Hi guys,

I wanted to ask you about something.
I finished Deus Ex recently for the first time (I made several attempts since it was released and it never seemed to appeal much to me, this time it appears it hit the right note) and heard that the sequel sucks pretty much. Oh wait, it doesn't suck pretty much, it's bloody awful.

Since I haven't seen the game at all (mainly because my friends told me not to pick it up at all) I wanted to ask you what do you think of this. Is Invisible War that awful as everyone says?

I haven't played it myself (can't get it to run on my laptop) but everything I've heard says that it's only bad as a sequel to Deus Ex; as a console-style FPS, it's fine.

It is pretty underwhelming....

I'd direct you to this video which sums up the game's failings pretty well, but it contains massive spoilers, so you might wanna tread carefully there.

http://youtu.be/59PzmOLSf00

No, it's not a bad game, it just doesn't improve on anything Deus Ex did - it's just more scaled down in order to work with the technical limitations of the original Xbox. Graphically it looks pretty damn good still, but the areas/maps are extremely small, an entire city hub is probably around the size of the NYC Hotel (indoor) area in the original Deus Ex, feels really cramped and certainly doesn't feel like wandering anything resembling a city, and even then there are lots and lots of load screens. I know a lot of people hated the universal ammo system, but to me it made total sense in the nano-machine powered future and I never had any issues with it while playing. The upgrade/RPG mechanics are almost gone, as is the inventory, but the story is still great and all, it's just extremely scaled back compared to the original, and not in a semi-positive "they streamlined the design a bit to make it more modern" way, but just "they obviously removed all this stuff just to fit in the tiny RAM allotment of the Xbox". So, it's a step back when compared to Deus Ex, but compared to most FPSes of the day, or even today, it's pretty damn good.

Invisible War is a mediocre shooter with too much bloom. It wasn't so much bad as it was a huge step backwards from the pinnacle of the first game. The interface was designed for consoles and didn't work very well. The level design was much smaller and more restrictive, though not as linear as games became after it. Compared to the philosophical themes of the first game, this one's themes don't come together nearly as well. It was disappointing.

It's not that bad if you can live with crappy inventory, annoying physics and ultra small levels (they even divided liberty island into two parts and they both combined are like 25% of liberty island from dx1). The story is ok and it even has one nice twist (however not as good as in dx1).

It really is THAT bad.

I take issue with the shared ammo – a model example of blatant simplification. As if console hardware is incapable of keeping track of multiple ammo types in the inventory. The pistol, sniper rifle, flamethrower and rocket launcher – they all use the same ammo type. The unreality of this abomination aside; if you launch a few rockets, you'll soon have nothing to shoot with.

Apart from that, I felt the story was a bit contrived, and the ending too similar to Deus Ex 1. The first game had plenty of charm. It combined all of the world's biggest conspiracy theories into one great story, and unraveling those conspiracies was tremendous fun. The story in the sequel feels pale in comparison.

Compared to the original...Yes.

Great, fanboys complaining and whining about how blend the shooting part is. They don't see the bigger picture.

DX 2 IS NOT A SHOOTER GAME. It is an interactive fiction/adventure with SHOOTING part. I might be exaggerating here, but to me it sounds like you guys are criticizing Penumbra series because it doesn't have any shooting part.

what's even funnier is that even DX 1 had crappy weapon balance and shooting mechanisms. 1. Tell me why you felt that story was a bit contrived. It had great characters and story flow while not throwing away the choice and consequence.

2. DX 2 had better conspiracies. Have you tried the coffee war side quest? Have you not seen the events that had really good twists? Let's see for example, you were tricked the whole game.

3. Ending is similar? Lol please. It had CLEAR endings. You choose one and that's it. It's not like in DX 1 when this AI suddenly tells you that it wants to merge with you and stuff.

4. Why the hates on universal ammo? I find it to be really practical.

I played IW before I played the original DX so I've got a slightly different perspective on it.

The graphics in the second one are pretty good, but the areas are small, and feel empty since there's usually only a handful of people in them. Areas like the market and the nightclub just don't feel right. This was my main problem with the game. Otherwise, it's enjoyable, but not particularly memorable.

The first DX was over-hyped for me. I was expecting so much from all the talk about it, so I was let down a bit. It's a good game, to be sure, but it's got problems as well. It feels clunky, watching enemies running in place or backwards while their legs are running forwards. The levels are much larger, but somewhat empty feeling as well, as there's a lack of detail to the environments. The game has a lot more depth though, and seems to allow for a wider variety of playstyles than the second one.

I haven't finished either of the games (on my to-do list, really!) so my thoughts on each are incomplete, and I won't comment on the storyline since I don't know either of them turn out.

Yeah, IW is an amazing game in my view.

Ignore my very poorly written review. I rushed it, condensed it, didn't proofread it, and it reads like I have some kind of mental condition. :D

But I'll stick by the points I made in that review.

I had this big, long post, but then I said, screw it.

-No, IW is not that bad of a game. It's my personal favorite in the series.

-Yes, IW has its share of technical issues.

-No, universal ammo was not a bad idea. It works. Yes, it seems like a silly solution.

-No, IW was not as oversimplified as people claim. The focus was put on making the augmentations/biomods more useful and intuitive, and to that end, they succeeded. GOTY was very simple and watered down to me in its own right.

1. It tried too hard to be the original Deus Ex. The developers wanted to add all the familiar characters like the Denton brothers, Tracer Tong, Nicolette DuClare, Chad Dumier, etc. The setting was OK, but the story has already been seen before.

2. The coffee war was amusing enough, but let me explain what I meant: DX1 took some of the most famous conspiracy theories that exist in real life and blended them seamlessly in the game. You have the Illuminati and other secret societies, the Bilderberg Group aliens, Area 51, FEMA, Project Echelon, and a couple of others. What you have in DX 2 is just a rehash of some of those -- the Illuminati want to take over the world, the Templars want to commit major genocide, etc. Doesn't even approach the grandeur of DX1.

3. DX1:

a) Illuminati control behind the scenes
b) Tracer Tong destroys technology and plunges the world into another feudal age
c) JC merges with Helios to create an automated and powerful decision-making entity with a human mind.

DX2:

a) Illuminati control behind the scenes
b) Saman eradicates all transgenic people and plunges the world into another feudal age (where he is king)
c) All of humanity merges with JC/Helios to enable automatic decision-making based on a hive mind consensus
d) You kill the leaders of all the factions and let humanity sort itself out.
(Only the last one is truly original. Have I forgotten anything?)

4. Universal ammo, apart from being pure programming laziness, is utterly unbelievable. How can the same ammo type be used to make a rocket and a pistol bullet? Furthermore, some weapons (like the sniper rifle) consume too much ammo. That means that after you fire a few sniper rounds, you can't use the SMG anymore. Where's the logic in that?


I'm not saying DX2 is a thoroughly bad game, just that it didn't live up to its predecessor. DX3 tried a new approach and is thus a better game, with a fresh story, characters and setting. You can't rely on the same old stuff to sell the game; you've got to invent something new.

I'm fine with universal ammo, as someone else stated already, in nanite powered future...why not?

On the other hand levels are unbelievably small, and loading takes AGES even on 7 years newer computer.

I had a lot of fun playing it when it came out and am having a lot of fun playing it again. For me, that's a good game.

As for the universal ammo, it makes perfect sense in a world where human beings can be augmented in many different ways by nanites. In DX1 J.C.Denton had a ridiculously voluminous coat which could accommodate dozens of missiles for the G.E.P. Gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition for the various other weapons. Where's the logic in that?