Deus Ex: Invisible War, brought to you by the team at Ion Storm is the sequel
to the original Deus Ex title released 3 years ago on the PC. Invisible War
takes place 20 years after the events that unfolded in the first title and cast
you as a covert anti-terrorist operative. As Alex Denton you are put in the
center of an invisible war being fought between global companies and religious
fanatics, each with their own views on how to unify and correct the world problems,
economically or spiritually.

Gameplay
The most significant aspect of Deus Ex: Invisible War is the power of choice;
Ion Storm did a wonderful job of putting the power of choice in the users’
hand. As Alex Denton you can choose how you prefer to conduct business, by force,
bribery, stealing or even legitimately. The world of Deus Ex has numerous factions
fighting for superiority, the WTO, Templars, The Order and The Omar, each with
their owns views on the future and their own agenda. The ability to progress
through the game by keeping your honor to a particular group, one you can betray
at almost any time, allow for a linear mode of game play.

Every FPS has a wide variety of weapons and Deus Ex is certainly loaded with
them as well. Throughout the game you are given a healthy choice of weapons
to meet your needs. The shotgun and SMG for encounters requiring more force;
the sniper rifle and boltcaster for instances where stealth and secrecy are
needed. All together the game features over 8 projectile weapons and an assortment
of combat related ones such as the baton and energy blade. The variety of weapons
allows you to approach each situation as you see fit, be it with force or stealth.
The variety of weapons also allows you to decide if people should die or not,
certain weapons such as the stun prod and bolt caster are non fatal, instead
they render the enemy unconscious.

The weapon system in Deus Ex: Invisible War was impressive, featuring customization
of particular weapons with modifications. There are 8 weapon mods available:
Silencer, Glass Destabilizer, Refire Rate, Increase Damage, Fragmentation Round,
EMP Converter, Ammo Scavenger and Increase Range. Choosing which weapons receive
which modifications can mean the difference between blowing your cover or wasting
a mod. For instance, if you choose to play the stealth role, have a gun that
can destabilize glass is useful, however a loud gun doing it defeats the point
of sneaking.

In addition to the weapon modifications is the biomods; biomods allow for the
user to implant nano technology into their own system to give it certain abilities.
In Invisible War there are two types of biomods available, legitimate ones,
and black market ones that have been hacked by Russian crackers. Certain abilities
require a particular type of modification and some mods can be upgraded to various
levels. Biomods can be implanted into 5 locations throughout the body, with
3 different types of abilities for each location, one in each location requiring
a black market biomod. The following are standard biomod abilities: Regeneration,
Vision Enhancement, Cloak, Hazard Drone, Aggressive Defense Drone, Thermal Masking,
Biotox Attack Drone, Strength Enhancement, Move Silent and Speed Enhancement.
The following are black market biomods: Health Leech Drone, Bot Domination,
Electrostatic Discharge, Neural Interface and Spy Drone. While black market
biomods can be found in certain levels for the taking, you are often left to
dealing with unsavory people to get access to them.

The levels in Dues Ex; this is a major factor in the game itself. The levels
though compact in size, offer many ways to actually complete an objective; tunnel
systems, roof tops, fire escapes, cracks in walls and sewer systems all litter
what appears at face value to be very basic levels. The numerous entry points
however is what gives Deus Ex its charm, allowing a person to blow the front
door off, or sneak in past the security system without disabling it or damaging
it. With guards being alerted to the bodies of their fallen comrades, the cracks
and crevices throughout a level allow for you to hide bodies easily and remain
undetected.

Control
The controls in Deus Ex are nicely laid out, allowing for anyone to master them
in a short period of time. The Heads up Display (HUD) allows for you to easily
navigate through your biomods, weapons or items as you see fit. The game also
takes a short pause when you bring up any menu, though you can simply access
the menu’s using the directional pad without pausing the game, allowing for
you to keep the action steadily progressing. The rounded design to the HUD also
gives the game a sense of style, the HUD has a very futuristic feel that further
adds to the immersive design of the game. For those familiar with First Person
Shooters on the console, the controls will be easily mastered and for those
who are not, 15 minutes to half hour at most will be needed to get the hang
of it.

  • Left Trigger: Alternate Fire
  • Right Trigger: Fire
  • Dpad: Navigate Interface
  • A Button: Use
  • B Button: Cycle Weapons
  • X Button: Inventory Menu
  • Y Button: Jump
  • Black: Biomods
  • White: Data Vault
  • Left Analogue: Move / crouch (click)
  • Right Analogue: Look

Graphics

The graphics in Deus Ex: Invisible War are well done, the texture work specifically
on the officers armor is nicely detailed and doesn’t get pixilated when up close.
The models are decent with the characters offering numerous animations when
idle, searching, on guard, or attacking. None of the characters get too blocky
when approached up close, though they do not appear as smooth as when viewing
them from a fair distance. The designs on the characters and robots are not
very original however; soldiers look how you would expect them to and religious
fanatics wear robes etc. All together I would rate the graphics in Deus Ex:
Invisible War to be standard, nothing that stands out as amazing from a design
aspect and nothing overly impressive for the models and animation.

Audio
The sound effects in Deus Ex 2 are nicely detailed down to the sound effects
of the weapons themselves. Each weapon in Deus Ex contains its own unique sound
that changes depending on the mod equipped on the gun and which mode of fire
is being used. While the physics in the game are lacking, the actual sound effects
that accompany items that are reacting to those physics is nicely done; empty
drums falling from extreme heights sound as expected. Had the game not featured
such detailed sound effects it would have been hard to immerse yourself into
the world of Deus Ex and its wonderful environments.

Adding to that immersive feeling is the character dialogue. The people in Deus
Ex 2 all feature their own personalities and will carry on conversations with
one another while they are not interacting with you, though the conversations
aren’t in depth, it stops you from feeling like the world revolves around you
and everyone is just idling waiting for you to initiate conversation. I was
also happily surprised to see that the voice acting matched well with the character
designs, none seeming out of place and no voice acting being badly done. Finally
is the background music; I found it to be on the bland side. Unfortunately it
did not motivate me at any moments or add to my sense of urgency to accomplish
a task etc, although it is nicely done for ambiance, it almost goes unnoticed
while playing the game due to your thoughts often being elsewhere.

Replay Value
With Deus Ex: Invisible War featuring various different endings, depending on
the path and side you take, the game has great potential to be played numerous
times over. Without actually completing the game, I often found myself going
back and trying new ways to infiltrate a location, rob an item, and gain access
to certain locations. With each obstacle or objective containing 2 or more different
ways to complete the game has limitless potential. The various biomods, as well
as weapon mods your character contains also play a huge role in the numerous
options for completing a mission.

Reviewer's Additional Comments
The original Deus Ex title for the PC found itself gaining much praise when
it was released, mainly for its RPG elements and multiple ways to handle a given
situation. This follow up title carries the same elements that made the original
so popular, the ability to choose how you will do things and the type of character
you will have. That choice has lead me to an addiction of trying to find out
how many different ways a particular part of the game can be played. I have
done almost all the missions in both a stealth mode as well as forceful way.
Though the team at Ion Storm would have preferred the ability to have larger
levels, they have created a masterpiece in level design with what they had to
work with.

While this review is very positive, there are some things I felt were sub par
with this title. The physics engine in this game seemed like a rush job, with
thrown items not damaging other items often, people not being hurt by an adult
lobbing a trophy at their head etc. In just the opening moments of the game
I managed to throw a chair through a closed door, it didn’t damage the
door, it simply went through it. To add to the list of bugs, I was able to actually
leave a level, not progress but stand upon it almost. I simply jumped at a pipe
that I thought was a ladder on a roof and ended up standing looking down into
a bottomless non textured void. With the sub par physics engine and numerous
bugs including a disappearing biomod during the first level, and a crash when
I exited a dominated bot just as it was firing, I am starting to feel as though
a little more time could have went into testing this title.

Overall Score
Overall Score: 7.9/10 [Not an Average]

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