Deus Ex 2: Invisible War

Running the latest version of wine-staging on ubuntu mate 16.04, there have been no issues out of the box.

but sadly we either can give a whole number score here. Now I'm sure my review of this game will be buried by those who think that it's a good game because they managed to like it or feel that if it was not called Deus Ex it wouldn't have as much hate. - Personally I always hated that argument, Shakespeare once said "A rose by any other name would still smell just as sweet" well the same logic can be applied to something that is well, not that good. Now you can acuse me of being harsh on this game because it's not Deus Ex, but that is not the case I judge a game not by it's legacy or name but by it's own merits. For example I look at every Ultima game not as a Ultima but it's own entity. Plus I never played the original till after playing Invisible War and I have played this game many times since my first attempt on the original Xbox and time and time again, I tried to like it but for me I just couldn't get passed the glaring flaws in it, which is something that I could in Thief: Deadly Shadows. - So what makes this game so reviled? Well let's see here first off the game was quite buggy but I never hold that against anything most of the Elder Scrolls games, Ultimas, and even Vampire: the Masqurade - Bloodline which no one would argue isn't a good game were buggy, especially VTM not to mention those same games have some noticable flaws and short commings but the thing about those games is the gameplay more then makes up for their flaws and short comings which is more then I can say about this game. - So what are these things that I felt that really hurt this game? First off is the flow of the game, much like Thief: Deadly Shadows which uses the same engine, suffers from constant loading screens for each cell and mind you each cell is really small so you may find yourself taken out of the action more often then not way too often. But unlike Thief 3 the levels aren't that great, there not terrible there just well meh - There is some dumbing down of the game mechanics, granted this game was made with the original Xbox in mind so it's possible Ion Storm felt that they were making things more "console friendly" but even by console standered this is still some what the hell crap. Like for example all weapons use the same ammo type and stealth has become little more then just finding the nearest vent, now don't get me wrong stealth in Dues Ex 1 wasn't anything great either but it worked alot better then it does here, the levels are more straight forward and linear. Now I can forgive linearity when it's done right but here it's just feel well lazy. Maybe if your more inclined to forgive that kind of thing then hey who am I to judge or say your wrong? - Oh and there are no real RPG elements like Stats and XP in the first game again feels like they were going with what they thought console gamers would expect out of a first person game - The story isn't great, I personally found it hard to care about my character and the world I was in, the writing feels weak and it just felt like I couldn't get lost into it. - The UI is pretty bad - The AI some how seems to run between being on par with the first games(which wasn't very good to begin with) and just brain dead. - I could honestly go on and on about what I thought was wrong with this game and why I score it the way I did. But honestly I want to talk about the what I did like, I did have fun for awhile till I just couldn't get around all the things I mentioned and I don't doubt that if I could get passed the flaws then I could honestly say it's a decent game but I just can't. So in closing if your considering this game think very carefully, think over what I said I hated about this game and take the time to look at videos of the game in action on Youtube and see if you may be one of those who can see something worthwhile in this game.

simply say: Consoles ruin games i did enjoy remote robot controls and some basic choices for transport options Pros: - game is easy so you will not suffer too much playing it - 1 easy mod to improve whole game - slightly better voice acting budget than 1st game, but worse quality of lines... - Controls are nice :) - nice and easy to use augments - Bossfights are in spirit similar to the OG Deus Ex - aka you can blast enemy completely flooring a figtht Cons: - not real deus ex - redcons to iconic characters... - bad story - stupid factions - lack of depth - way too simple to feel like you doing something on your own - bad character progression even if you miss power ups - worse Music than OG - game feels very linear and on rails and choices have no impact until you get different ending

However, the problem is that there's this little game called Deus Ex which does literally everything Invisible War does, only better in every single possible way. Invisible War looks better, and that's really the only thing it has over the original. Everything else is a soggy cardboard version of the original. Now to be fair, a soggy cardboard version of an absolutely incredible game is still half decent. But why settle for soggy cardboard, when you don't have to? I do think it's slightly better than Human Revolution though. Playing HR feels like wandering through a good looking Deus Ex theme ride, while IW definitely feels like its own take on a Deus Ex style game (even if that take is a claustrophobic uncanny valley).

The ragdoll physics are fun, but the style of the game feels more star trek than cyber punk. Story gets a interesting once you pass Egypt. This does have multiple endings but only one I found satisfying. There is a load screen issue but it can be fixed by getting the all in one fix mod. The tranq rifle requires multiple shots to take down an enemy non lethal. This is significantly easier than the first. Overall story is ok and gameplay is still enjoyable.