Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)

Truth is, it's crushingly disappointing. People will say that, if you look hard enough, appreciate what Ion Storm were trying to do, and don't look at it as a Deus Ex sequel but as a unique game in its own right, then it's not too bad at all. I can't abide by that. A great game doesn't require you to force yourself to like it: it forces you. All I can imagine is that Ion Storm were forcibly rushed by publishers Eidos to push out a lacklustre sequel, and hope it would do well based on the strength of its franchise name with gamers. And as for not viewing it as a Deus Ex sequel, it *is* a Deus Ex sequel and that cannot be ignored, no matter how favourable it would be for the sequel to do so. Where Deus Ex was all about ambition, giving you more than you possibly thought any modern-day game would be able to offer, this is Deus Ex-lite; Deus Ex stripped of all the fine details and depth-of-play that made it so engrossing, with bad AI and an all-round terribly-coded engine to boot.

Frankly, it's like Deus Ex was a fluke. Everything that made the original loveable and that gave it character has gone. Weapons feel weak, voice-acting and sound effects are mostly sub-standard. The AI is laughably abysmal and whilst the graphics are excellent in places when turned fully up, a PC that will run the game at such a level is yet to be invented. Details have gone. See that ATM or that chocalate bar dispenser? If you have the hacking biomod, you HAVE to hack it. This agent's training has turned him irreversibly into a hardened criminal, it would seem.

Who you decide to work for is always entirely up to you, though a short-term loyalty to someone is always necessary. Where there are two ways to complete an objective, a faction must be allied to and the mission carried out how they would see fit. But the problem with working for a selection of factions and never being allied with one specifically is that the player cannot form any meaningful connections. Alex D is very much the (invisible) war pawn - handy in a fight but no-one really gives a damn what happens to him once he's played his part and thus the player can only reciprocate this apathy towards his current employers.

Of course, where Deus Ex always stood tall was its brilliant story and Invisible War can be almost as proud of itself. Conspiracy theories, subterfuge and assassinations of key figures are all the order of the day. But it's not enough. If you've never played the original, I can easily see some people getting some enjoyment out of this title (if perhaps not finding it to be something worth raving about) and as such, I'd amend the score to a 3/5 for such people but if you've played Deus Ex and are yet to try the sequel, avoid this game and you'll avoid seriously winding yourself up in frustration.

If there's a Deus Ex 3, I sincerely hope that it begins with Alex D. getting in a time-machine, travelling back in time to the point where JC is escaping Area 51 and upon arriving there, committing suicide. The game could then carry on from JC's perspective and we could all pretend that this whole kick-in-the-groin for the franchise never existed.

That said, there are some intriguing touches. Mysteries such as your enigmatic copter pilot, the network of NG resonance consoles throughout the world, and the amusing "coffee wars" are quite fun. Sadly, the plot feels too stilted and clever for its own good in trying to appear open ended. Unlike the first game, where one was rewarded for taking a stealthy approach versus an all-guns-blazing approach, in the sequel it appears to make little difference. Roll on Deus Ex 3 and cheer us all up.

For players of the previous game, you will probably be able to guess who many of the 'secret characters' are before it is actually revealed to you, as well as your own true identity. Like before, there are multiple endings to game, (four in total), but like before you don't have to truly decide the end until the last levels. This lessens the replay value to a degree, since it is a lot easier to just load up the later savegames to get the ending. The postives are numerous and the depth of each level is extremely great. There is nothing more exciting than stealthly taking out a group of troopers without them knowing. Unfortunately, there are a number of flaws.

First of all, it's just too damn short. Ok, so it's longer than your standard crappy shooter but that's not good enough. There is about 8 hours of game time,(and that's WITH trying to search every area and complete every sub-mission, something I think almost managed to completely do) The reason for this was that Ion Storm had felt not enough people had completed the first game because it was too long, but I feel that it is still a cop-out. The number of maps also feels particularly low, in the first game, you went all over New York, VandenBurg, Area 51, Paris, each having a huge number of sub-maps. Here you go to Seattle, Cairo, Trier and the Antartic, yet it just feels so much smaller. When you hear that Half-Life 2 will have twelve chapters, each about 3 to 4 hours gametime, you feel short changed.

Other problems exists too, the story manages, unbelievably, to be incredibly shallow. It just goes predictably from A to B, nothing more. In the first, you started of just dealing with a small group of terrorists, only to discover half-way through the game the people you worked for were the bad guys. One of my favourite things about the original was that, you could hack into computer terminals and read anything from daily news to conversations to secret passcodes for certain areas. This gave you a sense of the larger world and gave more background to the plot. In DX2 that doesn't happen and the game is worse off for it and the plot feels flat. In fact there is nothing in DX2 to compare to the feeling in the first game, when escaping MJ-12 capture you discover the facility you were being held in was just below and part of the same facility you used to work in. Also, there are far fewer interactive characters to speak to, there is no equivalent of Walton Simmons, Anna Navarre, Gunther Hermann (though there is a good joke involving him on the last level), Alex Jacobson or Sam Carter.

For a game that promises so much freedom, it is very restrictive in its length, and plotline. Nothing ever surprised me in this game unlike the first, whose wonderfully variable locations and the ever changing plot and numerous characters, all of whom had incredibly distinctive personalities. Warren Spector and Ion Storm get the MDB (Must Do Better) sticker.