Deus Ex: Invisible War

Wish I could play this game with my controller but even resorting to keyboard and mouse, this game is just as good now as when i first played it in 2004. Brilliant game. Again, wish I could play it with my controller!!!!

This is a dumbed down version of the first Deus Ex. The story isn't as good and the game is broken on Steam. If it's on sale or part of a bundle, you might want to pick it up but I wouldn't pay full price.

[To fix the black screen during loading screen error, open Task Manager > Details > DX2Main.exe > Analyze Wait Chain and stop or uninstall whatever is causing the problem. You might need to install the Visible Upgrade mod first and switch to windowed mode in order to switch windows during the black screen.]

50/100

Short & Simple

• 404
  

• The game lacks challenge and feels simplistic in its mechanics. Money is useless and so are most of the guns, weapon mods and biomods.
  
• Your character can eat several bullets in Realistic difficulty. In Deus Ex, a stray headshot would kill you even in full health.
  
• Interaction with NPCs is limited. Guards won't always stop you from getting into places you shouldn't be in. Even the NPCs know that money is useless as you can steal it in front of them with no consequences.
  
• Loading a save after opening the game would freeze my PC roughly 30% of the time.
  
• Highest available resolution is 1024p
  
[*]16 hours of gameplay, less if you are not a completionist. This could be a positive if you don't enjoy wasting your time

sigma only game

I've been trying to get this game to run properly ever since I got it and I just can't do it. I've tried the Visual Patch but there are still bugs that need fixing like having my mouse stuttering in certain areas and somehow messing up my brightness on the computer. I've tried GOG and it did the same thing, plus messing up my resolution.

This has been a game I've been wanting to play for so long and I can't get it to work without permanently messing up my PC. I don't think I'll play this game again unless there's some super cool mod that fixes the entire game instead of just the visuals.

Una lástima no poder jugarlo ahora mismo por lo incompatible que es con los sistemas actuales. Tal vez en el futuro vuelva a intentarlo con algún otro parche o solución que encuentre por ahi, pero por ahora, lamentablemente mi reseña tendrá que ser negativa, .

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Crashed my entire pc after the first cutscene lmao

does NOT work for steam, running in 1600x1200 made it change my base resolution on my main monitor to the same res, and my both monitors went black like the pc is dead but i can hear everything going on, this does not seem too work as it should on steam, what a shame.

=absolute cinema=

So, the first one took me four tries to get through it because I didn't understand the game well enough. This one, well I played it in two days. Suffice it to say, I liked it a lot. The decisions you make now align you with more than one faction, and there are four different endings you can get. Very good game, made lots of improvements on the first one. Don't know why it gets so much hate.

There is a very large con though. The games graphical and coding problems are kinda crazy. To get this game to work correctly takes a lot of googling, file shifting, and mod installations. Good luck figuring it out in under a couple hours, but it's such a great game once you get it to work.

One of my most controversial gaming opinions is that I like this game. It's not good, but I liked it. That being said, I will never play it again and it's the worst game in the series (besides the mobile game of course)

It felt like I was larping with 40 year olds on Second Life
The game brings you back to the desktop for every loading screen LOL

Do not buy this on Steam!! No matter what fixes I had tried nothing ever worked. In fact, things only got worse, until it got to the point where the game just wouldn't open at all. Buy this on GOG, or emulate it on xemu, or just play it on an OG Xbox.

I gave a thunbs up because this game is in the DEU. I woud've liked the areas to have been bigger and more open. I liked playing Alex D, but it would've been nice to have had a few more augs for him to choose and modify. Storyline was ok. Some characters backstories could've been expanded. And maybe an extra side quest or two. I liked playing the game but I felt it could have been a whole lot more, especially after playing Revision and TNM.

6.5 \ 10
It’s a lot worse than I remember. This was one of my most anticipated sequels and it ended up being such a downgrade from the original in every way. I also recently replayed Deus Ex and it held up flawlessly. Still one of the greatest games of all time. However, replaying Invisible War right after just bums me out. Maybe one day we will get a proper sequal to this classic series.

Invisible war is not a bad game , infact i'd argue it was a good game for 2003 standards however due to the fact that it was an inferior sequel to Deus ex 1 at release it hasn't aged well and feels like a chore to complete unlike Deus ex 1(Revision) which is still fun to play .

This game isn't as good as the first keep that in mind going into it.
So many absolutely amazing and great things/ideas in this game.
Some very well executed are in this game.

But Eidos really ruined it with a focus on the xbox over PC.
Removal of uwindows.u from the game, alot of the engine changes from regular unreal 2.
This after market licensed lighting system is really strange after decompiling the game's packages.
It breaks all reflective and reflective transparent surfaces in the game.
Its pretty cool how they can do some things with effectively cones of light like the spinning cone of light to do the fan at the start of the game. But not as cool as it would have been without it.

Most of the multiplayer code is still in the engine for deathmatch and team deathmach.... but they didn't include it for some reason.

The comments in the unreal script paint a strange story as well.

It started off way better, but at some point probably when the colors changed from blue to purple and they decided xbox first was the priority. The devs stopped seeming as happy and the game quality dropped.

Sometimes you need to let the people making the game, make the game and not meddle with development.

I give it a score of 7/10

Is it a good game?
Well, it’s a mix bag some aspect is indeed an improvements
But overall much of the game can be seen as a downgrade

First off you may need to go out of your way to get this game working
For me I download Deus Ex 2 Visible Upgrade on moddb and close CurseForge to get it working

As far as I know there are plenty of other issues about the game somehow don't work


About the game

Pro

I like the fact that waiting to aim is no longer a thing

Health system is now a single health bar

Biomod is plentiful so I can try out different build anytime even by the end of the game
However, Biomod is lock in whatever slot they are in

Art direction love the early 2000s sci fi look

Universal ammo not sure what to write about it ‘if you run out of ammo for one weapon then you would run out for all’ is a good argument
But for an RPG I don’t see that as a big issue after all inventory management is a pain if you pick up every gun you get your hands on leaving little space for ammo
The only problem I find is when ammo becomes hard to come by the end of the game

Ragdoll enjoy the over-the-top impact of your gun


Con

Loading screen there will be a lot, from what I learn people like to blame it on console release
But I think the main problem is the bad design decision let say the many quests that forces the player to keep backtracking
As in here is one area you need to go to what you know need do is go through this area then to this other area then to your location all of which have loading screen
I don’t get why do the game separate all the quest goals to such length
Area that function as in-between area that you must go through that can be remove and the lack of more hub area where the player chose where to go without the need for loading screen

Lack of impact choice in game as in no matter what choices you make the outcome is the same expect for the ending
As if faction reputation need a hard resets after every mission
Less options for game play due to linear level layout leaving little freedom to player


Major mechanics that are unfortunately poorly developed

The only sci fi thing about the guns is that one weapon that work like magic wand and the mag rail but everything else just looks the part and the absence of reload, everything else function like standard weapons

Meanwhile the melee weapons feels like slaping your enemy both damage and sound

Biomods
there is this one biomod that allow the player to take control of robots but it only work if the player stand next to it instead of remotely done

If the player character is supposedly to be this perfect being why can't there be more crazy super power like shoot through wall with all weapons

Why can't I possess the NPC by hacking you can only do that with camera and turrets

Strong Bimod only let the player to throw things at NPC doing little damage


In conclusion

Should you buy this game
The game itself is OK more of a casual game without the need to think about the overarching stuff that may impact your game play because this one decision made 5 hours ago

To be fair a lot of people even the developer them self love to criticise this game for being not a deus ex game range from art directions, story to everything else

I think after playing Deus Ex (2000), Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003), Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011) and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016)

All those game can be seen as a different game from the game play to art directions
the only thing holding most of them together is each of this game is either a sequel or a prequel that follow the JC blood line

All this games have different idea of what the deus ex franchise should go
So if you like one of the game don't expect it to have the same experience for all of them

I recommend this game.

The first Deus Ex is my favorite game of all time. That doesn't mean my favorite game SERIES of all time is the Deus Ex series. Just as Half-life 2 took everything that made the original Half-life good and expounded upon it 100-fold and broke ground in just about every area, the exact opposite is what happened with the sequel to Deus Ex, at the behest of the publishers, and to the dismay of the developers. The first time I played Invisible War, it was nothing but disappointment, more or less, at the staggering level of dumbing down of the gameplay. Until the story began to tie into the first game, a little over halfway through, I just couldn't believe how lackluster everything was. The scope of the game was huge, but the levels were cramped and tiny. The voice acting felt careless. The gameplay was grossly simplified. One tool works on locks and electronics... universal ammo clip... wtf? The UI was console-ized. Even though I knew there was a shred of good in there, I simply couldn't see past these issues at the time. It was a deal breaker for me. The need for the game to be on Xbox had taken it's toll. From there on, I dismissed DEIW as an overall bad game. The subsequent prequel Deus Ex games, Human Revolution, and Mankind Divided, which I played later on, were both fantastic. However, after playing those, I did not give DEIW another chance. Flash forward to 2024, I played the System Shock remake, System Shock 2, and Cyberpunk 2077. All of which were fantastic and scratched my immersive sim itch. So I thought I'd go back and give DEIW a fair chance, to see if my opinion had changed at all in 20 years, and to approach the game with a less biased opinion. The truth is, my opinion did change, a lot. I still hate the tiny levels. But there are many great qualities to the game that I had never noticed before, probably due to my blind irritation at the differences from the original. Looking at the game with fresh eyes, I think that there are aspects of DEIW that actually IMPROVE upon the first game. When it comes to the general detail in the gameplay and levels, there's simply no comparison. Invisible War is Deus Ex for dummies. But what I realized is that it doesn't necessarily make it a BAD game, it just makes it VERY different, and not a proper sequel. On this playthrough, I decided to come at the game without my previous bias, and just take it at face value. My opinion now? The story is good. The gameplay, for what it is, is good. Though small in scale, the game is actually fun. The gunplay is no longer clunky. The combat is way better than the first game. The introduction of the physics engine and ragdolls really made things feel chunky and real. Chucking enemy bodies at other enemies when you crank up your passive strength ability, also fun. The ability to infiltrate in numerous ways is still there. I actually had a ton of fun with certain aspects of the infiltration, for instance, entering a secure area with the weapon upgrade that melts glass, hacking the security panel and turning the turrets against their own people. Or running up behind a mech, starting a takeover countdown, hiding somewhere and remotely using the mech to destroy my enemies. Lots of the missions are fun, and this game actually did a really good job of making player choices affect the missions and dialogue. I appreciated the way you have interlocking narratives, some of which will conflict with one another, and how you choose your alliances through the game is a nice touch. Right off the bat I was pissing off people in every clan by playing both sides and just basically going rogue. I appreciated that. The game concludes right too. Everything from the time you get to Antarctica through to the end of the game is gold. Conclusion: If you're looking for a proper sequel to Deus Ex, this is NOT it. But is the game NOT BAD? Yes. It's NOT bad. Originally I would have given the game 1 or 2 out of 10. Now it's a solid 6 or 7/10 for me. Absolute shame this series is probably dead.

When "Deus Ex: Invisible War" released in 2003, it had the unenviable task of following one of the most iconic games of all time.
Unfortunately, instead of building on the groundbreaking legacy of its predecessor, "Invisible War" often feels like a shadow of what "Deus Ex" achieved, leaving long-time fans disappointed...
One of the most glaring issues with "Invisible War" is its oversimplification.
The original "Deus Ex" thrived on complexity, offering players a wealth of choices in gameplay, character customization, and narrative decisions.
By contrast, "Invisible War" appears to cater to a broader audience by streamlining many of its systems to the point of feeling watered down.
The universal ammo system, for instance, strips away much of the strategic depth from combat.
Instead of carefully managing different ammunition types for varied weaponry, players are left with a one-size-fits-all solution that lacks nuance or challenge.
The stealth mechanics, a hallmark of the first game, also take a hit in this sequel.
Levels are more confined, linear, and less conducive to experimentation.
Where the original encouraged creative problem-solving, whether through hacking, sneaking, or brute force, "Invisible War" limits those options, often funneling players toward predictable outcomes.
This lack of freedom makes the experience feel less like a playground for ingenuity and more like a scripted series of tasks.
Another significant disappointment lies in the narrative.
The original "Deus Ex" crafted a rich, multi-layered story filled with conspiracies, philosophical musings, and memorable characters.
"Invisible War," while still rooted in cyberpunk themes, feels shallower by comparison.
The story lacks the same depth and gravitas, and the dialogue often comes across as flat and uninspired.
Even the world-building, which should be a cornerstone of the series, feels constrained by the smaller, less ambitious scope of the game.
Visually, "Invisible War" also struggles.
While the upgraded engine promised improved graphics, the results are underwhelming.
The environments lack detail, the character models are awkward, and the color palette often feels drab and uninspired!
Worse still, the technical performance is marred by long loading times and occasional crashes, breaking immersion...
To its credit, "Invisible War" does attempt some innovations.
The unified biomod system, which replaces the distinct augmentation categories of the first game, offers some flexibility in customizing your character.
However, even this system feels less impactful due to the reduced complexity of gameplay.
It’s a step forward in accessibility but a step backward in depth.
In the end, "Deus Ex: Invisible War" feels like a missed opportunity.
By trying to appeal to a wider audience, it sacrifices much of what made the original so special.
While it’s not a terrible game on its own merits, it pales in comparison to its predecessor!
For fans of the series, "Invisible War" is a reminder of just how high the bar was set in 2000, and how far this sequel fell short...

You are literally unstoppable when you just crouch and pull out the sniper oh and every time you load the game closes and re opens which considering this shoddy pc port makes me very terrified if the loading passed or if It just crashed oh and I have an og xbox copy of this game and considering the entire game is a watered down version of deus ex for the console you'd think it'l run well at least but you need to see it to believe it power points run smother then that version anyway tldr you feel like a god but the pc port is eh it's 7 bucks and for 7 bucks you could be playing much worse 7.5

It's an immersive sim in cyberpunk world. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but it turned out to be as bad as its reputation suggests.

Playing it immideately after the original Deus Ex makes you realize how genius the original game was. Using very basic graphics it created a sense of place, it could make you talk about the nature of democracy with a bartender and it didn't feel too silly, it had huge levels with variety of approaches. Invisible war is the antithesis of this. The levels are extremely small which removes both gameplay variety and thematic sense. Not for a minute you will feel like you're in a real place where people live or work.

Worst of all, it feels too sci-fi. The original game was sometimes weird and juvenile about the connections to history, but it was trying to show you the real world 5 minutes into the future. Invisible War is so exotic and advanced it might as well be a Star Wars game. None of the factions are recognizeable as anything connected to the real world, it all feels extremely generic.

I thought later reboot games dropped the ball on world-building but now I clearly see how successful Human Revolution and Mankind Divided were in capturing some of the magic of the original Deus Ex. This one is just painful

Anyone who hates this game is a mere topography of ignorance to me.

this game is butt lmao

It's a decent game on its own, just not up to Deus Ex standards.

Not as good as the original, but miles better than most give it credit for.

It's...a very mixed experience.
Purchased for about £1 on-sale and did a full playthrough in just over ten hours, which is as much as I'm willing to give the game and recommend for anyone else.
The game is a sequel to the events of the original Deus Ex, which I have not played. Which may also explain why I'm so forgiving about it.

On one hand it's a fun experience if you don't think about it too hard. A lot of throwable objects, environments you can climb all over, ducts, secret areas, and that one Dartgun that sets people on fire (my personal favourite).

On the other hand it's janky, the stealth is a bit dated, the game sometimes crashes in loading screens, some odd times you are forced into combat (especially towards the end) which - if you've committed to stealth and pacifism - can leave you a bit stuck.

I think it's very much a game you 'need to see for yourself'. To that extent I would only recommend getting it on-sale, which happens frequently enough.
(Just remember to put the Flag in the Toilet when you're in the UNATCO Ruins. You'll know what I mean.)

It's like a space alien wearing a Deus Ex skinsuit came down to Earth and told me, "Hello gamer, I am Deus Ex."

I remember being really excited for Invisible War as a kid. Back in the year 2000 I became a big fan of the first game after my father (rest in peace 2008) brought it home one day—not as a gift, but for himself! His co-workers were had been raving about how cool it was, how you could solve any problem in whatever way you wanted, and how the plot was playing out differently in their respective playthroughs. He wanted to try it out.

At 13 years of age an "immersive sim" espionage shooter was not the sort of thing I normally enjoyed, but I decided to give it a chance anyway. So I started my own save. The rest was history: the original Deus Ex became one of my favorite PC games of all time, and set the standard for what could be accomplished with interactive entertainment.

Fast forward to November, 2003. The anticipated sequel, “Deus Ex: Invisible War” was only a month away. Prior to its release I had been seeking out every scrap of information I could find on Invisible War. I remember they when had presented screenshots in PC Gamer magazine... I couldn't believe what I was seeing in those little ink-printed pictures! A sewage pipe that actually looked round, textures that (due to normal mapping) seemed to pop right out of the image, insane high contrast dynamic shadows and a beautiful glowy sheen to it all from this wonderful new thing called “Bloom.”

An Invisible War demo had been released a month prior to the full game. I downloaded that demo—a whopping 223 megabytes—and installed it. I fired it up (it took forever to load).

Disappointment ensued. What the hell is this? Where is the awesome music? Why does everyone talk like a robot? Why is the ammo for all the guns the same? Why do the mission objectives seem so simple with clearly delineated ways to solve them? Why does Alex D seem like such a wimp compared to JC; a wimp with a weird late-90s pop-punk haircut! Why was it running at 15-25 frames per second? Why do the levels feel so small, like they're just a bunch of interconnected corridors? Why are there so many loading screens? And what is this stupid ugly simplified round UI thing? I got off the Hype Train at Deflation Station and hopped into my clown car taxi and went home; normally I would have played a demo like this multiple times, absorbing it all, experimenting with the physics, seeing what I could do differently. I turned it off in under half an hour.

Maybe it’s just me, I reasoned. Maybe my expectations were too high? I went on the official forums... My entire crew of online hype strangers were also making posts about how bad it was. "The next game will just be a conveyor belt that takes you to your objective." "Deus Ex for 3 year olds. Deus Ex: Where is the Bear." "They consolized it!" “Warren Spector’s career is OVER.”

I decided not to buy the game.

Now, a whopping 21 years later, after getting the urge to revisit this series, I have played and finished Invisible War all the way through for the first time. And I can say with firm validation that my initial opinion—having experienced the demo so long ago as a 15-year-old edgelord—has not changed.

It took me a little over 9 hours to finish Invisible War on Regular difficulty with most of the optional side missions completed. I used a mod to enable widescreen at higher resolutions than what the base game would normally allow (this is why my time on Steam looks low).

Only play this if you just have to have more Deus Ex... or maybe you just want to see how the plot for the whole series wraps up.

it's okay

A war that should've stayed invisible.

There was a sense of freedom in these older titles that today's generation of gaming can't quite grasp. A level of love & detail that went into making such amazing story lines with different ways to end it.
From the classic Xbox to Steam on PC, Deus Ex: Invisible War.
Step into a world where you truly can do what you want. From following the story & choosing a faction to believe in, to wiping out every single person you see, you truly can play how you want.

I know a lot of people were disappointed when this game came out, but I still love it's unique style and gameplay.

No widescreen support....

This game is so good that even getting it to work feels like a game in itself

I enjoyed my time with Deus Ex: Invisible War. It is a different type of enjoyment and has a far quicker pace than the first Deus Ex. I'm not sure if everyone who enjoyed the first game will enjoy this one, as while it still offers various endings and a story where choices at least somewhat matter, it is a different style to Deus Ex.

I recommend it to people who enjoy a shooter with some stealth elements and a decent story. I cannot stress enough that the vibe differs from the first game. You may not enjoy Invisible War if you want the same or improved experience.

I played using the "Deus Ex 2 Visible Upgrade mod" from ModDB which offers quite a few fixes that I greatly enjoyed. There is also an optional texture improvement which I did not use as I felt the original graphics do just fine.

Link to review: https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/2081633/

Tl;dr - Thanks to some fantastic writing & level design, Invisible War is better than its reputation would suggest. It’s simply held back by a misdirected story marred by boneheaded ideas, and even if you get used to those gameplay quirks, I just don’t see fans of the first appreciating the decisions concocted here.

I really flip flopped between whether or not id recommend this one. One hand, its a fine game and some parts are enjoyable and creative, but on the other hand it is the sequel to one of the greatest games ever and the changes it makes are sort of baffling. I ended up deciding not to recommend this game as the final third was kind of a slog to me in terms of gameplay and story that really made me not enjoy it.

As a game, its fine with some cool moments and ideas.
As Deus Ex game and continuation to the original, it earns its "Mixed" review badge.

I'd write more but honestly I don't have anything to contribute that others haven't said. I will say, I don't dislike it nearly as much as others. I'm just barely not recommending it, and it's better than I thought it would be.

Its Deus Ex. Nuff Said

At its core, Invisible War retains enough of the elements of the first game that there is actually something to enjoy here, and the overarching story is actually mostly intriguing. But it also doesn't seem to offer any noticeable improvements over the first game, if not just flat out feeling like its taken a step back. Possibly, if you absolutely loved the original Deus Ex, and you just cannot get enough of it, you may find enough enjoyment in Invisible War to suffice. But as as an enjoyer of the original myself, I think you'll probably still be disappointed. It doesn't seem to provide any sort of meaningful improvement over the first game, and it's only hampered further by the hoops you have to jump through to get this game to run properly on modern hardware.

Even after downloading mods to get the game to a playable state, the load times remained absolutely horrible, which always made me want to cry any time I died or had to enter a new area. As I mentioned previously, Invisible War does retain enough of the elements from the first game to still occasionally be enjoyable, though it does feel watered down in many areas. The voice acting and dialogue is awful throughout its entirety, which is only exacerbated further by the neo-political exposition dumps that the characters vomit on you. And because of that awful voice acting, I often found myself mentally checking out during dialogue exchanges, which ended up making the story feel convoluted, confusing, and downright ludicrous at times. Don't get me wrong though, there is still some intrigue in the overarching story. It just does go a bit off the rails, especially toward the end, to the point where I figured if I started asking questions, I would just hurt my brain. Beyond the narrative and in terms of progressing through the game: I ended up going with a brute force bio-mod build that allowed me to just bull-horn my way through the game in the most chaotic way possible, which actually did add in some extra enjoyment, if not downright hilarious moments.

Invisible War does offer some decent replay value, as there are 4 different endings you can obtain depending on your choices in the game, which is kind of cool. However, I simply did not enjoy playing through this enough for me to bother trying to obtain any of the other endings. Additionally, there is plenty of experimentation to be had with the different bio-mod builds that can allow you to experience the game via different play styles, should you feel compelled enough to replay it.

Again, I will reiterate that if you liked the first game, and you're willing to jump through a few hoops to get the game running on modern hardware, there is something to enjoy here. When comparing it to the first game though, I think what is most important to consider is the revolutionary nature of the original Deus Ex in the immersive sim genre, and then contrast it with the very orthodox, if not often diminished nature of Invisible War. If you were lukewarm or worse on the first game, definitely skip this. Otherwise, just go into Invisible War with the expectation that it's probably going to feel mostly like a semi-neutered version of the original game, and just try to enjoy it for what it is - a cheesy, dated game that offers just enough to be mostly serviceable and sometimes enjoyable.

Mediocre game and a very disappointing sequel. Visuals aside this game is worse than the original in every conceivable way.

i love this game so much, its so shit but that makes it so good. plus the stories good, not as good as the jensen or denton games, but still fun

It's

good

The game is a classic - the steam version is garbage,

Gets more flack than it deserves. It's not as intelligent as the first one but it's still a fine game.

The game barely runs on a modern PC even with mods...

Other than the very poor compatibility, the game was alright or at least the ending was nice.
However this game was far shorter and was so much more primitive in terms of mechanics compared to Deus Ex 1 for no apparent reason. Some of these mechanics really dumbed down the gameplay or made it frustrating.
The game also contains some bugs like Universal Toolguns suddenly refusing to stack with the ones you have in your inventory.

meh.

In short: If you want more Deus Ex like the first one of the Jensen ones - NO. Only if you really really want a conclusion to Deus Ex 1.
A little longer: If you enjoyed the intriguing story of intrigues and large variety of playstyles (Give me the GEP Gun) that Deus Ex 1 offered you and hope for a similarly fun and replayable immersive sim, then turn around and download a Deus Ex total conversion mod instead.

This game is tiny, limited, and janky in very un-fun ways. Continuing from a perspective where all endings of Deus Ex happened simultaneously, you live in a high-tech future society where the entire game's running theme is division. The Poor and the Rich, the Economic and the Faithful, the nano-enhanced cybercoffee and the sustainable, ecological brew. I don't think opinions on the game are as divided as it's unequivocally inferior. DX benefits from a few fixes (deus exe, kentie launcher, fixed map pack) but to even get this to run you will need to install The Visible Upgrade. Then you can optimize your game's settings and even get a windowed mode to enjoy this game loading maps by closing and opening itself over and over again which it will do a lot.
If DX1's biggest maps were the size of a baseball pitch, IW's are the groundskeeper's shed. You can't walk three yards without the screen fading to black and asking if you want to load a new area, and even while you walk those three yards, bumping into the liberally placed physics props (enabled by revolutionary HAVOK integration) and sending them careening forwards at the breakneck speed of a half-deflated helium balloon will alert every NPC be they friend, foe or neutral and make them draw their guns. The AI in this game is so lumberingly stupid that it's hard to fight them logically, especially if the last quarter of the game throws almost exclusively mechsuit-wearing rocket-launcher extremists at you that have no spatial awareness and a teensy-tiny weak spot that Ion Storm might have made up for lore and not coded in because they take a lot of your universal ammo. Yes. Your ammo is ONE super limited stack for all guns, your inventory is twelve slots and a lot of shit gets stacked together unsortably, and some items you can't even pick up because they're in hidden spots?
Your RPG elements are gone and instead the game insists you stockpile biomods (formerly known as augments) and change out your installed augs situationally like sure, you have a level 3 healing head augment in a game where medkits don't do jack but right now i need you to hack computers which only works with your brain hooked directly to it, and while your legs are augmented to withstand a drop from the Burj Khalifa you MIGHT wanna install run silent instead because even crouched and crawling at the speed of a lethargic slug everyone in a groundskeeper-shed-radius will hear your footsteps.
The story is centered entirely on you choosing one of two sides: First economists or religious nutjobs and siding with one coffee house chain, later the remnants of the JC crew with way too much trust in a man who's 2/3 AI construct, the shadow government, or EXTREMIST religious nutjobs. It doesn't even affect the story whose stuff you do or don't (besides, missing entire objectives doesn't lose you skill points since there are no skills). Every playthrough I choose the ending where the entire world dies in a fiery anarchist holocaust giving rise to a supremacy of super-bio-augmented lobster men because they are the result survival of the fittest and barely anyone in 2072 is smart enough to brush their teeth without ragdolling to death and this cramped, underdeveloped, janky world was begging for destruction anyways.