shooter

This is in no way like the original. In some minor ways, that is good. But, mostly, it just takes away from the expectation of the 'follow-up' to an incredible game. The biggest downside for me ... I have an AMD athlon 2800 w/ a geforce fx 5800 128 DDR and 512 meg DDR ram, Sound Blaster audigy 2 card. All have updated drivers, and the required direct X 9 is installed. That being said, i have to pull the graphics setting down to 640x480 to play this. Anything above that creates an unplayable framerate. Why is that? I far exceed all system requirements, and i'm playing this on an alienware computer. They are 'designed' for power gaming. Someone made a grave mistake here. Unless there are some major patches right quick, i fear there may be no Deus Ex 3 in the future. I will try to continue this program and see if i begin to enjoy it. Right now i am only playing it because i'm out 50 bucks. That's a real shame. I would honestly recommend buying a copy of Deus Ex game of the year edition instead of this. Hope i've shed some light.

The original Deus Ex was an incredible game. Although each of its individual parts (the action, the graphics, the stealth) had been outdone by numerous other games, it managed to mesh them together into something much greater, thanks to superior writing, characterization, and immersiveness.

This game is not Deus Ex.

The plot of this game is practically identical to that of Deus Ex, except it makes you think even less of the issues at stake. No matter which side you support or actions you take, they have NO relevance until you near the end of the game. The characters are limp and lifeless compared to the first game, and the recurring ones are shadows of their former selves. I couldn't find myself CARING, though I did try. The plot consists of running to and fro doing things not because they're important to you, but because others tell you to do so. The non-linearity is a joke, and despite what the hype implies, you have no control over the storyline except at the end. Game-critical characters are STILL rendered invulnerable in lame ways (people shut down your weapons or when you enter the area. Including batons and other melee weapons. How does THAT work?). Anyone you can kill is simply not important to the story, or has outlived their usefulness.

The game allows you to play a male or female Alex D, but this is really nothing but a cosmetic issue (a couple of lines of dialogue by NPCs change, but that's it). Neither model looks particularly good, and lacks the "personality" of JC from the first game.

The graphics have a brief "neat" factor, but are nothing special. The lighting is superior to most games, but the textures, models, and movements feel stark, bland, and artificial. In some ways, the same charge could be leveled at the first game, but the time put into creating this new engine was not time well spent.

The smaller size of the levels (due to the hardware limitations of the XBox compared to PC) gives you a feeling of claustrophobia, and requires numerous level loads. Not only is the constant interruption disruptive to any feeling of immersion, but the loads can take around 30 seconds of waiting, AND the game consistently minimized during loading, showing off my desktop until it was ready to load. Total failure to captivate me. Level design is fair, but nothing special. The small size of the levels means exploration is easy, short, and not very entertaining.

The skill system has been removed altogether from the game, as has the traditional augmentation system, replaced by the "biomod" system. You may select different biomods for 5 slots (2 "normal biomod" possibilities, and 1 black market). The biomods are merely convenient little tricks in DX: IW, but not even close to critical in the way you play the game, minor "powerups" instead of demonstrations of your superhuman nature.

Inventory has been drastically changed. Instead of shuffling your gear around (which was sometimes an annoyance in the first game), you are granted a number of inventory slots, each slot capable of holding ANY object. Whether it's 5 rocket launchers, or 5 knives, they use up the exact same amount of space. It feels contrived and tends towards the inconvenient.

Universal ammo and weapons. The UA concept seems to attract universal hatred, and rightly so. All weapons use the same ammo (although different amounts of it), which means if you run out of ammo for one gun, you're screwed unless you have a melee weapon for backup. There is no reloading, either, which makes the game blander.

The game allows you to add 2 modifications per weapon, although these modifications have no visual effect, nor do they really contribute any "cool" factor to them.

The weapons are not well-balanced, either. The small size of the levels removes the necessity of the sniper rifle, the SMG eats through lots of ammo while doing less damage than the pistol, and it takes several seconds to render anyone unconscious with the riot prod (as opposed to quick thwack with a melee weapon) My secret to success in the game was in using nothing but the police baton. And without sneaking. That's right, I'd run up and hit things with the baton and take them out. From soldiers to giant battlebots...the baton took them all in just a few hits. This is wrong.

The length and depth of this game is extremely shallow. I finished it in about 10 hours after completing all the sidequests, and there was maybe only an hour or two of replay value. There are some news terminals and "datacubes" (universal replacement for books, newspapers, etc.), which have some neat things to say, but compared to the first game, they are sorely lacking. No longer do you punch in PIN numbers and such, the game does it for you. There are no more lockpicks, only multitools, which kills that kind of variety. The game has devolved into a simple substandard action shooter, with a few gimmicks that have been done better elsewhere.

From a hardware perspective, this game is terrible. My machine is a 3Ghz, 512MB RAM, 64MB ATI Radeon Mobility card (laptop), and even on the MINIMAL settings, I ran into consistent choppiness. When I did turn all settings to max (for grading the graphics), it became a LONG slideshow. I am sure that XBox players would have a better time of it, the PC version of DX: Invisible War is merely a port of that version.

Compared to the first, this game is a MAJOR disappointment, and I would urge those lucky enough to play the first to save their money, unless they wish to collect IW in a bargain bin. The failed attempts to "streamline" and convert the game to XBox specifications go only to prove that less is...less. But despite all the negative criticism I have given in this review, the game is not TERRIBLE, just "fair".

If you think you've got a nice, relatively new computer, therefore you should be able to play Deus Ex. Be careful and read the video card support list very carefully. I have a Dell Dimension 2.4 gHz machine with a Geforce 4MX video card. Deus Ex will not play on this video card. Your card must have Pixel shader 1.1 capability to run. I bought the game and it will not work on my machine. I fell into this trap because I didn't know what the exact video card in my machine was. I assumed that, because it was relatively new and not bottom of the line, it would run pretty much any game out there. Live and learn. Don't make the same mistake as I did.

I'm rather discusted with the deus ex creators. I've been eagerly waiting for this game and now I can't play it. They didn't even give me the option of defeating pixel shading. So what if it wouldn't look as nice, at least I would be able to play it.

Oh well, The reviews I have read say it was a real disappointment anyway. I'm just glad I didn't run out and buy it for $50 when it was first released. I only got stuck for $20.

I guess this game will sit on my shelf until I upgrade my system in a few years. Hopefully it will be compatable with the system I buy then.