the original or of Invisible War here, since this is one of those rare games where it's best to go in blind, but everything else is fair game. So...

Having been a massive fan of the PC original, I'd been awaiting the release of Invisible War since Warren Spector himself, adressing some fan's issues with the multiplayer patch, mentioned that they only had one guy on the team still working on the original Deus Ex; everyone else was hard at work on the game's next installment.

Which brings me nicely to point number one: If you've yet to play the original Deus Ex, go there first. It can be had for next to nothing, will run on practically any modern PC, and it easily the best way to determine whether this type of game is for you or not without having to spend a lot of money. On top of that, and despite what a lot of reviews have said, DX:IW is indeed a true sequel to the original. It picks up twenty years later, but there's no doubt that you're in the same world, and having the events of the first game under your belt will aid immensely in getting through the second installment while still having some idea of what the hell is going on (not a given with these games - you have to pay attention).

So, assuming that you're familiar with the first game and liked it as much as everyone seems to, here's the real question: Does the sequel stack up?

Not really.

But it's still pretty fun.

The biggest gripe that can be said about IW, and the one that nearly everyone comes to independantly, is that the game feels cut. And I'm not talking about things that were omitted from Invisible War that were in the original (did anyone ever use the Iron Lung mod, anyway?) I mean it feels like things were going to be implemented in Invisible War that were ultimately dropped. It's like watching a movie where you just know that there was something that got cut at the last minute, and they didn't have time to re-edit it properly.

The best example I can think of is right at the beginning of both games. In the original DX, you start right in the heart of things, engaging in a sting operation to free the Statue of Liberty from terrorist occupation. You go in, you do your thing, the game quietly keeps track of HOW you do your thing, and then...You go to work. It's established that you're essentially a futuristic cop, and much of the early part of the game is spent establishing the plot and showing off your technology to let the player acclimate to it. So, when things start to go haywire (which, and I mean this in a good way, they do quite suddenly) it's honestly engaging, especially as the layers begin to reveal themselves. Do you stick with your old affiliations? Oh, wait, they were operating behind your back! But...So were the other people you were going to work for! Aaah! Who do you trust?

By comparison, DX:IW gets you dressed, prepped, and out the door in the first ten minutes of gametime. You're out of Chicago in the opening movie, in Seattle in the first scene, and then BAM, you're free of all obligations right from the get-go. No police affiliation, no real information, but thankfully, everyone seems to know your number and wants to call you. It sounded good on paper, I'm sure, but in practice it's jarring and serves more to distance the player from the game than anything else. You never really get the chance to feel betrayed or double-crossed by anyone, because, well, you never really care about them to begin with.

It's a tough sell to explain this to someone who is unfamiliar with either game, so here's something worth noting: The only way you'd notice is if you played both games.

The other big gripe about DX:IW is that it runs horribly, regardless of which platform you choose. If you'd rather go with the PC version, expect to burn some serious power on this game. The Xbox version, which is pretty choppy and prone to slowdown, at least looks good when it's not moving, and is definitely the better choice for anyone without a monster PC. This was a common complait with the first game as well, though it's a moot one now.

Here's the kicker: Even the most stringent critic of DX:IW noted that, while they thought the game was loaded with problems, they kept playing it. A lot. Sometimes, when they beat it, they'd fire it right back up and start all over again.

What gives?

Well, it sounds odd, but for all this game's problems and occasionally wonky design scheme (all weapons use the same type of ammo? C'mon...) it's still fun. In fact, a lot of the time it's so fun that you forget about all the other stuff that bothered you about it, and at the very least it makes these problems forgivable. I beat the game in three days. If I wasn't having fun, there's no way I could have done that, I don't care how much I loved the first game. With DX:IW, the problems will bother you if you let them, and particularly if you were a big fan of the first one, but at the end of the day, it's still a fantastically fun game. Manipulating all the factions to your whim, or having them do it to you, is such a cool game mechanic that it overshadows everything else and really saves this game. Again, critics will point out that this was done better in the first game (and it was.) Taken on it's own merits, though, DX:IW is a competent sequel that still gave me that same sense of cool that the first one had in droves.

It just took some digging to find it.

Here's the thing: right now I'm wandering nighttime Seattle, having escaped the opening invasion of my shady spy academy/genetics lab by creepy hooded cultists. I don't know where I'll go next or what I'll do, but odds are it will be violent - I was never a man of peace in the original Deus Ex, and I am true to form this time. During the bravura opening sequence, one of the school's security guards told me to sneak out the back way while she dealt with the cultist in the next room; instead, I followed her out the door in crouch mode, let the cultist riddle her with bullets, then grabbed her gun, snuck around the darkened perimeter of the room, and capped the guy from behind. Of course, I didn't *have* to do that - I could have knocked the cultist out with my nightstick, or distracted him by throwing something at him, or I could have followed the guard's advice and avoided the situation entirely.

That decision lies at the heart of what made DEUS EX a game for the ages. And that heart is still beating in INVISIBLE WAR, which, like KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC, brings a deep PC-game sensibility to a new audience of console gamers.

DEUS EX is about creating immersive gameworlds that feel like the next best thing to reality; worlds where you make choices that have real consequences. Will you focus on stealth or go in like Rambo? Will you preserve life or end it? No matter what you choose, your actions will come back to reward and haunt you later in the game, as NPC characters remember where you have been and what you have done. Even your initial choice of character gender has repercussions on down the line.

The game feels right at home on Xbox, with solid, intuitive controls and an easily-navigable inventory system. Unlike other roleplaying games, or for that matter other first-person shooters, your inventory is limited to what a real person (or at least a real bionic agent) could plausibly carry.

But even though you can't lug around twelve suitcases' worth of weapons and medkits, you'll never be at a loss for tactical options, because you can almost always improvise your way through situations using the environment around you. Need to distract a guard? Send a beer bottle sailing into the alley behind him. Turret chewing you up? Upend a steel table and take cover!

The graphics so far are absolutely lovely; the fully dynamic lighting, in particular, has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, the human characters are animated rather stiffly - though better than in the original game - but watching the light play across the folds in their clothes as they move around is impressive. The environments aren't very big, and apparently none of them approach the huge outdoors levels of the original, but on the other hand the set design is finely-detailed and convincing - the lab, for instance, is built and laid-out like a lab, not like a secret labyrinth fortress of death.

The voice acting isn't up to KOTOR levels, but it's not bad, either. The lip-synching is also done admirably well. Your character has a lot more personality than JC Denton, though I admit that I found Denton's flat inflections kind of endearing.

The writing so far has been first-rate; the mysteries are piled on thick and more keep coming. This is clearly going in a different direction from the original, though: DX1 may have been all about conspiracies and secret societies, but the story was a pretty straightforward good versus evil setup, and you were never really in doubt as to which was which. In DX2, though, your choices are a lot more uncomfortable - right now, for instance, I'm being pulled to either support the big bad capitalist elite or the creepy hooded hippie cult. Neither option is particularly appealing, and of course neither group is exactly forthcoming with its real intentions. Which will I choose? Or will I play both sides against the middle? I don't know, but so far every path I've chosen has been fascinating and rewarding - and I have no doubt that the rest of the game will be as well.

I'm a big fan of Star Wars:Knights of the Old Republic, so naturally I was eager to check out DX:IW. I can happily report that I am not disappointed! I've played it for about 4 hours now. There is more hands-on-action and not quite as much role-playing as KOTOR, but the freedom they give you in this game is awesome! The weapons and biomods are really well done and interesting. There are just so many ways to accomplish things, I can see replaying this game over and over. Great game!

Alot of people bashed this game saying "It was not as detailed as the first Deus Ex", "There wasn't different ammo for each weapon", and "I am a big ass baby cause I cant get what I want".

Don't listen to these gays. "It's not like Halo", "it is not as cool as Halo", or "I have a Halo complex because all I do with my life is play Halo" (halo is a great game, don't get me wrong)

This is Deus Ex dammit and It is the secound install I think they do a great job of streamlining the things you need from the things you don't

Take the ammo gripe for instance. Each weapon consumes a different amount of the same ammo, which is no different then having say six sniper bullets or 18 pistol cartridges. The only difference is you don't have to waste your whole day looking for the bullets. I find it more enjoyable

The greatest thing about this game is the replay value I mean you could replay the Seattle level, which is the first level in the game about 100 different ways. Take this into consideration with 15 different biomods you can choose from and about five ballistic weapons, four non-lethal, and an assortment of greneades and gadgets, you can takle the situations anyway you want. If you added various ammo for each weapon it would just be one more thing you have to balance in your inventory, and this is a game not a Quicky Mart.

The Graphics are a little textured, but don't let that detract you from getting this. I gave it four stars only because the graphics (to please the junkies out there) weren't as good as Halo. But, this isn't Halo it is a FPS where the objectives are not neccassarily to blast everything that moves. This game is best suited to those that like to experiment and do not get frustrated easily.

The first Deus Ex was not a cake walk, and neither is this one. You have to know when to shoot, to talk, to run, or to hack into an enemy bot and use his gatling guns against his allies.

A solid buy that will reward those of us who like FPS and RPG games. Besides people what else are we gonna do until Halo 2 comes out? Get this game. You will appreciate its uniqueness You will play it The Order is calling you because they say Its the Crunkinest!!!!

I've never played or even seen the original Deus Ex, but I do like Sci-Fi future-tech types of games and movies.

Deus Ex: Invisible War opens with a beautiful, short (considering the story), but well made cut scene and features a slick futuristic presentation and atmosphere throughout - even the menus look and sound like they're from the future. The world that Deus Ex creates is well done and very believable. The graphics, sound effects, and character interaction really set the mood of a possible future Earth. The story is original and complete in the sense that they've covered all aspects of a future society - economy, technology, spirituality, politics, security, class struggle, corruption, conflict, environmental destruction, and even entertainment. The history of how it got that way is pieced together as you progress through the game.

If atmosphere alone made a game, then we'd be talking about an all-time great game, but it doesn't, and it isn't.

The worst thing about Deus Ex is the combat - it's terrible - stiff, akward, and frustrating with clunky A.I. and bad collision detection. After having played games like Rainbow Six 3 and Halo, the combat in Deus Ex looks and feels ridiculous, like something from another era.

Deus Ex: Invisible War does allow you some freedom, but instead of a large open world or city like GTA, it's broken up into small free-roaming sections or buildings that load when you enter and exit them. There should be no doubt that this game is an RPG all the way, through and through. If the designers had been able to incorporate Rainbow Six type of combat in Deus Ex, this game would have been a monster. But as it is, Invisible War is more about exploring, talking to people, picking up stuff, managing your stuff (life energy & biomod energy, credits, weapons & weapon mods, med kits/food, multitools, and biomod abilities) and accomplishing those missions that YOU see fit to take on.

It's in this last aspect where Deus Ex deviates from other games - it actually reacts to what you do (in terms of plot and interaction). The characters in the game are aware of your actions and are constantly trying to get you to come over to their side and work for them - pulling you in different directions and forcing you to think about what you do and how you do it. This intellectual struggle contrasts with the step-by-step linear storyline of most games, and while I can appreciate this unique quality, and the other positives like graphics and setting, I don't feel that it's enough to be able to call this a great game. These positive aspects save the game from being really bad, instead of pushing it up into greatness.

I guess I would rather see a hard-hitting FPS with strong RPG gameplay (character interaction, player modification, and the evolving plot) than an interesting RPG with weak combat, which is what Deus Ex: Invisible War is. It's not a bad game, and it is what I expected (I read a bunch of reviews before buying); it's just that its potential is so great that with a few tweaks here and there, Invisible War could have been a ground breaking iconic type of XBOX game on the level of Halo and possibly bigger due to the engrossing atmosphere and complexity of the Sci-Fi future-Earth world. Instead it's merely an entertaining game with a cool setting and just enough "different" thrown in to make you keep playing it.

The game is a story driven adventure game that uses an fps
perspective and rpg elements. It offers you a variety of
objectives you can complete in a number of different ways,
depending on your approach and which abilities you choose to
utilize. Your choice of actions affects what happens in the
game world, and the path the story takes.

The story, like the first, is philosophically speculative
science fiction centering on political intrigue, adventure and
self-discovery.

The basic game concept is first-person stealth action set up by
character dialogue and interaction. You complete objectives and talk to people to learn a little bit more of the story and move it along.

The action is decent. You're put in situations where you have
to infiltrate places in order to talk to people or obtain
something, and this usually involves sneaking around, getting
past guards, robots, and electronic security. The tools they
give you to do this, weapons, electronics, and personal
biomodifications, are pretty cool.

In the way of guns, you can equip the neurotoxin dart gun, the
pistol, the shotgun, the sniper rifle, and the mag rail, to name a few. Each gun can have up to two weapon mods, which include enhancements such as glass destabilizer, silencer, emp
converter, range enhancement, etc. Personally, I like being
able to knock out an enemy from afar with two shots from the
dart gun in zoom mode.

The graphics are ok. However, while static screens look good,
during actual gameplay the framerate is slower than optimal and
occasionally drags. But it doesn't detract that much from the
experience, in my opinion.

Overall, this a decent game with an interesting story.

Deus Ex: Invisible War came out last year(2003), and it was one of the best games of last year. Its an open ended delight. This is not an action game. Sure, there are guns in it, but its an RPG at heart. The great thing about this awesome game is that you dont have to do something one way like a Final Fantasy game. You can complete thing mutiple ways. It feels like you're creating the experiance instead of it feeling like a "just there" type of thing. There are multiple endings, and no, I wont spoil anything. I also found some rather interesting secrets, and the more you play this, the more new things you will probably find out. The only real fault is sometimes not so great computer A.I. and a dissapointing frame rate. Dont expect the prettiest game ever, though its not really ugly(the graphics are like a 3.7/5). I dont think the PC version of the same title is as good though, because there were alot of bugs I heard of in the home personal computer version that I didnt find in the Xbox version. I would say to get the Xbox version if you get the choice. Get this game, its quality gaming, and even a breath of fresh air in some ways.

Often when I struggle to write a review, it's when I know I have to pan something despite how much I want to like it. The game gets all kinds of points for cool features, but in the end it just isn't any fun. I finally have the opposite story here. Invisible War has nits begging to be picked everywhere, and comparing it to Deus Ex is almost unfair, because it falls short of that standard on every conceivable level. However, halfway through my second time into the game, I can't escape one truth. This game's a lot of fun, and when it is, it's fun for the same reasons the original was. I can't unconditionally recommend it; it certainly has some problems that might be deal-breakers for some people. But if you like open-ended action-adventuring or you liked Deus Ex (and who didn't?), you'll probably find things to enjoy here.

There's not much point to explaining the story, as it's pretty inconsequential. It's pretty cheesy sci-fi fare (like Deus Ex) that isn't very compelling (~un~like Deus Ex). Suffice it to say the year is 2072 and you start in an academy for gifted youngsters. Very shortly into the game, you leave the academy with some biomodifications (think superpowers) and some gear, and you set out on a globetrotting quest to save/rule/destroy the world, whatever your pleasure may be.

You play from a first person perspective and all the shooter conventions are in place here. As advertised, you're more than welcome to play this game as Doom, and just blast the bejeezus out of everything. You can also go for the stealthy approach, or mix the two for the ever-popular sneak-n-snipe experience, or rely more on talking your way through the game, or whatever suits your fancy. If you played the original, you know the drill.

The multiple solutions to every problem angle is pretty well confined to what you can do with the environment. That is, the RPG sheen of the original is gone. There are no skill points; there are no skills. So how you deal with an obstacle is usually dictated by what's easiest given the equipment and biomods that you have. A little bit of RPG flavor here, but not much.

Still it's fun, skill points or not. Example. I need to destroy an air defense turret so that the helicopter in which I plan to leave Seattle can safely take off. Near that turret, there's a smaller security turret, which is there to kill me if an alarm goes off. There's also a door, on the other side of which is the computer where I can shut the big turret down. The door is locked, of course, and I don't have a passcode, and I'm out of multitools (gadgets that open anything). If I try to blow the door off with a grenade, the small turret will rip me to shreds. I might just as well have gone off looking for another multitool; instead I use one of my biomods that lets me take over robots and turrets. I use the small turret to destroy the big one, and I never even had to get on the other side of the door.

And this is the game. You alternate between collecting tasks and deciding how best to discharge them. The quests that you get come from various competing factions (who will regularly and annoyingly pop up on the screen to talk to you, almost in angels/devils on the shoulder fashion), and there's always plenty to do. Usually, working for one faction will tick off another. And story-wise, the game suffers because, in trying to keep it nonlinear, what's been produced is a game basically made up entirely of side quests, so that the main story, such as it is, is thoroughly forgettable. This, too, comes with a good news aspect, though, as the side quests are not of the "find my lost puppy" variety. Contract hits are much more common, which, however you feel about the morality, is at least a little bit weighty. It's worth mentioning that it's possible to finish this game without ever touching a weapon.

As in the first game, it's the biomods that steal the show. The real fun ultimately derives from custom-building your super-dude and seeing what it can do. There are five biomod slots, and you have three choices for what you want to use each one on. Want to be Rambo? There's a biomod that makes enemy rockets detonate before they reach you and another that lets you regenerate health from the corpses from your victims. There's a good start. Prefer Solid Snake? Go for invisibility and silent running. You design the character you want to play and go get the job done accordingly. Whatever other problems the game has, from moment to moment it stays engaging because of this open-ended nature.

Graphically, the game isn't all that good. Anything we may have gotten better at in terms of pixels and polygons since the original is lost in artistry. Areas are constrained. Cities feel like boxes, and load times are long and frequent. Ditto for sounds. Ambient music is almost nonexistent and not that good, and the entire voice cast (even returning characters from the original) sound like they're straight from a high school play. Atmosphere is severely lacking.

The promise of improved AI went unfulfilled, and it contributes to the problem. People will stand there and watch you as you steal things from right off their desks. In one case, I actually told a man that I was hired to kill him, and he and his bodyguard watched as I calmly walked to a corner of the room with good cover, pulled my rifle and shot him. And of course there's the unified ammo, of which you're probably aware. Your dart gun uses the same ammo as your flamethrower. The suspension of disbelief can be tough to come by in this game at times.

Overall, though, the game mechanics that made the original succeed work here. Problems? You bet. As good as Deus Ex? Not on your life. Fun? Absolutely.

I don't have much to say about this game except that if you like first person shooters and RPGs, then this is the best game you will ever play. 'Nuff said.

PS. The graphics rock.

So Deus Ex the Conspiracy came out a while back to become one of the biggest PC titles ever. The original also made its second debut on the Sony Playstation. I never had the chance to play the original but it sounds like a great game, naturally I was curious to try the xbox version. Invisible War pulls the player back into the futuristic techno world after a collapse caused by JC Denton in the original. From the get go, players customise their character gender and portraits and jump into post collapse USA.

Invisible War offers a load of great graphics and lighting. Other departments such as particle effects are also very well done. The inclusion of rag doll physics makes taking out a room full of enemies both fun and entertaining-who doesn't love rag doll physics?

The musical score is for the most part very laid back but still very good. Sound effects and dialogue are crisp and entertaining. The voice acting is remarkably well done. The characters all sound believable and basically like normal people, not over the top or bland like most other games.

The gameplay is the meat and potatos of the Deus Ex experience as it offers countless new ways to go about completing objectives. This is truly an open ended game as the player can choose who to help, who to ignore and in some cases who lives and dies among the main characters. The biomod feature keeps gameplay fresh and fun allowing players to use biomod canisters found or baught to gain certain skills and abilities, and onward to leveling them up. Bio modification adds a level of tactics to the game as the player must carefully decide what he or she wants. The character will utilize different skills to become a "ninja" or "Rambo" or even a "hacker". Setting up one particular skill restricts the player from being able to use specific other skills. However, if a change of pace is desired, you can always change your skill sets by aquiring new biomods.

Levels of Invisible War will span from country to country and city to city. Each new area offering new people to meet as well as new objectives. The levels are well designed and offer a myriad of ways to accomplish your goals no matter how your character is customized. Although the game is extemely open ended, there are four final end scenarios. Which ending you get can be decided by key moves during the very last level of the game-basically every decision you've done until the very last level means nothing as far as which ending you see.

Deus Ex: Invisible War offers hours and hours of open ended fun as well as customization choices both character and weapon wise. Great visuals to keep you in the experience and equally good voice acting to keep you interested. Invisible War is a game based strongly in replay value and has enough production worth to keep things interesting every time.