Deus Ex: Invisible War

aka: DX2, Deus Ex 2, IW
Moby ID: 11253
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Twenty years have passed after the events described in Deus Ex. The actions of JC Denton have eventually led to a period of economic depression, known as "The Collapse". The world is on the brink of chaos after the dismantling of the mighty biotech corporations, and multiple religious and political groups lust after power.

The city of Chicago is destroyed in a devastating energy blast by unknown terrorists. Two trainees of the Tarsus Academy, Alex D and Billie Adams, are evacuated to another Tarsus-controlled facility in Seattle. Shortly thereafter the facility is attacked by members of a religious organization called the Order. Billie admits that she has been collaborating with them, implying that Tarsus may be involved in a conspiracy. It is now up to Alex to find his or her place in the new world, and ultimately shape its fate.

Deus Ex: Invisible War is a first-person shooter that retains many gameplay elements of its predecessor, such as conversations with characters, inventory management, exploration, and mixing various gameplay styles during missions. As in the original game, the style of play helps shape the game as it progresses, from how characters interact with the protagonist to the types of situations encountered. Each potential conflict can be resolved in a number of ways, through peaceful means or through violence, using stealth or a show of force. Hacking computer terminals and unlocking doors with special tools are prominently featured.

Weapons can be modified in a variety of ways, e.g. increasing their rate of fire, silencing the shots, allowing the weapon to shoot through glass, etc. Characters can once again outfit their bodies with an array of biotech parts, some of which include the ability to see through walls, disappear from radar, regenerate from critical hits, or jump forty feet in the air. Unlike the previous installment, there are no true role-playing elements in the game. The player must search for biotech canisters to install and upgrade biomods; however, no experience points are awarded for either completing missions or dealing with enemies. Inventory management has been simplified as well.

The sequel places more emphasis on decisions and different approaches to missions. From the beginning of the game the player has the freedom of performing missions for organizations and people of his or her choice. Like in the first game, several endings can be reached depending on the player's decisions.

Spellings

  • Ꝁå‡ŗ重囓ļ¼šéšå½¢ęˆ˜äŗ‰ - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 駭客兄侵 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

276 People (233 developers, 43 thanks) · View all

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 64 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 152 ratings with 16 reviews)

A crying shame

The Good
If you forget all about Deus Ex one game (which I consider to be the best FPS I played) and judge Deus Ex 2 for what it is, you might say that it has a good graphics engine. It's not your regular FPS because adds some elements from RPGs and even has a decent story.

The Bad
Where do I start? The GUI is to large and annoying. The universal ammo is a terrible idea that ruins the fun of having different weapons.

The story does a great job burning up everything the previous game strive to set. You pile up missions in one level up to a point you can't decide what to do next. Without the patch I has problems running in most machines. I guess I can go on and on forever.

The Bottom Line
If you Liked Deus Ex then stay the hell away from this abomination I mean it. It is painful to see what a misguided story and destructive set of ideas can make to a classic.

And to think they even wanted to make a film from the franchise. That's one movie that I regret you wont see anytime soon.

Windows · by Shin_Akuma (15) · 2005

This game Rawked

The Good
This game's gritty style and customization drew me in, and it's sidequests and civilians supply many chances for entertainment. Also, I have had many fun experiences with hunting down every last weapon, just cuz I'm a completion nut. The time it took to do that added a good 5+ hours to the game, and because of multiple pathways, Deus Ex: Invisible War has great replay value

The Bad
I found that I had to crank up my TV's brightness to see what was going on sometimes. However, this is a small price to pay for greatness.

The Bottom Line
This game is a sci-fi shooter's dream.

Xbox · by lord of daedra (62) · 2007

Deus meh

The Good
After the global Collapse, the WTO established safe enclaves for the best and brightest citizens of the world. In these enclaves commercialism flourishes. WTO troops and private sector security forces guard commercial and housing districts, while corporations have free reign to raise and educate their future employees. But all is not well. The Order Church have stepped up their anti-WTO activities. Chicago is decimated by a nanotech bomb, an Arcologist compound in Cairo is under siege, and the Panzerwerks factories are crippled by saboteurs. And lurking in the background is the revitalized Knights Templar, whose neo-luddite rhetoric has taken on religious fervor.

Deus Ex: The Invisible War begins with an Order raid on a Tarsus Academy in Seattle. The playerā€™s character, Alex Dā€”a Tarsus student, finds him- or herself under fire and unable to trust the WTO structure heā€™s been raised in. While the Order is clearly in the wrong, events suggest that Tarsus had ulterior motives regarding his education. Alex finds himself pulled between the WTO and the Order, with both sides recruiting his friends and attempting to sway his opinion. Starting in Upper Seattle, the player is quickly immersed in the gray morality that is the world of Deus Ex.

Invisible War is an action RPG presented from an FPS perspective. The game presents the player with a series of choices in terms of quests and goals. The choices are often conflicting and usually weigh a stack of credits against Alexā€™s code of ethics. The owner of a nightclub will want someone killed but the mark could double your money. Killing a fighting greasel might improve your gambling luck. Small choices lack the larger repercussions found in the original game, but you can cater to the several factions vying for your favor.

While much of the game can be played over the barrel of the gun, stealthy players can complete the game with few, if any, kills. Like its predecessor, Invisible War is customizable. Through the use of legal and black market biomods, players can upgrade their character, concentrating on creating a covert ops hacker or a killing machine. Basic upgrades allow for health regeneration, increased strength, and increased speed. Illegal modifications let players hack ATMs, take control of security turrets, and drain life from unconscious enemies.

Invisible War doesnā€™t have to be combat intensive, but there is a decent amount of weaponry to be found. Ranged weapons include the typical lethal pistols, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. A poisoned dart boltcaster can knock out opponents from a distance. You can get up close and personal with a combat knife, energy sword, or various baton types. There is also a wide array of explosives for various user needs.

Of note, all projectile weapons draw from the same ammunition pool, but at a different rate. So you might not be able to send any more rockets flying at a Templar in full armor, but you can switch over to the pistol and fire off a few more rounds. Weapons can also be modified, but can only take two upgrades and canā€™t be downgraded if you change your mind.

The world of Deus Ex is still populated with interesting characters, some of whom return from the original game. The world is littered with books and datacubes, coming nowhere near Morrowindā€™s word count, but still filling in the gaps and explaining things like why all guns take the same ammunition. This entry has fewer locations than the original (and smaller levels), but there is still a bit of globetrotting to be done.


The Bad
Invisible War, aside from its weaknesses as a Deus Ex game, is a fun, largely open-ended excursion. Its ten hour playtime doesnā€™t provide enough time to develop characters or explore the storyline and players just coming to the franchise might prefer if characters just shut up rather than droning on about myriad conspiracies and organizations. Still thereā€™s a lot to like here.

Most of what I didnā€™t like involved design choices. The HUD is clunky and crowded. Resembling an iris, good chunks of Alexā€™s peripheral vision are taken up with inventory and biomod information. You still have to enter an inventory screen to manage inventory, so it really isnā€™t time savingā€”especially since you can use the scroll wheel to move through active inventory items.

Levels look similar regardless of where they are geographically. I guess the proliferation of WTO technology is part of the problem, but I was really dying for something organic towards the gameā€™s end.

Finally, aside from a rendered opening and four rendered endings, nothing happens outside of a game levelā€”i.e., taking a helicopter from Cairo to Trier means clicking on a helicopter in Cairo and then magically showing up in Trier. A few transitional scenes would have been nice.

The Bottom Line
Thereā€™s an interesting conspiracy theory that Invisible War is smaller, simpler, and shorter than the original in an effort to make it more console-friendly. Iā€™m not sure I buy it, but you have to wonder: in an age when sequels are bigger and better, why is Invisible War so scaled-down?

Let me step back, when I first played Deus Ex I was singularly unimpressed. As a first-person shooter, it was just average and lacked any sort of robust AI. As a first-person sneaker, I much preferred the Thief series. What I liked on my first play through, was the amount of character customization and the conversation options. And the fact that I had choices to make. Choices that seemed to matter.

The second time I played Deus Ex, I realized how brilliant the game was. Based on the choices your character makes, killing Anna early on or saving Paul, the game feels completely different. Thereā€™s an incredible level of branching, which I missed the first time out.

Back to Invisible War, Iā€™m not sure that anything I did, up until the last half hour of gameplay, had any real effect. Itā€™s that last half hour that determines which of the four endings youā€™ll get. Unfortunately, the previous 9-1/2 hours havenā€™t directed you towards any particular outcome. Are the Illuminati better than the Templars? Is the WTOā€™s vision of utopia more convincing than ApostleCorpsā€™? Does any of it really matter?

Windows · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2005

[ View all 16 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
It's not that bad! Unicorn Lynx (181780) Sep 15, 2011
Screenshots Cantillon (75985) Sep 8, 2011
Dynamic Lighting St. Martyne (3648) Nov 15, 2008

Trivia

Basketball

Continuing the Warren Spector tradition, Invisible War features a basketball court. It's right at the beginning of the game and there's no missing it; one of your mandatory objectives will send you through there.

Engine

Ion Storm licensed the Unreal engine and heavily modified it for this game. Its a inhouse engine with a tiny bit of Epic's Unreal code left in. It is said that the engine programmer left mid-development with a largely undocumented code which caused the game's numerous technical problems.

Music

In order to bring popstar NG Resonance's music to life, Eidos licensed a few tracks from the industrial/techno band "Kidney Thieves". Said tracks can be found in their Trickstereprocess album. The original soundtrack for the game on the other hand, can be downloaded for free on Eidos's site.

References

The coffee shops, Pequod's, and QueeQueg's are from Moby Dick. The Pequod, was the name of the ship. QueeQueg is the Indian harpooner.* In the abandoned curio shop over the 9 World Taverns, you can find a book containing text on the care and cleaning of Ohio State Bobbleheads. Chris Carollo, the lead programmer for Invisible War is an Ohio State alumni. * The Tarsus Academy shares a name with the city that was the birthplace of Paul, the apostle. Paul Denton acts as the apostle for J.C. Denton.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2004 ā€“ Best Console Story of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2003 ā€“ #7 Game of the Year
    • 2003 ā€“ #3 Xbox Game of the Year
    • 2003 ā€“ #5 PC Game of the Year
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 04/2009 - One of the "10 Most Terrible Sequels" (It is a good game in its own right but it changes everything which made Deus Ex big for the worse, e.g. exciting story, clever level design, RPG elements and freedom of decision.)

Information also contributed by MasterMegid, Scott Monster and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Jeanne.

Xbox added by Jason Walker.

Additional contributors: xroox, Zovni, Unicorn Lynx, Shoddyan, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 6, 2003. Last modified March 19, 2024.