Deus Ex 2: Invisible War

Here we go. Take reviews on this one with a pinch of salt, because the game it followed is one of the most beloved PC games in history. There are people who'll insist this game was terrible. They are wrong. It's true that this outing isn't as good as the original. Several questionable design decisions - the use of one "universal" ammo for all weapons, the removal of skills, changes to the body augmentations (essentially minor superpowers), and smaller, less complex levels - were widely criticised on its release, and for the most part this isn't unfair. Invisible War strips away or alters some of the complexity that most players enjoyed in the first game. It's also a shorter game than the original, and there are many items and weapons that are plain useless (notably the riot prod; an indispensible tool in the first game, but in IW it offers literally no advantages over, say, the police baton). There's a smaller cast of characters, fewer surprises in the plot, and you'll probably find a combination of augs and items that can solve any problem long before the final act. BUT. It's still an entertaining game. Remember that all the above only looks so bad when you compare it to Deus Ex, one of the greatest PC games to this day. It's still an above average action RPG, with an interesting plot, some good set pieces, and lots of replay value. It also scores an extra point for me personally by having several major NPCs try to talk you into carrying out their plans, and having another turn up and say "screw that, let's just kill them all". It's that kind of game - you nearly always have a few options as to how to approach a situation, be it how to get past a sentry, or how to resolve a major plot point. Average shooting, but above average plot, player freedom, and production values. It's the weakest Deus Ex game, but great nonetheless. Give it a try.

Deus Ex: Invisible War is the greatest game in the entire series. Let me go into a bit of history here. I'd heard about Deus Ex back in the early 2000's when it was first released. Never gave it the time of day because back then I was a console gamer and didn't own a powerful PC. Then, around December-January of last year, I decided to buy Deus Ex: GOTY off Steam. I loved it. It was 20 hours of some of the best gameplay I'd ever experienced. But there were a few problems. The first Deus Ex separated the RPG elements into two distinct categories: Skills, which you acquired from gaining experience and completing objectives, and Augmentations, which you acquired from augmentation canisters. A third RPG element was introduced called upgrade canisters. These would allow you to upgrade one of your augmentations to the next level. Augmentations were a big selling point for the first Deus Ex, but as I played it, I found that they were largely useless and didn't matter. This was really disappointing for me. It didn't matter what augmentations you had equipped because there was always a way to do what you wanted to do. I just couldn't help but feel that the augmentations were an unnecessary addition to the game, and were even poorly implemented. Almost all augmentations in Deus Ex: GOTY were active, when I felt many of them, such as "Run Silent" should have been passive. The real meat of Deus Ex GOTY's RPG elements were in its skill system, a system that I felt was more a formality than anything else. How did you play Deus Ex: GOTY? Did you specialize in a weapon type of your choice, of which there were only 4, get a point in Computers and Electronics, and then max Lockpicking? So did I. As far as RPG elements went, Deus Ex: GOTY felt as watered down as they come. At best, helpful in select situations, and at worst, totally unnecessary. This isn't to say Deus Ex: GOTY was a bad game. It's one of my favorite games of all time. However, what skills and augmentations you chose didn't have a significant impact on how you played the game, unless you went out of your way to play differently, which usually involved you in some way handicapping yourself. The RPG elements just were not that deep, and even somewhat of a hindrance at times. Enter Deus Ex: Invisible War. This game is not without its technical flaws, but in terms of its gameplay, story and RPG elements, it truly shines in my view. In Deus Ex: IW, the skill system was done away with altogether. Now you won't specialize in Low Tech weaponry only to find out later you don't need it when you get a particularly powerful sword. Nope. Skills and augmentations have been combined into "biomods", which is just another name for augmentations. Now the player has to choose: Do you want to be a supreme hacker, or do you want to have a cloaking ability? You can't have both. And it's in this area, ladies and gents, that Deus Ex: Invisible War shines. You actually have to devise a build, and your build will have a significant impact on how you play through the game. Want to hack? You can't cloak then. Want to regenerate health? Then you have to choose between the Regeneration biomod, which locks out all eye-related biomods, or Health Leech Drone, which locks out all other movement-related biomods. Biomods can only be upgraded to level 3, and biomod canisters are abundant in this game, meaning you can even switch your build later on if you don't like the one you're currently using! I loved that. Some people say it's "dumbed down", but I believe this simplified system creates more freedom to roleplay, and has a greater impact on how you play the game, therefore, it has more depth to me. Another improvement over GOTY is that many of IW's biomods are passive. You no longer need to activate your Strength augmentation. It's always on, and it doesn't consume any bioelectric energy (Deus Ex speak for "MP"). Not only that, but unlike in GOTY, you can play a true super villain in this game. So many choices you make in Invisible War are morally gray, and even though Alex D sounds like your run-of-the-mill good guy, but I never felt that his "nice guy" demeanor got in the way of my villainy. Maybe that's just me, though. Deus Ex: IW is a true roleplaying game through and through, if you allow yourself to get into that headspace. To give you an example, I remember on my first playthrough, I didn't know who I wanted to ally with: The WTO or the Order Church. I got picked on by some thugs, ran away, and one of the Order Church's followers came to my aid with her bolt gun - after I had just told her off! It was then that I decided to see what the Church had to say. It was fun for me, but be warned - to enjoy IW to the fullest, you *must* roleplay in it. There is so much I can say about this game that was great, but I think I will stop here. A fantastic, wonderful, misunderstood game with a very strange HUD that can be difficult on the eyes even at the best of times. But you can, however, reconfigure the HUD and turn it off almost completely in the options menu.

When I first played this game, I complained like hell. I verbally trashed it to all who would listen and many who didn't. As a sequel to the first Deus Ex, it is a great dissapointment. However, a few years after, I gave it another go and truth be told, it isn't that bad a game (with a few mods added). I prefer the darker graphics of the first game, the story isn't as good, less combat tactics, the game feels claustrophobic compared to the first. The game just doesn't match up on any aspect, that is all still true. But if one doesn't look upon it as a sequel, but as a stand-alone game, it isn't bad. The story is okay, the writing is better than many shooters and the combat is enjoyable enough. 9.99 is a bit high though . . .

This game has been getting a lot of bad critique because it had to live up to the hype of the first game. Sadly, it was dumbed down quite a bit and the feeling of immersiveness isn't there as much as it is in the first game. But in its own right, it's better than a lot of other games I've played. And I still really liked the story, the poorly executed game mechanics just dragged it down a little bit, but I can easily ignore that if I just think about the story. I'm not going to spoil anything, but even if you didn't like the gameplay all that much, it's more than worth it to still play through it just to see the different endings.