As a stand alone game it might be considered mediocre. As a sequel, it fails in flying colors.
User Rating: 4.4 | Deus Ex: Invisible War PC
To put it bluntly, Ion Storm took all that was good and treasured in the original Deus Ex experience, and tossed it out the window, with the notable exception of dialogue trees and a cyberpunk setting. Among the gameplay "features" that were added, you will be relieved to find out that the skill system was completely replaced by 'biomods' -- which are various implants that for various reasons can only work in certain combinations in your body. For example, you can't have cloaking ability and the ability to perform super jumps, or something or another of that style. Because apparently, the hardware for both aren't compatable, and the science of which is beyond human comprehension, and therefore any argument that leg implants shouldn't at all bother a cloaking device any more than moving one's arms is moot. The product of all of their planning and brainstorming comes out as an arcade styled shooter with a level of tactical realism below that of Wolfenstein 3D, which, to it's credit, didn't incorporate universal ammunition for all weapons. Yes, it certainly adds more 'tactics' to playing Deus Ex 2, for example, noting down that using a rocket launcher now will prevent you from using an electronic prod to repeatedly stab someone to death with. So those who argue against there being a tactical 'lack thereof' are indeed mistaken, but no one in their right mind could call these new 'features' very compelling or immersive, let alone realistic in any frame of reference other than someone on the same substances that the persons responsible for these additions were on during the design phase. There is also, or rather, was also, no locational damage for the PC version when it was first shipped. Shooting someone in the face had the same effect as shooting them in the chest-- except that its harder to hit them in the head than in the chest. A later patch was released that added a new damage zone for headshots, if that means anything. Among other things, apparently blunt weapons and tasers are even less effective than they were in the earlier half of the 21st century, apparently you have to constantly hold down the stun button on one's phaser for a full thirty seconds before someone goes down. I opted to tape down my mouse button and go grab a cup of coffee instead while I waited. Among the various story and universe innovations included in the game were its excellent physics and handling of water, or the lack thereof. Infact, I did not recall seeing a single pool of water throughout the game-- and at Liberty Island revisted, the ocean had frozen over. Interesting plot twist, or rushed engine, you decide. Not that the plot is at any point believable or immersive, of course. It ammounts to a quickly pasted together jumble of ideas from a short five minute story brainstorming session shortly after returning home from the local pubs, and when taken in context of the events in Deus Ex (the first), are laughably bad and completely contradictory within its own universe. The sound is also rather disappointing as a whole, and voice acting didn't seem a whole lot better than the original-- as far as graphics were concerned, overall, the maps and mapping ideas weren't poor-- textures were good, but for the most part, many models of objects that they should've had no problems with, were horrible -- in perticular, curved objects, and most annoyingly, the weapons in the first person view. Level design is "good", in the frame of reference being an archaic Playstation 2. For PC players, every other door leads to another level load, which has taken over a minute on a highend system (highend in the reference frame of 2004) -- and it's not as though the levels themselves are any larger than, say, cubicles. And last I heard, they weren't releasing the SDK for level editing, so modding seems to be out of the question. Yeah, and it had some interesting physics, no less than what's expected for modern games-- with dynamic lighting and shadows, and the ability to kick things around with superhuman strength, as well stack boxes to get places... oh wait... that was in the original too. Bottom line: Avoid it like the plague. If you're curious and you own a console, rent it for a few days.
