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Guynemer
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I know there is already a thread, but I think this one is clearer.
Gamespot is the second major online site to review the new Deus Ex game (Gamespy had their "exclusive" late last week).
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/deus...ewar/index.html
8.0
"Deus Ex: Invisible War can be highly rewarding, as long as you're willing to look past some problems along the way."
They gave the original a 8.2.
I'm still... worried. The demo was uninspiring to say the least, and these reviews aren't exactly putting my fears at ease.
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Comrade Tassadar
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There was another review which stated that fans of the previous Deus Ex may be disappointed at the streamlining of the game.
Which basically CONFIRMED my fears
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Jon Miller
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I like Xplay reviews
Jon Miller
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Guynemer
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Some player reviews on the IonStorm board have been very positive... I just don't know.
Miller, I swear to god, that avatar is scarring my retinae.
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ravagon
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Australia
Sep 1999
time: 13:32
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You can't always use all atm codes on all atm's.
In Hell's kitchen for example, there are 4 atm's but not all of the codes you find therein will work on each.
It's better to leave hacking until you've made all of your 'legitimate' withdrawls.
If you're running out of multi-tools then you're probably in the MJ12 facility below the streets? You can use up a a lot getting through that place so you probably want to upgrade to "trained" level beforehand.
Playing the hardest level I'm finding it much tougher. Enemies seem to have much better firearms skill and there are far fewer goodies to find. Still looking for a laser sight and I've just left Hong Kong.
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Kassiopeia
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Jyväskylä, Finland
Jul 2001
time: 07:32
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After playing for seven hours of game time... I like it. It's nothing like the old Deus Ex, but it's not a total failure. The graphics felt fugly at first, but I got used to them. Mind, my strategy has been pretty straightforward when it comes to guards, just blast them one after another. The AI sucks in that regard. The most enjoyable foes are the bots and turrets, which can be murderous. Taking them out requires some thinking already. I can take them over with a biomod and take out a roomful of enemies with a turret, which does make things a bit too easy.
Altogether the game is ridiculously easy, I'm not too good a shot and playing on hard (easy-medium-hard-realistic), I've got heaps of supplies with me and battles go without a hitch. The biomods are also pretty much out of balance: I can't find any meaningful use for any other mods on one slot except one, so I've got six mods I frequently use maxed out on me. The nightvision thingee that can see through walls is the most useful one. It's a shame I had to install a biomod to do something as simple as hacking. And hacking is pretty simple this time, not even a chance to get caught or trigger an alarm.
Maybe I should switch to console games  , since I kind of like the streamlined system where keycodes are automatically entered, multitools act also as lockpicks and guns need not be reloaded and have no separate ammo. It really emphasises weaponry as nothing but an alternative to all other methods.
The plot is pretty good, I'm getting the feeling it's picking off where DX1 ended. Lots of familiar faces and names. All the choices and whatnot in the first parts of the games are, sadly, probably of no consequence. Only a few times have my actions resulted in some changes, and those weren't that big, just cost me a few credits. I do think the game can get very different whether you hire a pilot or get one to transport you by helping her out in Seattle.
Also, what I've heard, the ending will be branched the same way as in DX1 - you have three alternatives, and you can realise every one of them in the last stage, with little influence from your overall actions.
Losing the exp system wasn't that bad a change either, for some reason I'm finishing secondary objectives even though I don't need the credits.
It's not a worthy sequel, at least so far it hasn't been. Perhaps it'll redeem itself. It's a good game, but not brilliant. I'm not taken by nostalgia or anything, I played and finished DX1 for the first time only two months ago. I do wish I didn't have an exam tomorrow...
Edit: The patch v. 1.1 also helped the game performance-wise a lot. It probably won't work anywhere as decently on old systems, though, and I can't recommend getting a new system for DX: IW just because you loved DX.
Oh, and the regions are very small and cramped. The game has to load a new area far too often. Considering the performance demands, that's just silly. Liberty Island in DX1 was huge compared to this.
Last edited by Kassiopeia on 18-12-2003 at 22:24
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ravagon
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Australia
Sep 1999
time: 13:32
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IIRC the few references to time I came across were around 50+ odd hours.
It'd almost certainly take me longer than the 15 it took a reviewer - it always does, but I doubt it'd be more than 25 hours or so at a guess, 30 at the outset.
Certainly nowhere near the length of the first though...
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Kassiopeia
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Jyväskylä, Finland
Jul 2001
time: 07:32
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The final verdict on the ammo system: I like it. When you run out - and in endgame it's quite possible - you really run out, and end up improvising all sorts of stunts to get that damn guard killed.
Now, length. I finished DX1 in 23 hours on medium difficulty setting (was my first time). I finished DX2 tonight, in 11 hours of game time on hard difficulty setting. This game is woefully short. I think I was still in the Ocean Base at eleven hours. (Note: I used a walkthrough with DX1 when I got stuck, so that reduced the time. At the time of writing, I haven't been able to find a DX2 guide anywhere.)
It was kind of relieving, however. The endings were very disappointing, as they were shoved in your face: essentially you'll have a menu where you can click which faction to support, or to support none (amounts to four different endings). There are decisions to be made on the second to final area, which can effect some things, but they aren't of consequence to the endings.
I couldn't be arsed to complete more than two of them, took around half an hour extra for the other one, so total game time comes down to about 12 to 13 hours of game time if you do them all. It does puzzle me though - I doubt I missed anything important, yet I played it much quickly than a guy who plays games and writes about them for a living?
Then, the characters, the factions. They didn't have the same pull they had in DX1. I don't know exactly why - maybe because they all seemed to lack proper personalities. The writing in this sense sucked seriously. I did like the entire "completing the circle" theme that was going on,
spoiler(highlight to read):
the final region is Liberty Island, and three of the endings require killing the Denton brothers - imagine that, your sniper rifle trained at JC Denton, the guy _you_ were not long ago
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but it felt somewhat synthetic near the end. Maybe because the milieu was more different compared to our current one than in DX1.
The final region was also very shoddily designed and felt a bit rushed. It was also really small. The size of areas did get better a bit before the final few areas, but you really didn't get to utilise all that empty air.
There is a lot of dynamic gameplay there, though, and the game will have decent replayability when I get around to it, more than DX1 did. Too bad that most decisions had no consequence to your game. A news bulletin you might not even catch is not sufficient.
The difficulty curve also leaped near the end, but it was accomplished through scarcity of items and heaps of enemies, i.e. the boring, old-fashioned way.
All in all, it's a decent game, and it's only major problem is that it never even had the chance to match up to DX1. It does have good ideas and improvements over the original, but fails where DX1 was IMHO at its best: writing and level design.
Last edited by Kassiopeia on 20-12-2003 at 06:11
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BustaMike
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You think you're better than me? You've been handling my ass pennies!!!
Nov 1999
time: 21:32
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Well, I played the whole thing through getting absolutely everything and all 5 endings in about 13 hours (this includes running around doing nothing just cause for several hours, it's probably about 10 hours long). The game is ridiculously easy, even on the hardest level.
Things I liked
The graphics were very good.
The physics system is awesome. Throwing dead bodies and crates and everything else around is a blast and I never had any clipping problems.
The game was pretty fun.
Things I didn't like
For all the games "openness" or freedom of choice, it's still incredibly linear. Regardless of any choice made, any ending can be earned by making one choice 5 minutes from the very end.
The different ways to accomplish tasks are superficial at best. There's always a vent or a security pad and I found that I would kill everyone, then use the pad to shut down everything (after I had destroyed it), then crawl through the vent cause I could. The multiple ways of doing things are pointless.
Sniping and sneaking are GROSSLY OVERPOWERED in this game. The sniper rifle will 1 hit kill everything except bots and the elite Templar troopers.
Enemies are STUPID. They just assume you've left after 10 seconds even if there's dead bodies all around.
Presentation wise, the whole game is a night. Couldn't they have used a color other than blue in just one part of the game?
My verdict
The game is a rental. I would not recommend buying it. It has little replay value, single player only, and it's easy and fast to beat. Still, it's worth playing through once. I'd give it maybe a 6 or 6.5 of 10.
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02-12-2003 07:15
it's kind of funny gamespot gave it an 8 considering the whole review talked basically about negatives. if i hadn't seen the score before i read it i'd have guessed it would have gotten much lower.
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