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Deus Ex: Invisible War

Deus Ex: Invisible War

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $19.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: patch solved virtually nothing...future of DX2 looks bleak
Review: A patch was supposed to fix major flaws in the game, and it didn't. I'm talking of the lagginess felt when moving the mouse ingame, and the 'resyncing' DX2 does when you go to a new area or load up a game. Loading and going to new area (each area is painfully small, so this is QUITE frequent) takes around 15 seconds. Doesn't sound like much on paper, but it is unforgivably long in game. Even after the patch, there are still game crashing bugs (it also freezes my CD drive, having to restart the PC to fix).

Even if the patch actually fixed what it was supposed to, the game itself isn't engaging enough for a repeat. Universal ammo takes any fun out of trying out different guns. Sounds odd, but when it takes around only 2 sniper shots to deplete a clip compared to 15 shots of the pistol...and combine that with the fact that 2 shots to the head from the pistol is all it takes to take down most opponents...what's the use? Seriously, the only weapon I used was the pistol until the Antartic stage. Even then, I only had the pistol, SMG, and the sniper rifle (for those pesky I. Assasins...boom! to da head).

The lack of skill-based gameplay limits this as an RPG. There's only so many bio-mod combinations to choose from. And I find it silly that there's no other way to use the security console without the console hack bio-mod. Seems like the dev. were forcing the issue on us by having so many security terminals around with no other way to hack it.

I can't help but feel the game is all too console friendly, from the limited control binds, to the smaller maps, to the generic ammo and toolkits...ho-hum.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Buyer beware
Review: Unless you want to spend big bucks on some state of the art video card, don't bother with this game. Be aware that the hardware requirements are entirely misleading.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Just a few months away from perfection.
Review: It hurts me to write this review, it really does. The original Deus Ex is my favorite FPS and one of the best games I have ever played. Invisible War seems hit and miss in so many categories, but overall it's still a good game.

After a year of waiting I finally headed to stores to pick up Invisible War. I was like an anxious little kid by the time I left the store to return home for hour upon hour of enjoyment. After installing it I immediately started playing it. The menu, yes the menu, is beautiful and the opening cinematic enthralled me.

The first thing you notice when you start playing Deus Ex is it's graphics. They are amazing, even in 640x480 which I had to play in for awhile. The next thing you notice are the physics as the building around you is shaking. The engine is a bit wild, but it's kind of fun to watch people do backflips when you shoot them in head. Of course, these two things combined are the two major innovations in Invisible War, and after awhile you get used to them, but you never forget they are there.

The new interface is clean and runs pretty well (A patch is coming out soon to clean it up even more). There is no longer ammunition for every gun, but universal ammunition usable by all weapons. This may sound stupid, but this forces you to choose weapons and how you use them carefully. A nice touch really. There are only 6 biomod slots available (one is your "flashlight"), making for 15 total biomod options. A few from the original reappear in Invisible War, but most seem to be entirely new. 5 of these options are Illegal biomods, giving things like bot domination, hacking, and leech abilities. Biomod cannisters are available a bit more than they probably should be, but it's alright.

While those are minor changes, the major change in Invisible War is the gameplay style. Where the original had upgradable abilities IW has... well, it has something. The best description I've come up with it is Thief-esqe. For those that have not played Thief, stealth was required since you abilities in up-front combat were very weak and all your weapons did drastically less damage when the enemies were aware of your presence. Imagine that, but the bonuses of using stealth taken mostly away, and simply catching your enemy offguard was the only "bonus".

What can possibly make up for this, you ask? Style, lots of style. It may just be the fact that IW is the first to use these hefty graphics, but the environment seems right on target, all the time. The world is dark and light seems to hit everything perfectly. It never gets old and makes Invisible War something to behold.

The story, on the other hand, is a mix of good and bad. Overall, IW's story holds you to finishing all 12 hours of the game. Many old friends come back to visit you, such as Chad, the leader of Silhouette. He's now in power and leading his own faction, the WTO. Opposing the WTO is The Order Church, lead by Her Holiness. All of this is wonderfull but many characters become lost in the story and are never given an ending like in the original. Also missing from this game are those characters you fall in love with. For the most part it's just you. No Jock's, Reyes', or Alex's.

Now for the general listing of flaws I've noticed.

1) The AI isn't too intelligent. Their memories are much better than the original, but they just aren't very agressive or deadly. They don't notice anything dangerous, like the fire or gas leaking from boilers or barrels, they just walk into them like nothing is wrong.

2) There are a few glitches due to the physics and sometimes your character magically teleports across rooms or up ladders when stuck.

3) Damage location is nearly inexistant.

Many things have been simplified. Multitools now act as lockpicks as well, logins are stored and no longer need to be typed in, and weapon mods do not take up inventory space.

It feels like Deus Ex: Invisible War was rushed out by pressuring CEO's or something of the sort. It feels more like a big patch for the original Deus Ex, and they forgot to add a lot of fixes to the new things they created. Luckily, the DX team will be working steadfastly to fix both versions of Invisible War because its engine is the same as Thief III's, which is coming out in 2004. Hopefully Invisible War will be made into the gorgeous game it should have been, making it the classic it should have been.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Stripped
Review: This game has been stripped down from its predecessor, and made more basic.One annoying thing about the game is when you switch screens on the console you can't go from bio-mod to inventory without first returning to the game. This game is average at best.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Deus Ex 2
Review: This is a warning to people who have not bought this game!It does not support any of the nVidia MX vidio cards.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Deus Ex Lite" is an accurate description
Review: This game has merits that make it worth playing, but it's still vastly inferior to the first game (Which I gave five stars). This game has a lot of good ideas, but they are largely negated by some really bad design decisions.

There are two HUGE faults that keep this from being a great game. First: the role-playing system is bad. Plain and simple. It's not very useful, flexible, robust, or strategic. The skills system that helped make the first game so great is gone, and that was a huge mistake. The replacement, a carved up biomod system and a weak weapons mod system, requires little planning or thought. There are only five biomod slots now, and the weapons mod system is cheap and underpowered. The system in the first game was so wonderful, because it was loaded with choices and tradeoffs. You could spend your skills system to become a tank, a hacker, a ninja, a frogman, or any combination that you wanted. It's nonexistent here. There is no sense of power development like what you get in a good RPG, where you start off as a complete wimp and end up the game as a demigod. That is why "Deus Ex: Invisible War" is very shallow as an RPG.

The other major fault of this game is the size of the maps. They are ridiculously tiny. Most of the areas are tight, indoor cramped spaces. You have to get to the end of the game before you encounter any big open outdoor areas. Exploring an area to find the alternate "secret" entrance to a well-guarded facility is laughably easy. Part of the fun of the first game was wandering around the huge open maps and maybe sneaking into a huge building through the roof. In this game, the front door and the air vent that takes you around it are only five feet away. What's the point? Small maps also mean frequent (and long) loading times.

One welcome change from the first game is a big improvement in the voice acting. Both the male and female Alex voice actors sound very good. Except for voice acting though, the rest of the sound in this game takes a big step backwards. Alex Brandon's music is scaled way back. Forget about hearing another great soundtrack like the first game. The weapons sound like toys, and the noises in the game don't do a good job of letting you know how stealthy are your being. That's part of stealth just not being very useful in this game. The riot prod is useless and the tranquilizer dart gun takes two shots now instead of one to take down an enemy. Silent takedowns are too hard, but you don't need them anyways, since most enemies aren't much of a threat to you. You can take most of them out easily with the overpowered sniper rifle.

Deus Ex: Invisible War has some saving graces that make it worth playing. The storyline is still excellent. I think that it would have helped to make the game longer and give it more character development, but it's still great. The story has one or two very surprising twists in it, and it gets you to think philosophically, just like the first one. It all makes for a good legitimate sequel story, instead of just a thrown-together rehash of the first one (which is common for sequels). Warning: if you did not play the first game, then you will be totally lost, since the plot for "Invisible War" is pretty convoluted too.

The developers had some good creative ideas too. Some of the "black market" biomod canisters that you find are wicked, like one that lets you control bots, and one that imparts EMP to your melee attacks. The rocket launcher has a guided missile mode that puts you into the first-person view of the missile. I also got a lot of amusement out of the NG Resonance character, a holographic AI that provides some comic relief, as well as some hints and side quests. And, even with the scaled-back role-playing system, "Invisible" still has tons of good dialog and lots of open-ended problem-solving. Plus, there's nothing else like it out there as far as action/RPG games go. It's too bad though, that there was so much removed for this game. If it had been a full-fledged sequel instead of "Deus Ex Lite", then it could have been as good as the first one. I would love to see a third Deus Ex game that combines the best elements of the first two.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing and buggy (version 1.0)
Review: If you've played the first Deus Ex, chances are you will be a little disappointed with is predecessor. There are a some improvements, however. DX2 adds real-time shadows, which makes some of the environments a little more immersive than the first game. There are also some sub quests that characters within the game will give you. I got a solid 12 hours of play out of the game.

Now the bad stuff. The AI is deplorable; the characters and enemies simply don't have realistic responses. Once you have a few of your biomods maxed, there is no competition. I double-crossed characters throughout the game with no consequences. The physics engine is a distraction if anything. There is no apparent difference in weight of the various objects. The story is boring and undeveloped, as are the characters. When it came time to complete the game, I really didn't care what the outcome was. The dubbing is typically cheesy.

The engine doesn't seem so great. Levels take FOREVER to load and are pretty small. This kills the effect of being in a world because you have to wait 20-30 seconds for a different part of the map to load every few minutes. There are a bunch of rendering problems which create visual artifacts (Radeon 9700 Pro). When I killed the final character and the cut scene began to play, the game crashed and corrupted my files. It also locked up several times after a few hours of play

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: System Specifications
Review: Over the last week I've played the demo of Deus Ex 2, many times may I add, every time the feel is wrong, the graphics are good better than some I've seen in recent months, and my specs are only a Amd 2100xp G4 4600 128, 512 of 2100 DDR ram, Windows ME, the game runs fine no slow ups or glitches, but the major factor is the feel I didn't expect it to be the same but they've changed it into a first person shooter with extra abilities how many slots for items? not nearly enough.

Not clear enough interface it justs gets complicated and at points it has become obstructing, it catches your eyes too much you end up having to learn tunnel vision to get anything done.

I can only judge this by the demo, it put you in the middle of the story with nowhere to go its short and you get confused unless you've read some background to the game and watched the intro movie.

What was with the stopping of guns in the bar just because I have weapons doesn't mean I'm going to use them, and since when can't we use a batton or club I'm resorted to throwing bottles acros the room? all I get is "stop that or I'll" you'll what.

If I had a bottle in the face in real life I wouldn't go "stop that" if I was consious after a geneticaly altered Special Agent through a wine bottle in my face, I get help, call the police or do something. I tried throwing loads of bottles the bar ran out before something happened,

Alcohol has no aparent affect on the body in the demo you just see a green yellow colour and thats it.

What happened with buying drinks over the counter and getting sloshed.

I must admit though the betting basement was good for all who have played you will know what I mean, as well as the Music boxes they were good.

But until I play the full game I wont know if you can go into a bar with a gun or batton or get drunk or walk into a ladies room and get shouted at.

Oh well we will see.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: not even worth stealing
Review: The first game was great and iv played it at least 10 times. but this game sucks the gaphics are not great theres maybe 2 hours of game play and the ending is the same as the last game. I guess the only way to find out how bad it is is to buy it, but if you want my adivce dont waste your money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW agh cant wait
Review: incredibly long deus ex review
i dont get it, everyone hates the fuzzy look yet to me it makes it that much more authentic finishing off the edges of objects..
i havent played the game but the demo graphics were truly amazing, incredible, awesome and uber. If you cant afford the amazing comp you'l need to play it then dont bother buying it...duh..
this games stunning graphics coupled with the immense havok physics engine makes the game get as close to the real world as youl get at the moment, until halflife 2 anyway. I mean the ai created a sorta barricade of soldiers near a doorway i had to pass, i saw them assemble through the wall
just in case your wondering what im running it on, im using a
athlon xp 3000+
1024 ddr ram
256mb radeon 9800pro
maxtor hard drive 120gig
now i dont know what kinda computers you people have got, but dont diss the game PLEASE! you give it a bad name when the game deserves more than that. As i say ive only played the demo but i love this game its too bad its not out in england yet.....
what ive gone on is the demo play alone, so what the games gonna be like i cant imagine, the plot, the extra weapons, the supposed being able to meld your own choices, yet to be confirmed to me and the rest of course.

In conclusion, this game is so much better than any other game on the market !at the moment!. it'l quickly be put behind with the line of games that are coming soon that work on lower end pcs and are better in every way.

but if you own an amazing pc,, dont miss out

If you own a bad, weak, average pc its not for you wait for hl2!

agh damnit, i have to write essay's smaller than this at school why cant they all be this easy?!


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