Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3 to use Havok engine

Ireland-based software developer Havok has announced a deal with Eidos Interactive's Ion Storm Austin game studio to include its proprietary physics engine in the upcoming Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3. The physics engine is designed to support interactivity with all the objects in a given scene, giving players a greater level of freedom within the game. The physics engine will be used in conjunction with a modified version of the Unreal engine in both upcoming games.

"Games like Deus Ex and Thief are all about player experimentation in a deeply simulated world, so a detailed physics simulation is absolutely critical if we're going to achieve our gameplay goals," said Ion Storm's Warren Spector. "Havok is a powerful, off-the-shelf, multiplatform tool that really meets our needs. You don't often hear developers oohing and aahing, but even the dev team members were blown away when they first ran through a map after we got the Havok code running."

Ion Storm Austin is the latest developer to announce that it will use the Havok engine in an upcoming game. Other companies currently using the engine include Valve, Nihilistic, MindsEye, Acclaim, Dark Black, Lost Boys, Microids, Cyan, Headfirst, and Team 17.

Deus Ex 2 is the sequel to the popular action/role-playing game Deus Ex, which was released in June 2000, and Thief 3 is the next installment in the popular Thief stealth-action game series. No official release date for either game has been announced. For more information, take a look at our previous coverage of Deus Ex 2 and Deus Ex 2 . To learn more about the Havok physics engine, visit the official Havok Web site.