Deus Ex 2: Invisible War

It might be hard to get over the part that this is one of the worst console ports ever, if not the worst. But when given a try it's still an enjoyable game. You will be missing the familiar conspiracy stuff from the first game. This plays a bit further in the future and has no familiar locations except by name. I liked the story, only had a different future in mind for the protagonist of the first game.

This game gets a bad reputation for following the amazing act that was Deus Ex, but honestly it's way better than Human Revolution. Sure HR has more open levels and prettier graphics (though the lighting is actually worse because early 2000's fully rendered shadows were just cool) but all that's in exchange for a stepping back of the simulation systems that made Deus Ex what it was (and yes, they were present in IW). Human Revolution was designed to take some of the simulation elements out where as Invisible War is very clearly a Immersive Sim on full display. Also the plot in Invisible War is far stronger than HR living up to the ideas and intents in the original Deus Ex with twists and turns and dark secret societies based in human culture. Deciding the final fate of the Dentons was far more satisfying than the forgettable ending of HR. If HR is remembered well, frankly so too should this. Neither of them fill the massive shoes of the original Deus Ex, but both are good games in their own right. Invisible War is a good Deus Ex game, and a good Immersive Sim which makes it a better game than 90% of games out there.

You will spend more time waiting for a level to load than playing. Will never live up to its predecessor.

I loved this game when it first came out, it's a true first person RPG action game. This game is a bit dated now compared to modern titles, but it's still enjoyable. This game references the first game constantly, but is better considered a standalone title. (I never liked the other Deus Ex games I played as I felt they lacked atmosphere). This game without patching does not run well on modern hardware! But there is an a patch called the "Deus Ex 2 Visible Upgrade" (google will get you there). This patch will show up a a "heuristic" virus in most modern AV programs but as far as I can tell this just means the AV doesn't trust the file, as it doesn't know what it is. When using this upgrade I choose the following and experienced no issues: I choose not to keep the original game, in the VisibleTweaker tool I selected under Overview, the check box "unified texture pack master enable", then under Display I set the resolution to the same as my monitor (1920x1080). After this I entered the game set the resolution to match, and upped the Multi-sampling to 8x. Exited the game, then started it up again. I would save often as the AI is a bit wonky occasionally, but it's still easy to loose hours playing this so it's worth buying.

This game is still more of a true Deus Ex sequel than Human Reovultion and Mankind Divided. Yes, it's way watered down and made for consoles compared to the original (the GOAT) but the story is still just as engaging to me. I played it so much when I had it for my OG Xbox. Good to see GOG offering it for the PC.