Deus Ex: Invisible War

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.

EIDOS: a Greek term meaning "form" "essence", "type" or "species"

Now that's some Eldritch Lovecraftian Bullshit right here!

Also whoever thought releasing this thing on xbox was a good idea deserve to be shoved a duke controller in his bumhole

My first ever played DeusEx !
I remembered this way more longer and dull ! But instead was fast paced and also very fun to play !!!

Parece que a Ion Storm fumou CRACK pra fazer essa sequência, de top jogos já feito pra um bagulho eca.

Deus Ex: Invisible GOAT

Great game with horrible port

If you have a thing for loading screens, you'll find your fun in this opus. If you are looking for a decent sequel to the first Deus Ex, however... Better play Human Revolution or Mankind Divided.

Not as good as the original. Not as good as the newer ones. But I still enjoy it.

After the phenomenal success of Deus Ex in 2000, expectations for a sequel were colossal. Deus Ex: Invisible War, released in 2003, thus found itself having to fulfill the excessive hopes of fans of bionic implants, global conspiracies and cyberpunk atmosphere. The problem? It's hard to compete with a legend. Invisible War tried... with mixed results. So let's take our cyber-VCR and analyze this video game curiosity with a good dose of humor and self-mockery.

Positives
Story still full of conspiracies: If you love conspiracies, Invisible War is once again a feast for lovers of convoluted scenarios. Illuminati, World Order, cybernetic rebellions, everything is there to titillate your brain. While the story isn’t as dense as the first game, it still has enough mystery to keep you hooked. We’re once again at the heart of a global conflict that will shape the future of humanity. And let’s face it, who can resist a good old rivalry between secret superpowers?

Freedom of approach: Even though Invisible War has simplified several aspects compared to its predecessor, it still has a certain freedom in the way you can approach situations. Whether you want to hack security systems, snipe from the shadows or sneak around like a ghost, the game lets you decide. Okay, some options are a little less elaborate, but the effort is there! It’s a bit like Deus Ex had a simplification cure.

Cyberpunk atmosphere still on top: Dystopian futuristic atmosphere is once again a strong point. With its dark streets and neon lights, Invisible War manages to capture that cyberpunk charm, even if the level of detail doesn't reach the richness of the first game. The environments, while smaller, are still immersive and conducive to exploration. You're still in a world where technology and corruption go hand in hand, and that's good for fans of the genre!

Negatives
Oversimplification: Often criticized for having "oversimplified" the winning formula of the first Deus Ex. The RPG elements that made the first game strong have been lightened, making the experience less deep. The unification of ammunition is probably one of the most questionable design choices. A single type of ammunition for all weapons? It's like putting ketchup on sushi: it works, but it ruins the flavor a bit.

Disappointing technical performance: In 2003, Invisible War’s performance was problematic, even on high-end PCs of the time. The game was unpredictable, with long loading times, framerate drops, and questionable optimization. And let’s not forget the oddly low default resolution that sometimes made it look like you were playing on a CRT TV. For a game that was supposed to be next-gen, it was a bit… blurry, both literally and figuratively.

Overly tight environments: One of Deus Ex’s greatest strengths was its vast, interconnected levels. Invisible War, on the other hand, suffers from much smaller maps that are fragmented by countless loading screens. This often breaks the immersion and fluidity of the gameplay. Want to run from one dark alley to the next? Sorry, you’ll have to wait between levels… again… and again. Fans of the first game’s wide-open spaces will feel like they’re living in a shoebox here.

Summary
Deus Ex: Invisible War is a game that tried to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor while simplifying the formula, but it stumbles on several fronts along the way. If you can get past the simplified mechanics and the few technical issues, the game still offers a captivating conspiracy storyline and a cyberpunk world that still looks great. But let’s be honest: for those who loved the first Deus Ex, Invisible War may seem like a sequel that doesn’t quite live up to expectations. It’s still an enjoyable ride for fans of dystopian sci-fi… as long as you’re not too picky about the details. So is it an invisible failure? Not really. But it’s definitely a lost war on some fronts. Thankfully, there are always a few hacks and augmentations to salvage the experience!

55/100

The game is great but the steam version did not run I got a black screen.

The main reason I'd suggest playing this game is to experience the weird design decisions and fun 2004 jank. It's not terrible, but as a successor to Deus Ex this game sits in a weird place. The game itself isn't bad on its own and there ARE some really nice features and elements that it shares with the original. I really enjoyed still finding lore everywhere, everything optional always had some utility or tradeoff, and the narrative still feels like it has that core Deus Ex structure to it. I still didn't get to the ending due to frustrating gameplay and stability problems. The game crashes upon level loads and when gathering items from time to time. I honestly find this game quite charming despite its never-ending flaws, and it's quite clear that a bunch of people on the development team cared. Check out Ross Scott's video on the game for more opinions I agree with!

fallout4 came from this game