Deus Ex: Invisible War from 2003 or 2004 for us Europeans(remember when it was typical for a 3 - 6 month delay in release date?) is a sequel to Deus Ex that was received fairly poorly. Having a look now reviews are still quite positive for it, but Deus Ex is still considered an all time great game so by the expectations set it’s fair to say it missed the mark. On release it was caught up in the drama of games being dumbed down for release on console, a time when a release on PC didn't necessarily guarantee the return on investment large publishers were looking for so many games would also be released on console. For consoles like the PS2 and Xbox which were significantly less powerful than even a mid level gaming PC this meant level sizes would need to be much smaller, the controls would have to work well on a gamepad and the interface would need to be visible while playing on a TV.

       

I remember playing the demo and reading the reviews and it wasn’t enough to convince me to buy the game. Some of the levels really are tiny and this was very noticeable in the demo so to my teenage brain everything about this game felt like a step back. On top of that there’s the universal ammo system, the streamlined inventory, the streamlined biomod system and the designed for a TV UI. Playing it now I think all of these are still issues to varying degrees but none of it is as bad as I was expecting but it’s a game that is definitely not deserving of the reputation it has been given.

Picking up 20 years after the original game you play a recruit in the Tarsus Academy when... some stuff goes down and you’re introduced to a number of different factions. “Some stuff goes down”? Can’t I be more specific? No, the story in the early parts of this game was really confusing to me. You are introduced to so many people and groups that it’s hard to keep track of who is who and what is going on. After a few hours it started to make more sense but the first couple of hours were pretty confusing. As part of this you’ll start jetting off around the world starting in Seattle. I won’t go into the story too much more, generally speaking it never stops being a bit confusing but by the end it makes much more sense and has an interesting theme around who should control technology that feels very relevant today.

       

The locations in Invisible War feel strange. There’s an attempt to make them feel realistic but given the limitations of the time they never do with the small level size playing into this. There’s more to it than just that though, there are some specific locations that make no logical sense; you’re told you’re in a sort of airport and it feels nothing like it. There’s a location that with a desk and chair and some shelves it’s clearly an office but the only way to get to it is via a ladder in a vent. That’s not to say they’re bad they have a great sci-fi charm to them with vending machines and news terminals it’s all very 00s vision of the future and I have a soft spot for that. The smaller levels weren’t as much of an issue as I expected they actually do a nice job of containing things in a way that stops the chaos from spreading or a rogue enemy from another area messing something up. Although it’s still a regular occurrence to wander into an off-limits area with no idea you’re doing so and having every enemy in the area open fire on you. There’s still multiple approaches to take and they’ll depend on the weapons and biomods you have in terms of viability. The balance of said weapons and biomods is really bad though.

       

As I said before Invisible War uses a universal ammo system meaning every weapon uses the same ammo but different amounts of it. Overall this system is fine and I can believe it in the fiction of the game with the only failing really being it’s hard to tell how much ammo a given weapon will use. You get a bit of a feel for it but some UI indicator would have been nice. (An aside on universal ammo systems thinking about it in the modern Resident Evil games the use of gun powder or scrap to craft ammo is a sort of abstraction of a universal ammo system giving you universal resource you can turn into any type of ammo as needed, a clever way to hide it.) When it comes to weapons where they fall down is more to do with the inventory and upgrade system. Every weapon takes up the same space and has 2 slots for upgrades. With that in mind you’ll be ditching your pistol pretty early on when it takes up as much space as far more powerful weapons. Much like the weapons the upgrades also have a path of “why would I bother with that?” with damage, clip size & range being the no brainers. Why would you can install a mod that lets you melt glass without triggering an alarm for the maybe 4 times that’s useful? It’s a great idea and if you could have a small pistol that does but when it takes up as much space as a silenced more powerful sniper rifle it’s just a bad investment. At least you find so many weapon mods it’s pretty easy to change later in the game.

Biomods are in a similar situation where they’re split into 5 sections and you can pick 1 of 3 in each with them being upgradeable twice with the use of biomod canisters. 1 of those options is a black market biomod though which requires a black market biomod canister to unlock and upgrade. The thing is on the whole few of the biomods are particularly useful. Health regen is very useful, but others related to stealth never feel like they shine and investing in strength makes you so strong that throwing grenades becomes practically impossible as they bounce around so much from the force. Hacking is useful but again it’s hit and miss how useful it ends up being depending on the area. If you do end up investing in something you don’t like it’s not really a problem because just like with weapon mods you’ll be awash with biomods canisters. Half way through the game I had fully upgrades every ability and fully modded all my guns.

       

I’ve said a lot about the game without talking about how the moment to moment gameplay is. It’s OK early on and steadily gets worse, you can tell this game was rushed towards the end. In the first half stealth is some what viable although the mechanics can be unclear as to if you will or will not be spotted and unless you’re cloaked it’s best to expect to be spotted. Gun combat is incredibly basic even for the time and enemy AI it not up to the task for a shooter with a lot of standing still shooting at you. From the mid point on stealth feels far less viable just from the layouts of levels and for the final few areas there are frequently choke points of combat that make it all but impossible without feeling like you’re cheesing the game by just running past these encounters. The early parts of the game have much more exploration and interactions with characters and plenty of side missions that flesh out the world. There’s one related to a couple of warring coffee brands that was a nice bit of comic relief. They also give you other options for earning money and finding pilots to bring you to new locations, while optional it definitely feels like you’ll need to do some to progress. These too die out in the second half of the game as you’re ferried from place to place to get to the end of the story, revisiting a location from earlier in the game that you pretty much just pass through this time.

       

The wheels felt like they were coming off by the very end, on the last level you have to make a choice as to who you will side with. I got a message form one but upon approaching them they just tried to kill me and it was hard to tell if they were part of a group I had pissed off or if the game had broken. It didn't feel too much like my actions had had consequences with one group I had definitely gone against letting me have a change of heart at the very end. It's a step up from a dialogue choice to pick your ending but not much of a step up. I still had a pretty good time with Invisible War though and personally enjoyed it more than I did either of the Eidos Montreal Deus Ex titles. It’s and incredibly flawed game full of compromises but you can at least still see the heart of Deus Ex in there.