Deus Ex: Invisible War is one of the the best FPS/RPG's that I have ever had the pleasure of playing.
I bought the game (mixed reviews or no) and went through it in six days, determied to come to my own conclusions. And now, I can safely say, that nearly every review I read was spot on. Depending on how you look at it, this can be a fantastic game, a death knell for intelligent game design, or a steaming pile that you accidentally stepped in and now it's stinking up the house.
That said, I'm not going to get into the plot of either the original or of Invisible War here, since this is one of those rare games where it's best to go in blind, but everything else is fair game. So...
Having been a massive fan of the PS2 original, I'd been awaiting the release of Invisible War since Warren Spector himself, adressing some fan's issues with the multiplayer patch, mentioned that they only had one guy on the team still working on the original Deus Ex; everyone else was hard at work on the game's next installment.
Which brings me nicely to point number one: If you've yet to play the original Deus Ex, go there first. It can be had for next to nothing, and it is easily the best way to determine whether this type of game is for you or not without having to spend a lot of money. On top of that, and despite what a lot of reviews have said, DX:IW is indeed a true sequel to the original. It picks up twenty years later, but there's no doubt that you're in the same world, and having the events of the first game under your belt will aid immensely in getting through the second installment while still having some idea of what the hell is going on (not a given with these games - you have to pay attention).
So, assuming that you're familiar with the first game and liked it as much as everyone else seems to, here's the real question: Does the sequel stack up?
YES,
and it's very fun.
The biggest gripe that can be said about IW, and the one that nearly everyone comes to independantly, is that the game feels cut. And I'm not talking about things that were omitted from Invisible War that were in the original (did anyone ever use the Iron Lung mod, anyway?) I mean it feels like things were going to be implemented in Invisible War that were ultimately dropped. It's like watching a movie where you just know that there was something that got cut at the last minute, and they didn't have time to re-edit it properly. The best example I can think of is right at the beginning of both games. In the original DX, you start right in the heart of things, engaging in a sting operation to free the Statue of Liberty from terrorist occupation. You go in, you do your thing, the game quietly keeps track of HOW you do your thing, and then...You go to work. It's established that you're essentially a futuristic cop, and much of the early part of the game is spent establishing the plot and showing off your technology to let the player acclimate to it. So, when things start to go haywire (which, and I mean this in a good way, they do quite suddenly) it's honestly engaging, especially as the layers begin to reveal themselves. Do you stick with your old affiliations? Oh, wait, they were operating behind your back! But...So were the other people you were going to work for! Aaah! Who do you trust?
By comparison, DX:IW gets you dressed, prepped, and out the door in the first ten minutes of gametime. You're out of Chicago in the opening movie, in Seattle in the first scene, and then BAM, you're free of all obligations right from the get-go. No police affiliation, no real information, but thankfully, everyone seems to know your number and wants to call you. It sounded good on paper, I'm sure, but in practice it's jarring and serves more to distance the player from the game than anything else. You never really get the chance to feel betrayed or double-crossed by anyone, because, well, you never really care about them to begin with.
It's a tough sell to explain this to someone who is unfamiliar with either game, so here's something worth noting: The only way you'd notice is if you played both games.
The other big gripe about DX:IW is that it runs pretty slopily, regardless of which platform you choose. If you'd rather go with the PC version, expect to burn some serious power on this game. The Xbox version, which is pretty choppy and prone to slowdown just a bit, at least looks good when it's not moving to fast, and is definitely the better choice for anyone without a monster PC. This was a common complaint with the first game as well, though it's a moot one now. Here's the kicker: Even the most stringent critic of DX:IW noted that, while they thought the game was loaded with problems, they kept playing it. A lot. Sometimes, when they beat it, they'd fire it right back up and start all over again. What gives?
Well, it sounds odd, but for this game's problems and occasionally wonky design scheme (all weapons use the same type of ammo? C'mon...) it's still fun. In fact, a lot of the time it's so fun that you forget about all the other stuff that bothered you about it, and at the very least it makes these problems forgivable. I beat the game in six days. If I wasn't having fun, there's no way I could have done that, I don't care how much I loved the first game. With DX:IW, the problems will bother you if you let them, and particularly if you were a big fan of the first one, but at the end of the day, it's still a fantastically fun game. Manipulating all the factions to your whim, or having them do it to you, is such a cool game mechanic that it overshadows everything else and really saves this game. Again, critics will point out that this was done better in the first game (and it was.) Taken on it's own merits, though, DX:IW is a competent sequel that still gave me that same sense of cool that the first one had in droves.
It just took some digging to find it.
All in all though, I have to say, Deus Ex: Invisible War is one of the the best FPS/RPG's that I have ever had the pleasure of playing.