The sequel to an acclaimed First Person Shooter / Role-Playing Game (FPS/RPG) famous for the way in which every action had consequences, Invisible War had much to live up to when it was released for Windows XP1 and the Xbox by Eidos in 2003. Though a lot of the game's functions have been simplified and the graphics improved to a certain extent, the fact that it was developed by the same Ion Storm that produced the original Deus Ex is clear from beginning to end.
Story
The game is set 70 years after the end of the previous game in a future where all four possible endings of the original have somehow come true. Having engineered The Collapse by shutting off the world's central computers and forcing humankind into a decentralised existence, JC Denton is nowhere to be seen. The player is instead thrust into this new world in the role of Alex D, a student at a school for the gifted that soon turns out to be more of a laboratory than a centre for education. Another branch of the school in Chicago has just been wiped out along with the entire city, and the facility that the students have been moved to in Seattle is about to come under attack. Equipped with the same bio-modification technology as Denton, Alex D escapes the school and must choose which side to take in an ongoing, invisible war that will decide the fate of humanity. The game travels across various parts of the world including Egypt, Germany and Antarctica, only to finish in the same place that Deus Ex began – the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Gameplay
Throughout the game, the player is allowed to follow their choice of objectives, allowing them to choose sides in the conflict or play different factions off against one another. Pretending to align with one side can help the player sneak in and complete an objective for the other, and can also allow the player to work for the highest bidder or complete the objective they find more to their taste. All the factions are at first very keen to recruit the player, which makes sense when you consider that Alex D has the role of the pawn that gets to decide the victor of the conflict.
The factions include the World Trade Organisation, which aims to turn the world's cities into carefully-run states housed within protective skyscrapers and The Order, a religious organisation with aims opposite to that of the WTO. Although the player is at first lumbered with playing these two organisation off against one another, various others appear later during the course of the game and include the extremist Templars and the borg-like Omar. A typical WTO vs Order mission usually culminates in a situation whereby the player can either destroy or ignore a person or objective, following which the side they have upset will prove how irritated they are by sending a couple of weak foot soldiers. The variety of faction aims produces quite a few moral dilemmas, though it can occasionally become irritating when different faction leaders insist on asking for exactly the opposite things. A choice of pilot is also available each time the player moves between levels, with one pilot charging more but dropping the player closer to their target, and the player is even allowed to choose the protagonist's gender when they first start the game.
Customisation
Further playability stems from the choice of bio-modifications, or 'biomods', which add special abilities such as silent running, self healing and the power to take over robots and turrets. The abilities are upgradeable provided the player can obtain further biomod canisters hidden throughout the game. Some biomods require 'black market' canisters to install and upgrade them, further adding to the system's complexity. Biomods use up bioenergy, though this can be recharged through the use of energy cells in a similar manner to the recharging of health with first aid packs. The wonders of the future also allow Alex D to heal using cans of soda and to reload any of his/her weapons using the same ammunition. Weapons can also be modified in a number of ways, though the game lacks the weapon skill points system that features in the previous game.
Furthermore, the player must choose how to spend his supply of credits and multitools (glorified lock picks) in order to gain the greatest advantage. Any objective can be achieved using at least three different approaches, usually dividable into stealth, cunning and all-guns-blazing. Conflict is almost inevitable at some points, but the game does depart significantly from the average first-person shooter. Of course, the usual sorts of weapons appear alongside some more unusual offerings such as a grenade that turns into a robot spider, and the usual foes also feature, ranging from the standard foot soldiers to the hardened Illuminati operatives. Who the bad guys are will of course depend on which side the player chooses, but the game even goes as far as to allow the player to influence which side gets its hands on the powerful mag rail gun.
Conclusion
Overall, the game provides more of the same sort of action as its predecessor, with simplifications making the game easier to play and to a certain extent more enjoyable, though some of the original game's better features are missing. The game's endings are all just as abrupt as the original's; the variety of conclusions, however, means there probably won't be another sequel situated in Deus Ex's rich game world.
1 Specifications: Windows 98SE/2000/XP, 1.3GHz processor, 256MB RAM, 32MB DirectX 9 compatible graphics card and DirectX 9 compatible sound card, 2GB disc space, plus a keyboard and mouse.
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