System Requirements Windows 98/2000/XP 1.3Ghz 256MB RAM 32MB DX9 3D Graphics 100% DX 9 Compatible sound 2GB hard drive free space
It has been twenty years since J.C. Denton disrupted the MJ-12 experiment and caused an economic collapse. Now the world is being torn by various political powers. You are Alex D., a promising graduate from the Tarsus academy. Terrorists have destroyed your hometown Chicago, and you want to find out why. The game starts with you being taken to Seattle and there your journey begins. Find out your destiny and why some groups want you dead. It could be anyone from these following organizations:
The Organizations
Omar
- A cyborg cult that promotes biomodifcation and survival technology. They operate an underground market with illegal biomods
The Order
-A religious cult seeking balance and following the orders of ?Her Holiness?
The Templars
-Also known as the Knights Templar, they are for purity and are against biomods
WTO
-A militant organization seeking to rebuild the economy; they head up many scientific experiments
So what do I do?
You?ll be getting lots of orders from various organizations. Many of these orders will conflict and you will have to choose sides at times. Each area has primary goals you have to complete. There will be many side quests to keep you busy as well. You?ll be traveling to Seattle, Egypt, Germany, and New York. In order to get around you?ll have to hire pilots to take you. Of course in order to hire them, you?ll have to help them get their helicopters free first.
Side Quests
As I mentioned before there are many side quests that are completely optional to complete. These jobs are not always legal but they pay well. Some jobs are morally sound like helping a poor girl survive and get into the school of choice, Tarsus Academy. Other tasks will not be so nice: for example you are asked to vandalize a coffee store so the competition can have an edge. The Coffee Wars throughout the game add entertainment value.
What?s all this Biomod talk?
You are an enhanced human being with technologies infused into your body. You can choose and upgrade your abilities. You have one slot for your eyes, arms, legs, skeletal and cranial. So you?ll have to make some tough choices on which biomods to install. Fortunately you can change your mind, but you will lose any upgrades you put into it. As mentioned earlier there are black-market biomods that give you some really neat abilities. You can only upgrade black-market biodmods with black-market biomod canisters. Here are some of the biomods you can use.
Arm
Strength Enhancement-adds damage to melee Biotox Active Drone-drone that attacks organic enemies Bot-Domination (Black-Market)-take control of various size robots
Cranial
Cloak-become invisible to organic enemies Hazard Drone-protects you from environmental hazards Neural Interface (Black-Market)-Bypass security terminals, manipulate cameras and turrets
Eye
Vision Enhancement-See better in dark areas and see through walls Regeneration-Regain health quickly at the cost of energy Spy Drone (Black-Market)-A remote camera and emp weapon you can maneuver
Leg
Speed Enhancement-increase speed and jumping distance Move Silent-makes enemies not hear you move increases falling distance Health Leech Drone (Black Market)- Takes health from corpses and unconscious victims
Skeletal
Aggressive Defense Drone-Forces incoming rockets to fire prematurely hurting the shooter Thermal Masking-Become invisible to electronic devices Electronic Discharge (Black-Market)-Adds EMP damage with hand-to-hand attack
Biomods are cool and all, but what weapons are there?
You have your standard flamethrowers, sniper rifles, pistols, grenades and rocket launchers. There are also some weapons from the first game like the stun gun, and the energy blade, which does not need any ammo. Speaking of ammo, all of the weapons in this game use the same kind. This makes it real convenient when hunting for equipment. There are various weapon mods you can install to each gun.
Ammo scavenger
-Make it more ammo efficient
EMP Converter
-adds EMP damage to hurt robots Fragmentary Round-Radius explosion damage
Glass Destabilizer
-Dissolves glass with out setting off the alarm
Increased Damage
-Do I need to explain this?
Increased Range
-Shoot farther
Refire Rate
- makes weapons fire faster
Silencer
-makes mimes happy
What do I get to use these weapons on?
You will get resistance against many of these opposing forces. Each employ thugs and soldiers as well as robotic warriors. You will face turrets, security cameras, and alarms too. Some of the ground forces have really tough armor but the Omar will tell you where their weakness is. There are some nasty monsters and genetically altered creatures you?ll come across. You have more enemies than friends so keep your eyes and ears open. There are non-lethal weapons in this game. That?s right, you do NOT have to kill everyone. In fact I found that knocking my enemies out was more effective and more efficient.
Hacking?
Remember those security cameras and turrets? Well those can be disabled if you have the proper codes, biomods, or hacking abilities. If you can?t hack, it?s nothing a rocket launcher won?t fix. But there are many areas that require key codes to get in. The only way around that is having a handy multi-tool to pick the lock for you. There are many multi-tools laying around the levels, look for them. You?ll need every single one!
Graphics
The Unreal 2 Engine powers Dues Ex: Invisible War. The people are very detailed and look realistic. The levels are nicely laid out and there are many hidden spots to explore. The Havoc engine is used to handle the physics thus adding a new dimension of realism. The detail is amazing and should not disappoint. There are however some graphical glitches. I noticed that the Anti-aliasing does not work well on my ATI Radeon 9800. The resolution settings are saved with your saved game and are not saved when you first start the game. For many the performance is slow. In fact this game does not like the MX variety of video cards. There are hacks around it using emulators of sorts. Check the Deus Ex forums for more information.
Sound
The sound effects and music in this game is top notch. The voice acting is very good as well. The AI seems realistic with their own side conversations. The EAX support is well done too. The same composer of the original game does the background music for Invisible War. When you are in the dance clubs and bars you?ll hear music from a group called Kidney Thieves. The techno/rock is very fitting for this game genre. No complaints in the sound department!
Appropriate?
Like many First person Shooters you?ll have to take down some people or be killed yourself. When you hit a target, they will react physically and vocally. You will hear them scream in pain and taunt you. Killing is not always the answer as you have the option of using non-lethal weapons. I also like how when you drink or smoke you lose health, so it?s in your best interest not to. There is some swearing (S & D words) and gambling as well. If you play the male version of Alex D., a homosexual will proposition you in a bar. Finally some of the paintings depict nudity. As usual some of the females can use more clothes.
Multiplayer
Sadly, there is no multiplayer in this game. There is some replay value in the five different endings. Okay one of the endings is an Easter egg. There are four difficulty levels you can play at: Easy, Normal, Hard and Realistic. The higher the level the less damage you do and the more they do to you! Another challenge is: can you beat it without killing anyone?
Conclusion
I truly believe this game is a worthy sequel to the original Deus Ex. The game play is definitely fun, but short. Roughly 15 hours with trying the different endings. Although there are five endings, you can choose your side at the final five minutes of the game, no matter how much you angered the group! There have been some fixes since the release so make sure to patch it if you get it. Other than the graphical glitches the game ran well for me. The story line is superb and the action is intense. Now that I have seen all the endings I have no reason to play the game unless multiplayer or MODs come out. It was fun while it lasted though.
