Deus Ex: Invisible War PC Game Review

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Deus Ex: Invisible War is a cyberpunk-themed first-person action role-playing video game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Released simultaneously for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox on December 2, 2003, the game is a sequel to the critically acclaimed Deus Ex. The game takes place in 2072, twenty years after Deus Ex, in a world being rebuilt after a catastrophic event called "The Collapse". Following a terrorist attack that destroys the city of Chicago, the player assumes the role of Alex D, a trainee at the Tarsus Academy, whose support is sought by several organizations. As the game progresses, the player learns of conspiratorial factions which seek to drastically change the world.
Invisible War was designed to allow player choice in both plot and gameplay, with branching plot lines and emergent gameplay elements. Upon its release, the game received high critical acclaim for its graphics, gameplay and freedom of choice, but criticism was directed towards below-par enemy AI and design choices that made the game seem over simplified. As of April 2011, the game has sold over 1.2 million copies. The game was eventually followed by a 2011 prequel to both it and the original game called Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

[@theaussieretrogamervine152]

Agreed. It's not a perfect game, but I love it all the same. I've played it multiple times over the years, on Xbox and PC, and I find the atmosphere and general feel of the game calls to me every now and then :)

[@w415800]

I understand the criticism on the game as a whole, but personally I'm still satisfied with the ending to the narrative, that Omar ending is just pure perfection.

[@mooganify]

You managed to get it to work on the PC? I am impressed.

[@hankraymond4524]

The Fall was worse.

[@knownuniverse93]

God Bless You

[@dallesamllhals9161]

@@mooganify Huh? GOG or CD?

[@grognougnou]

The game has a good scenario but an over-simplified gameplay compared to DX1 and the levels are small with vents everywhere. Probably the worst game of the whole serie despite its good points.

[@robertforster8984]

I still would put it above Human Revolution.

[@CAL1MBO]

@@robertforster8984 Your opinion, but a really shit one.

[@simondaniel4028]

@@CAL1MBO HR is so good. I prefer GOTY myself, but I could see an argument for introducing someone to the series with HR first. Still, for all it's problems, IW does have a new player character, unique skills, and multiple locations across the globe. Compared to MD's returning protagonist, mostly copy and pasted skills, and only one real location? I'd say IW is a better DX game than MD is, though IW has the most BS game mechanics to play. MD is awesome, to be sure. I guess what I'm saying is that there isn't a bad game in this series. It's as hard for me to pick the best as it is to pick the worst. IW was a complete project, storywise. MD shot itself in the foot thinking it could get a trilogy to itself.

[@CAL1MBO]

@@simondaniel4028 Did you read his comment? He said Human Revolution, not mankind divided.

[@evanstein3011]

Good point on the levels. Not to mention that they're just ugly. A lot of the first game was pretty bleak too, but it had more variety at least. The environment in this game is so ugly and it's totally forgettable, despite the technical capabilities being a drastic improvement over the first. I remember this game's shadows being one of the first times I can remember seeing dynamic lighting (which seems rudimentary now) and it was so damn impressive in 2003. See 5:17. This was a year before Doom 3 came out, which is sort of famous for that.

[@guillaumeerard]

Now this one makes me very happy! Very fair review. The soundtrack is different but boy, does it set a great atmosphere!

[@Yij]

My god, this brings back painful memories. I remember getting 15fps at 1024x768 on my measly Geforce Ti4200 128mb back in the day. It was either that, or 20fps at 800x600. Such hard decisions in life. Still love the lighting and shadow effects, like at 5:16. They look great even to this day!

[@free2game]

I think there was something good hiding below, but it seems like one of those games that had a troubled development and a rash redesign. I remember previews before it showing a very PC friendly UI and other things that never made it into the actual game. I'm guessing that they realized they couldn't port a 2003 PC game to the Xbox, so they switched it at some point to be an xbox designed game that just had a lazy/cheap port to the PC (before it was patched, all of the body damage was the same, so headshots didn't even do extra damage).

[@foxysobek8109]

hi

[@Yveldi]

@@foxysobek8109 no

[@foxysobek8109]

@@Yveldi hi

[@Yveldi]

@@foxysobek8109 no

[@alexanderdemontfort3022]

Level design was shit in IW compared to DX. I mean, in the first one they managed to convey a realistic layout to the world and the missions unfolded organically around that world. In IW, however, there would literally be missions where the layout boiled down to a corridor (action path) or, next to it, a human sized vent (stealth path), having not come across any other vents. It felt so contrived, absolute shit.

[@PonzooonTheGreat]

Will you craw through the vent or bypass the door? So many choices! Except... the vent and door are right next to each other so it makes no fucking difference. It was because the levels had to fit in the Xbox's miniscule ram. Ye, the story went completely off the rails imo.

[@omegasupreme5527]

This is true. Also of note is how small the play environments are in IW. In the original there were quite a few areas that were pretty massive in scale compared to IW. Even the liberty island map is huge compared to most of the design I remember from IW. I remember seeing the loading screen in IW a lot more than I cared to.

[@PonzooonTheGreat]

Kamijo Touma Ikr. "Downtown" was like 5 rooms with 2 guys.

[@MalditoSeasEstadoDelsrael]

It's still better than the air ducts that lead nowere and only act as corpse dumps in HR

[@rogerlynch5279]

Dear Kamijo Touma; absolutly right and correct - but also the acting of the main voice actors. They had talked so slow and mostly without any emotion that listening to them became a pain. Even on funerals you can hear more vivid speeches. In a way the concept of this RPG-SNEAK-SHOOTER reminded me a lot of the later published VAMPIRE THE MASQUARADE BLOODLINES but there the dramaturgy of the play acting had been much better. Yes, this proofs there were some valuable approaches to be found in the design of … INVISIBLWAR but the total game didn´t became to disonante. Doubt the game can be misunderstood

[@Nightweaver1]

This game was really exciting to play back in 2003 because it was the first time I saw Havoc physics in action. I about sh*t myself when I saw that I could dynamically move objects in the environment. You have to remember that I was also 23 and this was nearly two decades ago, so my standards were a lot different that long ago.

[@eonasep]

goddamn

[@caffeinated4671]

I remember renting this game from Blockbuster in 2003 and spending the entire rental period screwing around with the game rather than play it proper.

[@ababa9668]

how old are you now, may i know please

[@GimpyUnicorn]

​@@ababa9668What is math?

[@CatManDoom84]

*head shots with sniper rifle* body:IVE BEEN HIT WITH A BOMB! 🤣 But no i do appreciate this game

[@MaxiM_PL]

I'm playing this now, right after finishing Deus Ex 1. I've played both of these back when they were released and I remember that while playing IW I was left speechless because of how bad it was. Then the atmosphere and the music kinda grew on me and I've managed to finish the game with mixed feelings overall, but mostly negative. This was the game that nearly killed the franchise after the smashing hit that DX1 was. Playing it now back to back with DX1 I'm already getting frustrated because of how shallow, streamlined, oversimplified and *miniaturized* it is, while DX1 still holds up amazingly well (even to my surprise). All other "flaws" aside, a single building interior in DX1 was ofter x10 larger than a hub area in IW. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. I just hope that soon I will re-discover that "something" that kept me playing back in 2003 despite all the obnoxious flaws.

[@kelvincasing5265]

totally agree. try gmdx 9 for dx1 if you haven’t

[@MILDMONSTER1234]

If I'm being honest I like it more then Human revolution

[@robertforster8984]

Still a lot better than HR though.

[@TyrannoWright]

Everyone: Ion Storm GmanLives: *_EON STORM_*

[@semvision]

Yeah he's such a moron isnt he.

[@m3lanchol1a60]

everyone: hl2 GmanLives: HAICH L 2

[@rappakalja5295]

Yeah how dare people have different accents.

[@saintpepsi8602]

Different accents doesn't excuse not being able to pronounce something correctly I have a Irish accent but will always go out of my way to pronounce polish words as perfect as I can ​@@rappakalja5295

[@JohnVmc2]

Well, the "small areas" really looks like something that was made like these because of the Xbox, just like what happened in the PS2 version of the first game. To me, this was what really hurted the game for me, everything was so small and looked so much limited compared to the first game that i constantly didn't feel i was playing a Deus Ex game, BUT i still find the game quite enjoyable. Human Revolution was better, but for the the first one still the king of Deus Ex games. Making divided didn't convinced me. I mean, the surely looks great, but is the ultra high tech makes it even more inconsistente with being a prequel than before.

[@rycullen441]

this is a better review of invisible war then most i have seen since it seems less biased

[@DrdrGames]

Ry Cullen Being more neutral on a game is not the same thing as being less biased.

[@DukeoftheAges]

Finally played this game recently, and loved the hell out of it. Some stuff i even enjoyed more than the first.

[@BusinessZeus]

It's just easier to pick up and play

[@Cephalopod51]

According to Harvey Smith, who was a guest at a lecture of Warren Spector's (it's on KZbin, and I recommend seeing it), Invisible War was screwed up due to a variety of factors. For one, they were aiming the game for a multi-console release, which was why Invisible War had many loading screens and small areas. The second reason was that Smith and Spector were convinced by hardcore game editor friends that Deus Ex 1 was terrible, and they tried to make Invisible War according to how their friends wanted Deus Ex to be. Smith admitted that he and Spector should have listened to Deus Ex fans instead of their friends. The third reason was that Smith's life was very turbulent at that time. According to another interview, he said that he was unable to design levels for Invisible War, and it certainly shows. The level design of the first Deus Ex owes a lot to Smith's talent.

[@MK-qu6xs]

Some of the levels also feature hidden weapons (for example: a boltcaster which lights enemies on fire, located at the Nassif Family Greenhouse during the first trip to Cairo). Thanks for the review.

[@HighwayMule]

The Cairo section of this game is great and really well written, I think. But I agree the main problem with this was the size of most levels, which did not exceed the usual one room appartment with kitchen annex.

[@DukeoftheAges]

I think there's a mod working on getting rid of the levels and reconnecting all the parts of the game like it should of been. There's a similar mod for Deadly Shadows that i have, it feels different without all the loading screens for sure.

[@saintpepsi8602]

Well this mod never happened

[@OffTheSpot22]

The knockout delay worked in the first game, because it stood to dissuade you from using the mini-crossbow all the time. It was supposed to be a situational weapon, you only use it when you absolutely have to. The size of the maps in invisible war makes this pointless, though. I miss the days where non-lethal weapons in games weren't the same as lethal ones. That being said, DX3 did it well. All the non-lethal weapons were single shot, so open combat was basically impossible.

[@OffTheSpot22]

treeghettox That's meant to be an alternate to the shotgun that can fire like 5 shots before reloading, though. It's the most powerful non-lethal weapon, but still gimped in open combat.

[@elmerjfapp5730]

this game was good enough to a kid and its what made me interested in deus ex as a whole, if it wasn't for this game being on the original xbox i wouldn't have bothered buying mankind divided or human revolution

[@Roshea]

"Conspiracies" you say? Welcome to 2021.

[@salokin3087]

God, Invisible War is such a mixed bag that i kind of hate it. The story is fucked thanks to your character who seems to lack a few chromosomes when playing male. Combat is too floaty to be any fun and the FOV makes all the weapons look like toy guns. I do like the Physics engine and the graphics aren't terrible, but the enclosed shortened, compacted environments are such a step back from the Originals at times expansive settings. Fuck this game for being such a sellout of my favorite game!

[@Mitachia]

+Salokin Sekwah I liked it more than deus ex human revolution to be hones :)At least you dont need to eat a snickers every 5 min.

[@salokin3087]

+Mitachia You know...you right in that regard!

[@Mitachia]

Salokin Sekwah Don't forget the stupid bosses and the broken nonlethal game :)At leas i was able to replay the invisible war while i rage quit at Human revolution the second time.

[@peppermillers8361]

+Mitachia at least they fixed that in the Director's Cut, minus the sneaker bar.

[@Mitachia]

pepper Mill how?

[@flyingninja1234]

Many people don't like this game, I however do like it.

[@Zanoladab]

@@tbone9474 I agree invisible war is a good game. BUT IT AINT BETTER THAN THE PREQUELS,NOT EVEN CLOSE.

[@Zanoladab]

@@tbone9474 sorry, i forgot people have different opinions.

[@syncmonism]

The story is actually pretty decent. It's not as good as the original, but it's a fairly satisfying followup of the events of the original. The modern (prequel) deus ex games have way higher quality voice acting, but ultimately their stories just aren't nearly as interesting.

[@blackmesaboy]

I know fans of the first game are hard on IW but it was the first Deus Ex game for me. For that reason alone I love it and it was very influential for me as a gamer. Yes it has its flaws but it is still a very enjoyable game if you don't compare it to the rest of the series.

[@DyNaM1k]

Yes but you can't enjoy it when you have played original which is much better and it's named deus ex. if it wasn't a sequel to deus ex it wouldn't be critisized like this

[@bornon18]

+irakli “Bomtvare” bogveradze I played the original and Human Revolution - and I still think Invisible War is awesome.

[@MaxiM_PL]

@@bornon18 Nostalgia goggles, mate.

[@SicSemperBeats]

Deus ex invisible war looked amazing back then.

[@syncmonism]

Until you realized how small the areas were, which was definitely a let-down for fans of the original.

[@Hirnlego999]

Yes, the light / shadow was used even before Far Cry and it came out on the first Xbox. The low amount of RAM was really hurting the game though, as the code used too much of the RAM.

[@PSWii360onBaSS]

I remember when I got the demo for this when I was 8 from xbox magazine. I spent way too much time with the physics. I had never seen ragdoll physics. So I spent hours throwing bodies in a dumpster and setting them on fire.

[@ImWithTeamTrinity]

I liked to throw my drinks in the bouncers faces and listen to their threats.

[@TheMrR0]

Nice review as always, keep up the good work. I gave this one a go a while back but I ran into the same issues with the whole getting-it-running thing with W7

[@colonelkassad16]

This was the game that first introduced me to the Deus Ex franchise, so despite its flaws, it has a special place in my heart.

[@SolarisKane]

Invisible War was my first foray into the franchise because I didn't have a pc at the time, only consoles. I had no idea there was even a first game.

[@fossilfern]

I think this game is fantastic despite some of its issues.

[@fossilfern]

boobio1 What's a mom? Sorry I don't speak broken English.:)

[@benjaminpapp512]

+fossilfern wew wut a väry gr8 review NIIIIIIIICCCCCHHHHHHT

[@AnthropianOdyssey]

Agreed. The political philosophy, the glimpse at different paths for humanity, the exposure to transhumanism... I loved this game and still do. Sure DX 1 is better but that doesnt mean this game is not good. I hope one day they remake it and make it even better without taking away the things I loved about it.

[@hannibalburgers477]

fossilfern "some"?

[@ytanonymity3585]

Probably because of the console limitation

[@magnusgrant4146]

Loving your reviews and retrospectives. Just a question; you ever plan on reviewing the Knights of the Old Republic games?

[@Gggmanlives]

+Magnus Grant Thanks and I have no plan to review KOTOR.

[@magnusgrant4146]

That's a shame. They're great games and I think they'd be ideal to look at from your viewpoint. But no matter

[@SevereRepugnance]

Man, I loved this game! It was my introduction to the Deus Ex series, I remember having a blast exploring the maps and reading into the story. It's a shame that it got such heated backlash, I'll never really understand why.

[@filipl234]

He answers that in the review. It is a watered-down follow-up to the best game till now.

[@esotericmissionary]

Being my entry into the Deus Ex universe, on the Xbox back in the day, I found this game to be quite fun and enjoyable. Admitted, I was drawn in by the conspiracy and sci-fi aspect of it, as those were the two things I loved reading and researching at the time. But then I found the first game, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy, on computer, my first real pc game, and it was the (pre)sequel that was just the greatest experience for me as a video game player. Anyway, getting back on track, the opening theme of Invisble War is just fucking tits, man! It encapsulates the story line of IW perfectly. The unexpecting use of the Kidney Thieves album, trickstereprocess, for the Brittany Spears-esque character, NG Ressonance, was and still is a brilliant bit social commentary about celebrities hidden in there. Would you expect anything less in a conspiracy simulator?

[@elvisneedsboats7856]

Hey man, just wanted to say you're one of the best reviewers on KZbin. Keep up the good work.

[@KooL_D]

This is actually my favorite deus ex to run thru. Something about the world is so alluring

[@yummy5082]

I love both your modern and retro reviews, especially the MS-DOS shooter reviews and I think you should check out a strange little title called H.U.R.L. An attempt at a "kid friendly Doom", it's probably one of the weirdest FPS games I've ever played.

[@ForzaBlucerchiati]

i dont understand the negativity around this game. i absolutely loved it and so did many other people. However, i never played the original deus ex so i wasnt in a position to compare it to that. People who played the original were let down by this one but its really not that bad a game. What annoys me is the revisionism from some gaming publications and websites regarding this game. This game was released here in 2004 and what prompted me to go and buy it was the extremely positive reviews it received in magazines at the times. some of them published articles many years later stating how much of a disappointment it was.

[@kevinvanbergen6839]

I heard the walton simmons voice actor in that last part. He's so good. :D

[@BigHugsFromHell]

I'd give it this one thing: Though a lot of people think it falls short, and it does when compared to the rest of the series, it was the first one I played due to my age at the time, but turned out well enough to get me hooked on the rest of the series -- to go back and play the first one, then look forward to what came next at the edge of my seat -- so in a way it did its job as an entry-point to this universe, and besides, from the point of view of a first-timer, it was all uphill from there.

[@4tCa4mzUPqRZZo]

Any plans to review human revolution?

[@Gggmanlives]

+slayerming1 What do you think?

[@4tCa4mzUPqRZZo]

Gggmanlives yay!

[@ByGeorge846]

+slayerming1 give your head a shake Sonny Jim

[@Gggmanlives]

Matthew Bubulka I wasn't being mean to him, I was replying to a rhetorical question with a rhetorical question. Some people get offended too easily these days, jeez...

[@CaptainKirkCrunchComedy]

+Gggmanlives welcome to the new generation

[@jeremiahs9518]

I know a lot of people complain about IW compared to the first, but the first Deus Ex I ever played was IW on the XBOX. I played through it multiple times experimenting with biomods and the endings. It was kind of a gateway game for me as a youth to fps rpgs and I loved every minute of it. It will always be my favorite Deus Ex even though many don't like it.

[@foxysobek8109]

Okay :)

[@wasdwazd]

This is the first game I've seen where guns recoil _downwards._

[@dogbadger]

All told, the first Deus Ex is arguably my favourite game of all time. But I didn't have a massive problem with IW - which I enjoyed playing through. The dumbed down inventory, upgrades and particularly the bizzarre universal ammo choice were very disappointing, but nevertheless there was plenty of good stuff still in there -particularly in the story and characters. I'm not going to say I hated it just to prove what a fan of the first game I was.

[@PedroYippeekayaye]

"Let me go, Rock N' Roll" - Gene Simmons.

[@aliendrone]

It's been too long man! Great work!

[@TheUnaBoomer]

GGmanlives! I know this is totally unrelated to this game in the video but I really think you should check out the mod StalkerSoup for Stalker Shadows Of Chernobyl and do a review. Love your reviews much love.

[@Gggmanlives]

+Morgan Dixon Thanks for the heads up!

[@ArcangelZero7]

Haha I loved this game on the xbox back in the day. It's funny to look back and see how patient we were with a lot of now-frustrating mechanics like the "unviersal ammo." My fondest memory was the "hellfire" boltcaster. Basically like the poison one...except after a few seconds your target just combusted into flames. LOL The "lighting technique" that looks painted I believe is "baked lighting", where the lighting is indeed painted as a texture as opposed to dynamically calculated by the engine. It's significantly easier on system resources, and you mostly might see it used in mobile games today, although phones are quickly getting into dynamic-lighting territory. :)

[@rochahouse4883]

I think I enjoyed this game much more than I should have. This was my first Deus Ex game (on O.G. xbox) and I had a blast playing through since I didn't really have any sort of cyberpunk genre to play through at the time.

[@FlorisDVijfde]

Underrated game. Better atmosphere than it's successors in my opinion, I loved the moody ambient soundtrack. Controls are a bit stiff but it's not a pure shooter and shouldn't be played as such.

[@just-fun-stuff6753]

Although it had a really bad framerate, i remember that i really loved that game on my xbox back in the day. Good old childhood/early teens memories :)

[@Vans89]

I played it back in the days before DX and I like it a lot.

[@JordanDCGehl]

Played the original first and am still impacted today by it; over twenty years later. "Invisible War" I think is just as good for very different reasons. Adore this game. I agree with the load screens, though. Damn, Ion Storm.😂

[@Stereopower3]

recently subscribed Love your videos. Do you think you ever do the Prince of persia games.Like sand of times and warrior within.

[@Gggmanlives]

+Stereopower3 Hey thanks for subbing! I don't have plans to review those games atm.

[@joeltremblay690]

I have this game installed from DVD on a windows 7 laptop right now and it works flawlessly... good review though.

[@OuhPii]

Biggest disappointment for me were the endings » "Go walk to this dude! Give him whatever or just blow everything up! Now watch your 30 second cutscene!"...meh

[@numchuck3]

Besides the few strange design choices they made for this game (universal ammo like wtf), I found it very enjoyable on it's own. I played this before the first Deus Ex, which was vastly superior, but when you play this without any other expectation in mind, it's very unique and engaging.

[@420StonerShot]

Personally from a non-Deus ex fanatic stand point, I prefer invisible war, the original seemed like it was gonna be pretty sweet, and I probably didn’t enjoy it as much as I tried to take the stealthy non lethal approach, which didn’t seem to function properly, but mainly it’s just too old, invisible wars stealth system functions quite well, my main complaint would be that a melee stealth character just isn’t as effective as lobbing in a flash bang with your smg and then blowing people away with your shotgun, but it’s also got a very open world feeling to it which I’ve been enjoying, certainly not as open as most games, around that time but it gives the illusion that there’s a lot of shit to do, maybe not the best but definitely a must play even if you haven’t dove into the deep end of Deus ex

[@Bladeslingersgamepreserve]

You should review Project Snowblind. From what I understand, it was suppose to be a sequel to Dues Ex that was rebranded for being too different.

[@KneelB4Bacon]

"Universal Ammo" was just another way for the developers to save texture memory by not having to include any ammo textures and meshes. This game was designed from the ground up for consoles and you can see the pressures of having to work within a limited memory budget throughout this game. Small, cramped levels, limited animations and the interface is God-awful. The PC version feels like a bad console port. I thought the story was pretty good, though.

[@compmanio36]

+Catzilla This was the start of the "console first" mentality for game development. Anybody criticizing it for that, is well within the right. It kicked off an era we deal with today where "PC first" development is few and far between. Criticizing it for not being the original, is just nonsense. It's a decent enough game in it's own right, but nothing that special.

[@syncmonism]

There was also a bit of a gameplay problem with managing all of the different types of ammo. It tends to really slow down the action when you're constantly worrying about which types of weapons to use or to keep carrying around with you based on how much ammo of each type you have. When you can carry all weapons with you all the time, this isn't an issue, but when the gameplay is designed to restrict the number of weapons and items you can carry, then this is an issue. This is actually a significant problem with the modern Deus Ex games, made worse by the fact that the ammo itself takes up space in your inventory. There are pros and cons to both approaches. I think they shouldn't have taken it so far, perhaps having only half the weapons use universal ammo (which also would have been more realistic, as old-style weapons and ammo wouldn't have gone obsolete over-night), and it would have allowed for more of a happy medium between the two extremes.

[@KnoxCarbon]

I think ammo should've been grouped into 4 categories: ballistic, energy, heavy, and explosives, with respective ammo for each.

[@glb1993]

Dude I absolutely loved this game when it came out I was a kid back then and got it for the original Xbox and man it was so fun at that time :). It's far from perfect but it was a fairly good game all around, I honestly liked it more than I did for the later titles like mankind divided for example.

[@AlyxxTheRat]

By some miracle I got it working on Windows 7 and played through it. It was alright.

[@Ph0be]

You should review Project Snowblind

[@VelvetSky1102]

did you play the entire game in 4:3 ? there's a widescreen patch

[@Gggmanlives]

+VelvetSky1102 I had enough trouble getting it running at all.

[@sunnynexxt]

Currently playing Medal of Honor : Airborne, I think you haven't reviewed it right?

[@Gggmanlives]

+Sunny Nexxt Not yet.

[@thevlaka]

hmm, I was actually wondering when you'd release a video, feels like its been forever since your last :P As always top notch review.

[@foxysobek8109]

quality over quantity

[@BRAINDAWG1O1]

Great review! You should check out Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

[@Gggmanlives]

+Kosmickrunch I'm working on a review for both of those games.

[@CyanideBlizzard]

+Gggmanlives Holy shit. I just started playing Escape from Butcher Bay again, so this is delightful to hear.

[@Cheesefist]

Hey man, you ever thought about streaming on twitch? I would watch that, everyone would watch that

[@Gggmanlives]

+Austin Williams Nah. I don't have time to do that.

[@Cheesefist]

+Gggmanlives that sucks, it would have been cool to watch you explain how you look and review games

[@camelChase20]

I still have fond memories of playing with the corpses and failing the stealth as a kid. I'll be sticking with Deus Ex Revision.

[@camelChase20]

+TheJayson8899 I can definitely see the merit in IW, but Revision just adds on more to what I found to be incredibly in depth. In addition, it's something about the gritty nature of the original that makes it all the more satisfying. It's like booting up Carmageddon 1 vs Reincarnation, it's purely raw and utterly fun.

[@ironmaskofhell1877]

Play GMDX instead. It's way better then shitvision.

[@robertforster8984]

This got me to get my copy of DE:IW and put it into my Xbox Series X… it didn’t work. I guess they haven’t made it back compatible yet.

[@trickpixel]

I've always enjoyed this game despite the subpar reviews, so thanks for the video. Can't wait for to try out the new entry in the series, I think this year

[@smashSpikeMC]

I ran this game on linux using proton through steam and used a customised my config for 1080p widescreen and 100 fov

[@Neomalthusiano]

This game runs very smoothly on windows 7, you just need to run the GOG version. I tried playing the original release but I always had trouble even on XP because this game had issues with intel and sys chipsets if I recall correctly.

[@manfredarcane9130]

+Alexander Hamilton Steam and GOG releases are by all account 100% identical in case of this game.

[@Neomalthusiano]

+Lazar Ljubojevic I'm not much into steam (I have just 1 steam game). But I could only play Deus Ex 2 after many years when there was already the GOG release. Previously, the cd version kept returning to desktop after pressing new game or showing a black screen after the intro and I was running it on XP. Later I tried the digital release on Win 7 and it plays nicely. But nice to know the Steam release also works well (I didn't knew there was one).

[@lancebaylis3169]

I do take on board all the criticisms of Invisible War, but I've also got a soft spot for it. Yes, it has watered down game mechanics compared to the first game. But the story line is just as involving, and through repeated play I discovered it actually has a lot more little nexus points where you can do something that changes the game.

[@DrearierSpider1]

I played Thief Deadly Shadows with no issues on Windows 7, but I was using the GOG version. That may be the safest bet to go with.

[@bornon18]

+DrearierSpider1 The GOG version of Thief 3 crushes roughly about every 15-20 minutes on my PC. But, that is only fair when talking about hubs and transition areas - on missions everything's fine. Weird thing.

[@Thepnastyone]

Waay under rated and misunderstood.

[@TheWayoftheSith]

+Thepnastyone Misunderstood.. in what way?

[@Thepnastyone]

TheUnbeholden It was different it wasnt like an fps.

[@gamersinger5118]

Waay under rated and misunderstood. Agreed. It was my first Deus Ex game and I still love it today. Have held on to my copy too while others went missing or i traded them.

[@Thepnastyone]

Gamer Singer I still have my copy too It gave me more Deus Ex !

[@wonderoushistoryofclassicf9193]

I agree.

[@besyuziki]

If you're interested in Invisible War, do yourself a favor and 1. install it on an SSD to circumvent the frequent loading screens and 2. install "Visible Update".

[@s.bradley6089]

I truly felt emersed in this game when it came out. I have cleared all except the original! I hope they bring out more Deus ex games!

[@Nomad-bl4yw]

Cuz of the name i thought this was a dlc Am finishing deus ex now and will definitely check this one out

[@Ezio999Auditore]

That pfp.

[@Nomad-bl4yw]

@@Ezio999Auditore well it's a decent game but a shit deus ex but it's mostly due to console limitations

[@gast128]

I gave up on this game after running around for hours without much clues which direction I should take. It has a ton of other issues as well like scarce ammo, clunky weapons and bullet sponge enemies.

[@gtabro1337]

But the biggest flaw is the lack of options and routes, DE1 and 3 are considered better mainly because of that.

[@5686darryl]

who's Eeorn storm? 0:34 you eye-on storm?

[@Pholiage]

The unified ammo is what killed it for me. Also the multiple approaches to a mission didn't really feel as open as the first game. I tried out the demo for this game before I got the full game and the differences are staggering. It's like they took the whole concept and replaced it.

[@TheBeardbeard]

I've been working my way through it over the past couple weeks and I have to say that the main issue is the ridiculous loading times compared to how small the areas are. It's certainly not a great game outside of those but it would be a lot less of a hassle to play without those problems, especially with all the missions that require you to backtrack across multiple areas.

[@mostlydead3261]

+TheBeardbeard Similar problem was also present in Thief: Deadly Shadows. Modified version of UE2 that was used by those games was simply ripe with issues.

[@TheBeardbeard]

Yeah, it just felt less noticeable in Thief because there wasn't nearly as much backtracking.

[@utubrGaming]

gggmanlives, as much as any gamer hates the free-to-play models, maybe you should check out Heroes and Generals. Be warned, though - it's a hard grind.

[@McPimpstheGoat]

Are you going to review Project Snowblind? A pure fps that was originally going to be a Deus Ex game

[@pseudoanonymous7700]

I should probably give IW another try some day. Back in the day I tried the demo and hated it. Some of that probably stems from the fact that I didn't realize it was a RPG and tried to play it as a straight up shooter. I loved Human Revolution and like what I have played of the original; need to find the time to see if my feelings about it have changed since then. Hopefully it will surprise me.

[@detectivelizard9532]

Eh, looks alright. I have yet to get into the series but I want to, hopefully before Mankind Divided comes out. Great review Gggman! I always look forward to your next review. ^_^

[@Gggmanlives]

+Detective Lizard The first game and Human Revolution are a must play.

[@AzureSymbiote]

I'm glad a headshot isn't auto KO. People are too addicted to headshots nowadays. And what a coincidence, I am currently replaying Human Revolution again.

[@mithrainvictus5777]

i agree

[@Zepps]

+AzureSymbiote the issue is it really limits the effectiveness of going non-lethal shooting guards in the head over and over the entire game isn't quite fun

[@Gggmanlives]

+AzureSymbiote But a headshot isn't an easy thing to do. Like in MGS3 there's a definite skill to making a headshot on a moving target from the other side of the map. Don't down play their skill because they're a 1 shit KO. That 1 hit KO is your reward for good aim.

[@AzureSymbiote]

Gggmanlives Maybe.

[@AzureSymbiote]

Zepps I'm thinking perhaps a headshot be more lethal but not necessarily instantaneous.

[@Moonstalker]

One of my biggest gripes with this game was the whole watered down gameplay and level design. Because the graphics are very good, but the gameplay is all from the original but with less options given to the player and less depth. And this is too bad because they broke the idea of character progression and also a certain versatility a player could get. I liked the fact that weapons could get alternate fire modes for the most part, this was useful, but the whole universal ammo thing was just poorly made. In a it gets towards the developer's intents -> allowing the player to shoot whatever weapon they have in their arsenal, so knocking someone with a rocket launcher, railgun or SMG always gave ammo for the crossbow and the prod. The problem is if one weapon gets depleted, all the weapons are and the only alternative is the few weaponized biomods and the grenades for ranged attacks. So you have either to avoid the enemies (which is honestly pretty hard given the level design filled with tight spaces and not much alternate paths). In a way this showed the laziness of the developers, at the time it was either balance the amount of health packs or balance the ammo and get an easy way to get health or avoid balancing all the different ammo. A tactic that is still used today. The stealth is also broken due to the level design and inability to peak around corners, so you either better get a stealth gear and mods or you either is stuck with abilities that makes the stealth near to impossible. In the third to last games they found that putting a third person view with a cover system was a better solution which I personally think not since it break the whole first person gameplay into something that doesn't belong in a first person game... Now Do I think the game is bad ? Personally when I first played it, I thought it was horrible simply because they removed so much from the first game in this sequel I was quite rageous regarding the game and finishing the game from egypt to liberty island was painful. Though I had to replay the game with a right mindset to enjoy it. I didn't loved to love the game, but I learned that it was faithful towards the original in terms of story and core gameplay, but I still was reminded that this game could be better anyways. Though I still enjoyed the atmosphere, the whole conspiracy theories, and the fact I was considered like an unpredictable lunatic by the game, like they always expect me to shit on them while it wasn't the case in the original. I liked the fact that it had a sequel and even got a sort of spin off called snowblind. But in the end none of the sequels shined like the original. They all lack of the structure, interactivity, depth of the original even if they tried to add something new onto them.

[@amshermansen]

I really, really wanted to like this game - But the performance. Oh ye gods the performance. One of the worst victims of "cross platform" era for sure. And mods to improve the visuals won't help either since they push loading times into the minutes - on an SSD. On a modern machine...for a QUICKload.

[@salokin3087]

+Mansen I feel for you buddy...

[@amshermansen]

TheJayson8899 It adds up fast man. Especially with the "HD texture" mods.

[@bornon18]

+Mansen It depends. I had no problem runnign the game on Win8, with no crushes or anything, albeit in a 4:3 mode.

[@amshermansen]

Simple Guy I never said anything about crashes...

[@bornon18]

Mansen Had no other issues either. As I said, it depends.

[@dimensional3926]

I'm glad you gave the game a fair shake, gman.

[@Dennis-nc3vw]

I'm glad they got rid of skill points. It's ridiculous to think JC Denton (or Alex Denton) could go from beginner to master in anything over a few days with no formal training. My biggest peeve with the original Deus Ex was that not enough to emphasis was put on your augmentations, gameplay wise. I think the subsequent games had the right idea.

[@FatherDinny]

This game was so advanced for its time

[@BladeTrain3r]

One thing you forgot to mention is the absolutely horrendous optimisation on PCs for the time - from a geforce 5200 (junk card even when new, to be fair), to a 6800 and onwards. It was only when I eventually picked up a GTX560 (8 damn years later) to play Human Revolution that I could get good performance consistently. The limited graphical options didn't help - turning shadows to low didn't help when the 5200 couldn't handle shadows period. On again/off again does seem to be a theme for Deus Ex. Mankind Divided was a better comparative effort than Invisible War, but like it's even numbered ancestor it doesn't quite hit the same standards as HR. I don't acknowledge the mobile... things.

[@EJBS1991]

thanks for reviewing this game. The real and only deus ex sequel and ending for the story

[@Shpuld]

I hear a lot of this "bad deus ex game, good game overall" argument when it comes to IW, but honestly I think it's the other way around: has some deus ex style mechanics but it's a terrible game over all. Riddled with technical issues, everything feels really floaty and looks like plastic, neither gunplay or stealth are satisfying at all, levels are tiny and the design is a mess, music is not memorable, characters aren't interesting, and some of the game design choices are absolutely bizarre, like the universal ammo or a 6 slot inventory on the hud.

[@jakfan09]

+Shpuld Completely agree, one of the most unsatisfying and boring games that I've ever played. Another thing to mention is that all the factions are assholes, I ended up just killing them all and getting the apocalypse ending, because fuck em.

[@mostlydead3261]

+Jak Mar They were going for some sort of nihilist message I think, every single ending felt like pretty bad scenario for mankind in general. But yes, unsatisfying and depressing endings fitting for such a generally unsatisfying game.

[@AnthropianOdyssey]

I have to disagree 100%. The story, the philosophy, the politics, the elements of religion, capitalism, transhumanism, and the ideas it displays about the potential futures of humanity (hive mind, pure democracy, luddite, etc..) are all very thought provoking and incredibly enjoyable. The story is for those that enjoy doing their own research and enjoy playing a game that makes you think. Sure its a terrible game if you just want mindless entertainment but if you have at all a sense of wonder about humanity and the future and political philosophy (and of course transhumanism) then its one of the greatest games out there (the entire series).

[@mostlydead3261]

Annoyingly pretentious comment is annoying and pretentious. That would make sense if we were talking of novels or movies. Games, on the other hand, you have to PLAY, hence if that aspect (which you reduced to "mindless entertainment") fails, you can't just ignore it. And I beg to disagree about Invisible War's writing being compelling in any way.

[@AnthropianOdyssey]

I can see by your opening sentence you are a child of the internet age. (not assuming actual age) I PLAYED Invisible War multiple times. And to me, the good games are similar to both novels and movies with the added bonus of participation, immersion and additional elements of experience. The writing was in fact quite great and inspired me personally to think about the future of mankind. It was the Deus Ex Franchise (I played Invisible War even before Deus Ex 1[though yes I lover DX1 even more]) that led me to becoming a transhumanist and to study philosophy and politics as a teenager. With lines like the following: "If you want to even out the social order, you have to change the nature of power itself. Right? And what creates power? Wealth, physical strength, legislation -- maybe -- but none of those is the root principle of power. Ability is the ideal that drives the modern state. It's a synonym for one's worth, one's social reach, one's "election," in the Biblical sense, and it's the ideal that needs to be changed if people are to begin living as equals. The commodification of ability -- tuition, of course, but, increasingly, genetic treatments, cybernetic protocols, now biomods -- has had the side effect of creating a self-perpetuating aristocracy in all advanced societies. When ability becomes a public resource, what will distinguish people will be what they do with it. Intention. Dedication. Integrity. The qualities we would choose as the bedrock of the social order." & "We're now ready to transform the human race. The old answers to tyranny are inadequate. [...] I'm going to establish the first posthuman civilization, and you're my first citizen. Welcome. Up to now, all free societies have started with one premise: human nature is cruel, unjust -- a force to be controlled. The separation of powers -- from Aristotle to Montesquieu -- is designed purely to thwart the ambitions of individuals. How comical, the West's pride in its vast tangle of agencies, jurisdictions, arcane procedures... The alternative: Address the flaws in human nature. Make all beings truly equal in both body and mind. If you start with minds that are lucid, knowledgeable, and emotionally sound, the needs of government change dramatically. Improvements are to be welcomed, not annihilated. As enhanced beings, we can establish a pure democracy that runs on instantaneous input from the electorate.The Helios AI has the processing power to handle all governmental functions worldwide, legislative, executive, and judicial. Once every mind has been enhanced and can merge with the AI, attitudes toward major legislation can be processed on a daily or even more frequent basis. All governments have power. The benefit of giving this power to a synthetic intellect is that human affairs would no longer need to be ruled by generalities. Helios will have a deep understanding of every person's life and opinions. "General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect." The words of Alexis de Tocqueville, an observer of the birth of modern democracy. Though general ideas allow human minds to make judgments quickly, they are necessarily incomplete. So de Tocqueville noted that an all-knowing mind -- the mind of God, as he conceived it -- would have no need for general ideas. It would understand every individual in detail and at a glance. Incomplete applications of law or justice would be impossible for such a mind." (slightly edited to avoid the entire conversation being pasted) How can you say that the writing was not compelling? How can you even suggest that it doesnt just beg for the player to go read De Tocqueville & Aristotle and others just to understand it even more? How can that not inspire deep imaginings about the futures of humanity? Even down to the Omar and their single consciousness is an actual theory of the how humans in the future turn out. This game led me to Deus Ex 1 and then that game led me to reading some of my now favorite books due to finding excerpts of them IN the game. Everyone has their own taste but your criticisms seem entirely lacking any foundation other then simple preference.

[@snake99451]

Hey man how did you get the game to run on Windows 10 it's constantly crashing for me and not going to 1920x1080

[@yorkshire_tea_innit8097]

I really liked this game on the xbox when I was a kid. I have good memories like sneaking into people's offices through vents and reading their PDA's, or reading the mission log that tells you the specific requirements of the mission e.g. John Smith must be kept alive. It felt like the game didnt treat you like a child that is only capable of going to X location and killing enemies. I suppose a lot of the gameplay elements just didnt have the novelty for people who played the original. But for people who didnt, Im sure most of them enjoyed it if they gave it the time.

[@Nick_Vendel]

I played it not long ago for the first time, before replaying Deus Ex: HR and was really annoyed by it, mostly due to uninteresting story (which *really* needs prologue of some kind), limited ability to modify main character and one ammo type. I usually try to have a Stealth-Pacifist run, but by the end i couldn't really do much with those giant walking tin cans. One thing though that i was really surprised to do in this game is to prevent my progress by closing door which then wouldn't open from the side i was on, forcing me to use cheats, it was a long time since something like that happened to me.

[@lasekundes]

nice review! keep it up

[@SaucisseMerguez]

Underrated

[@coleshores]

I would have preferred toned down graphics if they made the levels bigger. The tiny hubs where a disappointment. That and some of the voice acting here was pure cheese, especially early on. The first game had very believable and memorable characters which drew you in to the game world.

[@Nightweaver1]

"Look out, JC, a bomb!" "A bomb."