Revisiting Deus Ex: Invisible War

[Konjad]

Got it on Steam and I just started playing it a few minutes ago and oh boi, it's already so exciting! I have removed any gameplay I played previously 15 years ago or so from my memory, I don't know why.

Some bomb went off and we are locked and the gameplay begins. I leave my apartment and next to it an air conditioner blows up and kills one guard. There are two other people on the corridor. One of them who was close looked at the body. He didn't help, I assume he was too shocked. Then walked to another corridor. I followed and he said his best friend just died there.

I walk to another corridor meeting the other dude, another guard. I tell him his buddy just got killed by an air conditioner. He answers it's just part of the job and their duty.

I don't know how's the rest of the game, but it's 10/10 so far.

 

[deuxhero]

Good luck! You'll need it!

I'm serious. Every time I tried playing Invisible War I wound up with half the load attempts crashing after I left the Academy, and that was after the fan patch. I've heard claims the game is relaunching every load transition in order to afford dynamic lighting on Xbox hardware. No idea if it's true, but it's just retarded enough to fit IW.

If they made a reaugmented edition of IW that was stable and let you rebind aug keys I'd give it a proper go, but till them I'll keep it in the dust bin of history.

 

[mushroomrain]

I would say it's worth trying once. There are some remnants of good elements from the original there. They just weren't able to get rid of all of them. Unfortunately, some of the best things from DX1 suffered the most, such as the area design and size. It's also completely braindead, you run out of shit to upgrade very fast. Best thing about the combat is hitting the big robots with your sword, making them your allies, then just watching them massacre everyone and finishing them off with that same sword.

 

[Konjad]

the area design and size

what are you talking about?! Look at this huge city center! This game was ahead of its time.

Quests seem to be very Deus Ex-like and fascinating too

 

[Falksi]

Funnily enough, I tried playing it for the first time this past week and was plagued with constant bugs and crashes, barely got started.

So yeah, fuck this game.

 

[Konjad]

The main character is the sharpest tool in the shed in this game.

Gets hired to be an assassin, gets pass word.

Goes to apartment, says the word and gets in.

Dialogue ensues, the target starts saying information about illegal shipments etc providing information

Alex (the main character): wait, you ship illegal stuff?!?!?!

Target: Wait, you aren't my handler!

Alex: A-ha, I've got you!

 

[Konjad]

I would like to mention that Kang Crispy is a fag, and also post some random screenshots I took yesterday:

 

[lightbane]

I can't get to play it, the screen goes black and I can't do anything. Even with the fan patch. I'm always wondering if I should keep trying, or emulate the Xbox version.

 

[Konjad]

I can't get to play it, the screen goes black and I can't do anything. Even with the fan patch. I'm always wondering if I should keep trying, or emulate the Xbox version.

Idk if it helps you, but I use
https://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-2-visible-upgrade
Full version on DE:IW Steam version, Windows 10.

 

[NecroLord]

I think the poll needs a "Maybe" choice.
I played Invisible War and it is definitely a big step back compared to the masterpiece that was Deus Ex.
But it is really not as bad as some people would have you believe.
Making this game with the console in mind is really what killed its potential, in my opinion.
Imagine Looking Glass designing Thief for the console and then releasing it on PC. It would suck, wouldn't it?

 

[Konjad]

I think the poll needs a "Maybe" choice.
I played Invisible War and it is definitely a big step back compared to the masterpiece that was Deus Ex.
But it is really not as bad as some people would have you believe.
Making this game with the console in mind is really what killed its potential, in my opinion.
Imagine Looking Glass designing Thief for the console and then releasing it on PC. It would suck, wouldn't it?

If you forget it's a Deus Ex and consider it as some jankRPG then it's more enjoyable.

That said, the locations are so tiny, that you often walk just a few meters before another area transition, and locations can be as small as one or two rooms, and the 'big' one (the city centre) is still essentially one short corridor with some doors to other areas.

Despite that, so far I enjoy it, I'm already in Egypt. Writing seems to get better and less silly after the first area.

It's certainly better than some 'big' and open world games, and it's way better than Mass Effect which was just dumb with no redeeming qualities. This one has some.

And I like the music, some tracks are good:

 

[lightbane]

I can't get to play it, the screen goes black and I can't do anything. Even with the fan patch. I'm always wondering if I should keep trying, or emulate the Xbox version.

Idk if it helps you, but I use
https://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-2-visible-upgrade
Full version on DE:IW Steam version, Windows 10.

I think I tried this one, but I'll try again. Thanks!

 

[Konjad]

Well, I uh... I had to test this... didn't expect it to work, but...

 

[DicLupa]

Well, I uh... I had to test this... didn't expect it to work, but...

IW was the last game I can personally recall that allowed me to nonchalantly slaughter children, and I played it as a kid not long after release. It didn't even register as controversial or problematic at the time - that's just how games do, I thought. It's odd looking back on it because of how precious the industry got about this kind of thing not long after. Fallout 3 seemed to plant a flag on the matter, and the rest followed suit.

I don't even like 'slaughter runs' or 'Dark Side paths', but I always appreciate when the simulation allows it.

 

[Konjad]

IW gives me sometimes some strong Blade Runner vibe, i.e.

 

[Vibalist]

Wow guys, thank you for answering my 14-year old question about this game. I'ts been a long time deliberating, but I think I am finally ready to purchase Invisible War now.

 

[Konjad]

I'm about to finish Germany area and honsetly, the game is good. Only the beginning was a bit worse as it had some silly dialogues, but later on the quality improved. The gameplay is like Deus Ex but in mini boxes. Overall it's decent enough. Far from the greatness of the first DE, but I'd say it's comparable to Deus Ex 3 but with different strengths and weaknesses. Deus Ex 4 was better though.

Probably one of the biggest POSITIVE surprises in gaming for me, same as with Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry. Everybody says they are crap but I enjoy them a lot.

 

[NecroLord]

I'm about to finish Germany area and honsetly, the game is good. Only the beginning was a bit worse as it had some silly dialogues, but later on the quality improved. The gameplay is like Deus Ex but in mini boxes. Overall it's decent enough. Far from the greatness of the first DE, but I'd say it's comparable to Deus Ex 3 but with different strengths and weaknesses. Deus Ex 4 was better though.

Probably one of the biggest POSITIVE surprises in gaming for me, same as with Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry. Everybody says they are crap but I enjoy them a lot.

Yeah.
A pretty decent game.
I rather hate the universal ammo though.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I don't remember hating it. I do remember being disappointed on it being 9 hours long vs the 20-something from the first game.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I played it a couple of years ago, directly after completing the first Deus Ex so it felt like a serious decline, but still a decent, yet limited game. I remember the Antarctic levels were okay.

 

[destinae vomitus]

I enjoyed going around torching everyone with a flamethrower, children included.

 

[JarlFrank]

I would say it's worth trying once. There are some remnants of good elements from the original there. They just weren't able to get rid of all of them. Unfortunately, some of the best things from DX1 suffered the most, such as the area design and size. It's also completely braindead, you run out of shit to upgrade very fast. Best thing about the combat is hitting the big robots with your sword, making them your allies, then just watching them massacre everyone and finishing them off with that same sword.

Invisible War is the most depressing game I ever played.

It has touches of greatness in its level design (and level design is what I care for the most, good level design can make up for even the worst systems), but the levels are so fucking tiny it never amounts to anything more than a touch.
You constantly come across well-designed areas that give you hope it's gonna be a banger of a level, but a minute later you're already done with it. Playing Invisible War is like the longest tease-and-denial session ever, and you don't even get a release at the end.

It's incredibly sad because you see the potential, you know the designers could have made something genuinely good, but the engine and hardware limitations prevented it. Just makes you feel depressed.

 

[destinae vomitus]

It's the same sad case as Thief 3. They'd designed actual proper levels but found out towards the tail-end of development that Bill Gates's hot new next-gen console couldn't even run them, so they had to be butchered in the name of platform parity.

 

[lightbane]

Tried Visible upgrade patch, on an old computer just in case. Works more or less, sometimes the screen freezes and refused to close when exiting the game, but I have no idea why it happens. Frame rate is 40 FPS, I'll try with a more powerful computer to see what happens, although the freeze bug mentioned above happened more often here.

 

[goregasm]

I played the OG Deus Ex on Playstation only when it first came out because that's what I had. Absolutely loved it, an in retrospect I am quite grateful it came out on the PS2, In comparison to when i played it on pc, some of the major differences were mostly levels being split up, and making some things more simple like passwords and health, the soul of the game was missing some pieces or had them slightly changed, but it was there.

Console tards like my younger self wouldn't know the difference anyway, but I think they did a rather faithful job of adapting the OG to console

Played Invisible War when it came out on xbox because that's what I had, was utterly disappointed, I didn't know at the time it was designed with console in mind, I just remembered it being so lacking in so many areas, no depth, while I could throw basketballs at people and throw gas grenades in populated areas it didn't feel like the first game, but it sure did look nice.

I didn't hate it, didn't love it, its a bad deus ex game, I haven't particularly enjoyed anything from the franchise after the original, but IW really was the one that FELT like someone stole my dog.

Probably the first time I can recall being excited for a sequel and being utterly shocked at the results, which now is a common feeling.

It does go down as one of my most disappointing moments in gaming as I picked it up with a massive degree of optimism and excitement, then playing it slowly realizing with disappointment how simplistic they made it, I can't recall the story now, but I remember some shit with aliens and JC god, three shit factions.