Deus Ex: Invisible War (Windows)

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Description

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.

Screenshots

Alternate Titles

• "駭客入侵" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
• "杀出重围：隐形战争" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
• "IW" -- Common abbreviation
• "DX2" -- Common abbreviation
• "Deus Ex 2" -- informal name

Part of the Following Groups

• 3D Engine: UnrealEngine2
• Deus Ex series
• Gameplay feature: Multiple endings
• Middleware: FaceFX
• Physics Engine: Havok
• Setting: City - New York
• Theme: School

User Reviews

Behold the greatness of Deus Ex: even its butchered sequel still rocks	Cor 13 (171997)
One hell of a mixed bag.	kbmb (399)
A sequel designed around the limitations of the Xbox console	Lumpi (197)
Invisible War is an underrated title, and despite its simplified elements, is still amongst the most intriguing of modern adventure titles.	Kadath Bird (706)
Deus meh	Terrence Bosky (5232)
Not as good as the original but it's still Deus Ex	Rambutaan (432)
Almost heaven, nearly hell.	Scott Monster (924)
A classic turned into crap	Mattias Kreku (423)
Heavily underrated, but not as good as the original	コナン (86414)
A shorter, prettier, simpler extension of a great game with all the same flaws as the original.	Marty Bonus (41)	unrated

The Press Says

Gameplay (Benelux)	Jan, 2004	86 out of 100	86
PC Games (Germany)	Mar 19, 2004	85 out of 100	85
PC Action	Mar 16, 2004	85 out of 100	85
Pelit	Feb, 2004	84 out of 100	84
Gamesmania	Jan 23, 2004	81 out of 100	81
4Players.de	Mar 05, 2004	81 out of 100	81
Factornews	Jan 26, 2004	8 out of 10	80
Joystick (French)	Mar, 2004	6 out of 10	60
Thunderbolt Games	Apr 04, 2005	6 out of 10	60
Gaming Age	Dec 05, 2003	C+	58

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
It's not that bad!	19	Zovni (9344) Sep 15, 2011
Screenshots	3	Pseudo_Intellectual (44780) Sep 08, 2011
Dynamic Lighting	12	Ash Ligast II (1651) 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 – Best Console Story of the Year
• GameSpy
  • 2003 – #7 Game of the Year
  • 2003 – #3 Xbox Game of the Year
  • 2003 – #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

Related Web Sites

• Deus Ex 2 (Official Web Site)
• Deus Ex: Invisible War Post-Mortem (Warren Spector and Harvey Smith speak about the development and shortcomings of Deus Ex: Invisible War (Youtube))
• Hi-Res Textures for Deus Ex: Invisible War (Download a pack containing hi-res replacement textures for the game.)
• Kidney Thieves official site (Site of the industrial/techno band Kidney Thieves, who contributed to Invisible War's soundtrack.)