Deus Ex 2: Invisible War

Invisible War, while entertaining, is the textbook example of a dumbed down sequel. It was blatantly designed to target a perceived audience of console gamers, and as such feels lackluster in almost every regard. What a rotten way to die... Character customization has been stripped down to its minimum. The skill system is gone, you can uninstall your augmentations whenever you want, and all guns use universal ammo: in short, there are no lasting consequences as to how you build your character, and you can basically change your playstyle on a whim. The vast open levels have been replaced by small interconnected areas: the alternate routes and emergent gameplay that made Deus Ex so good are drastically reduced here, there are often no more that two or three different ways to go through a section. Due to much shorter dialog and levels, the campaign is twice as short as its predecessor and feels rushed. And despite running on a more advanced engine, the graphics are a lot more drab than the original DE: the decent lighting and textures do not make up for the lack of groundedness and detail on display here. So, are there things to salvage?... Well, yes. DE:IW even has a few advantages over its legendary brother. The combat is less janky, there are more secondary quests on offer (even though they tend to consist in basic fetch quests), and some of the gameplay changes like passive augs make it more player-friendly. The plot is fine, and there is some good dialog and a lot to enjoy in the worldbuilding: it's a lot more “sci-fiesque” than DE in its aesthetics, but the various factions and technologies on display are very interesting and imaginative overall. So, while there are a few things here that are worth a playthrough, IW is disappointing. It would be an interesting curiosity if it had no ties to the Deus Ex franchise, but it pales in comparison to its predecessor. You wanted orange? This game gave you lemon lime: it's not bad, but the taste is just not the same.

Deus Ex is a great series. There's fun to be had with all the games but I find the later games are more entertaining than the earlier ones. Many call Invisible War a watered down version of the original Deus Ex, but really that is unfair because a lot of the things they cut in this sequel were tedious in the original. Invisible War gets rid of the skill point system from the original so you won't have to play through half the game before being able to shoot straight with any given weapon. The annoying swimming segments are also gone. The lock picks have been removed in favor of multi-tools. Bioenergy is not as hard to refill in Invisible War so you can actually use your augmentations in this game. You can install augs anywhere now too. These were all good changes--all of which carried over into Human Revolution. The pace of Invisible War is much faster than the original as well which helped keep me more invested in the game overall. The music is awesome, the best in the series if you ask me. Human Revolution is still my favorite but I did have a lot of fun playing through Invisible War. Don't dismiss this good old game.

The much-maligned second entry in the Deus Ex series, Invisible War is a sequel to one of the best games ever made, so had a lot to live up to and inevitably disappointed. It didn't help that the game was primarily designed for Xbox, so had to live within the constraints of that platform before being ported to the PC. Having said all that, I'd still recommend this game to Deus Ex fans. Yes, it's somewhat clunky and dumbed-down compared to the original Deus Ex, but the story is worth playing through, and there are some memorable moments.

I've spent a considerate amount of time trying to make this game work. I got to play for 12 minutes, which I thought I achieved by decreasing to graphics to minimum. Then tried to add a mod for enhanced graphics, made the game close as soon as i try to open it, then removed eveything to do with the mod, and when I re-decreased the graphics, unable to play the game. Make it available to more modern PCs before releasing unplayable trash like this, thank you.

Compared to its big brother, Deus Ex, the sequel is unsatisfying. It's not just the crippled inventory system and lack of improvable skills. It's not even the frustratingly small levels. It has more to do with overly sanitised graphics, gameplay, and game world. It does try hard. The graphics are nice, and while the physics are laughably bouncy now, they are a great improvement over the original. Weapon mods were a nice touch to replace the void left by skills. However, no matter how hard it tries, it cannot overcome the fatal disconnect that is a death sentence to any game - the mechanics do not fit the theme. You are a rouge secret agent - that is at all times at the beck and call of one party or another. In a game where stealth is as prized as a big gun, all your enemies know where you are; when information is valuable currency, everyone knows what you have said to everyone else; when you are encouraged to explore and backtrack, the levels are cramped and loading times are severe. It makes no sense. It is for these reasons that even when not compared to its formidable predecessor, it falls short. Somewhere along the line, in Invisible War's own struggle for greatness, it became the antithesis of what it should have been.