![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
argurotoxosIn late 2003, Ion Storm released Deus Ex: Invisible War, the sequel to 2000's highly lauded Deus Ex. Five months later, Ion Storm released Thief: Deadly Shadows, the third entry in the Thief series. Both games were built on the same engine and were the first in their respective series to be released for console as well as PC. And both games have a reputation of not being very good among fans (or at least on TTLG, which is where I go for my gaming needs).
I played Deadly Shadows back in 2008. You can read my initial thoughts on it here, though I don't like it as much now; it's the only Thief game I don't have installed. I think Deadly Shadows is worth a play, but it's definitely the weakest in the series for me and the only reason I even keep my copy is if I have the urge to play the Shalebridge Cradle again. (The Shalebridge Cradle is indeed a fantastic level, but I think the effect is lessened once you know what's going to happen next and you realise it's essentially a glorified fetch quest. [So is "Return to the Haunted Cathedral" from Thief: The Dark Project, but Lauryl (Deadly Shadows) is much more tolerable than Brother Murus (The Dark Project).])
Due to some confusion on my part, I ended up buying Deus Ex: Invisible War before the first Deus Ex. It didn't matter in the end, though, as Invisible War refused to run on my older laptop despite it meeting the system requirements and Deadly Shadows running fine. I've only played Deus Ex through once - which is a bit odd as I've played The Nameless Mod (a Deus Ex game-length mod) twice - but I spent over 50 hours on my run and had an absolutely fantastic time. Together with Thief and System Shock, Deus Ex is in my personal top three games and I believe I've played every long-ish fan mission there is (The Nameless Mod, ZODIAC, 2027, Red Sun, The Cassandra Project, Burden of 80 Proof, Hotel Carone) except the most recent (Nihilum).
So much has been written about Deus Ex, including Kieron Gillen's excellent review that captures a lot of Deus Ex's strengths, that I don't feel I can add much. So, moving on to Invisible War.
I started playing Invisible War back in August when S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl's focus on shooting was driving me crazy. (I'll review Shadow of Chernobyl once I finish it, though I've been playing on and off since January, so . . . it may be a while. In short, great atmosphere and visuals, not half as much focus on exploration as what I wanted.) What a contrast that was. Moving from Shadow of Chernobyl's lack of hand-holding and difficulty (I play on the easiest setting and it still kicks my ass at times) to Invisible War's, well, we'll get to that below, was like night and day.
It took me 12 hours to play through Invisible War. 12 hours, over the course of three months, when the original took me over 50 hours over the course of less than a month. (I had more free time and was much more engaged in the game.) And yet, I feel like Invisible War overstayed its welcome by at least three hours.
Invisible War has some of the same problems Deadly Shadows, likely influenced by being released on the first-generation Xbox. Maps are relatively small and there are plentiful loading zones. No swimmable water, although Invisible War at least never draws attention to it. (Going to jail for falling in the water was one of the stupidest ideas in Deadly Shadows.) On the other hand, I thought both the player character and NPC movement was less stiff and smoother in Invisible War, though jumping and crate stacking are worse.
I started off Invisible War with the idea of playing a stealthy hacker, which, ever since Thief, tends to be my default character. The interface provoked much irritation and was clearly designed for a gamepad -- 'yes/no' prompts you have to use the mouse for; no keyboard support for custom-naming saved games, manually typing in passcodes, or writing notes in-game; no quick-save or load; no screenshot key (which is why there are no screenshots in this review, because Invisible War isn't worth the effort of using a second program); the minimum HUD is still rather invasive, and inventory management is a mess. Skill points were eliminated, as were different ammo types (yes, all firearms in the game use the same ammo, just in different amounts), the conversation log, and location-based health management. In short, the only ways to customise you character besides your play style are through your appearance, the weapons you use, and your biomods (augmentations). (I barely include dialogue choices, since there aren't very many and most don't seem to matter.) However, you can now choose to play as either a male or female.
After 30 minutes of talking to various NPCs, and three loading zones later, I had my first encounter with a hostile AI. 'Great,' I thought, 'I'll just sneak around him by using that shadow there and . . . oh, he saw me. Of course, I'm not playing Thief -- no light-based stealth. Let's try this again. Hide behind the column, lean right to see where the AI's going . . . Um, lean right. Maybe my key binding are wrong? Let's check the controls . . . and there are no lean keys. THERE ARE NO LEAN KEYS. IN A COMPLETELY FIRST-PERSON GAME. THAT IS SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT STEALTH.'
I gave up on a stealth approach then and there. I don't much like cover-based stealth compared to primarily light and sound-based stealth, and not having any leaning ability killed it. Seriously, how hard is leaning to implement? Deadly Shadows, rightfully, had leaning! (At least right and left leaning; they did take out the lean forward function if I remember correctly.) It's very important in stealth play to be able to follow AI patrols while minimising your exposure, but at the same time, you should have to take some risk when you move out of cover/shadow, which is why a third-person option decreases the tension. Not that that matters for Invisible War since there is, surprisingly, no third-person option.
I still cannot believe Ion Storm made a first-person game in 2003 without leaning. At least you can mantle now, unlike in Deus Ex. The mantling is functional, but not that great, especially after being spoiled by The Dark Mod.
One of my biggest problems with Invisible War is that the world feels tailor made for you. 'What's so wrong with that?' you may ask. 'Shouldn't the game world be centred around your player character?' It depends on what kind of game you're making, but I don't think any of my favourite games are designed with that philosophy. In the original Deus Ex, I always felt that I was caught up in all these conspiracies and plots that were much bigger than myself. I'd meet many different people, some I liked and some I didn't, some who would help me and others who wouldn't. Games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Thief, and System Shock are even starker contrasts: you're in hostile environments, often alone, and often with limited resources. Compare to Invisible War, where everyone is always trying to get you to do things for them, even if you've directly going against their requests in the past or even killed people they're allied with. (I have a note from my five-hour mark: "For some reason, both factions still trust me, even though I've hacked into and stolen a helicopter from one and ignored the other's orders twice.") I played Invisible War on the highest difficulty, which was a walk in the park compared to Shadow of Chernobyl (the AI isn't nearly as smart, and rarely looks upward) and I had so many resources (health, ammo, money, biomods, weapons) I didn't know what to do with them all.
It's not just the difficulty level, or the treatment by NPCs, but in the very level design. Invisible War is riddled with convenient air ducts. It feels like everything in the game world is there for your convenience and the NPCs all treat you like a superstar. Even worse, Invisible War has a bad habit of just telling you things instead of letting you figure it out on your own. Two examples from Cairo: (1) There's an Order quest to talk to the Omar, who are hidden somewhere in the Medina . . . except we'll give you exact directions in your objectives; (2) Talking to a woman with a sick daughter who wants to get into Tarsus Academy, I ask her what I can do to help and she says, "Well, you could either talk to the director or hack the computer system." Thanks, game. I would never have thought of that on my own.
There's nothing to fall back on, either, as the plot is terrible and the conspiracies too silly or too boring to care much about. (I know this is partly personal taste - I'm not generally a fan of conspiracy theories, but loved them in Deus Ex - but then again, this whole review is my personal thoughts.) One of the major conspiracies in the game is - wait for it - between two coffee chains! I'm serious! And it goes on, and on, and on through multiple hubs! It would have been tolerable, but still silly, in just one hub, but no.
My feelings on the various NPCs and factions range from neutral to strong dislike. In short, I didn't want to ally myself with anyone. Not even JC Denton, who I played in the first Deus Ex and should have a strong vested interest in! Of the two characters I did sort-of like, one became a villain and lost his extra dimensions (point to Invisible War: it was the only thing in the game I didn't see coming), and the other I still liked. This latter character, Leo, is one of the few interesting things about Invisible War as your interactions with him and your decisions actually (shock) have an impact, which is one of the things Deus Ex is supposed to be about!
A few of the characters from Deus Ex, including JC, have guest appearances in Invisible War. Unfortunately, all of them were better in Deus Ex and are varying degrees of bland, illogical, or out of character compared to the first game. Just as Invisible War somehow combined all of the original's endings together in its game world, other things you did in Deus Ex might not stand -- Paul died in my playthrough, so it was very disconcerting when he appeared in Invisible War. In Deus Ex, it was an emotional moment when I found his body on a table in Majestic 12.
Of all the factions, I thought the Templars were particularly poorly conceived. They're against biomodification, which is fine and a potentially interesting thread to explore. There are legitimate reasons to not support biomodification, but Invisible War is unfortunately not one for subtlety or, despite its roots, philosophy. As such, the Templars are all, 'We think people with biomods are lower than human and our plans make no sense.' Have a look at this actual Templar plan at the Tarsus Academy in Cairo, as paraphrased by me: 'We think biomodification is wrong, so instead of doing something like peacefully protesting or attacking the companies that make biomods (or people who are already augmented), we'll go after some children who may perhaps one day be augmented.'
There was one moment with the Templars I did like. In the Antarctic Versalife facility, a Tamplar asks you to save him, even after thinking you might be modified, saying things like you can get along after all. If you choose to free him, you have a dialogue choice between a friendly or a threatening one. You'd expect the threatening line would lead to the Templar turning hostile and the friendly line would keep him allied. I chose friendly and started as allied, but the more he talked the more my biomodification bothered him until he turned hostile. So much for all his talk earlier about putting our differences aside. A nice moment where people don't often change their prejudices so easily. This is what Invisible War needed much more of: characters that are interesting, even surprising at times, but believable, and choices that have consequences.
Since I'm talking about the Templars so much, I really thought their leader would face me down like Walton Simons in Deus Ex. Nope. Not only that, but despite not doing any of their quests and being outright hostile to them, the Templars kept trying to get me on their side until literally the very last map.
The faction I tolerated the most was the Omar, who are basically the polar opposite of the Templars: everyone should be biomodified and as much as possible! However, they aren't as pushy or insulting about it, though they might force mods on you once you've tentatively join them.
In slight contrast to my point about a tailor-made world, Invisible War took away Deus Ex's redundancy (I'm sorry -- they streamlined the system) in ways that are just weird. Case in point: an area with an optional objective has radiation. Deus Ex would have given you either a gas mask or hazmat suit some time ago for a one-time use in this situation in case you didn't have the Environmental augmentation. Not Invisible War. Also, there's a point (probably several) at which you can either hack a computer or run through lasers which will set off an alarm. The third option if you don't have the hacking augmentation? An air vent. (And hacking? Even worse than in Deus Ex. Totally automatic, can only do it with the black market hacking augmentation, and, since there's limited keyboard interface, you can't actually type in usernames or passwords. Also, there's no email to read.)
There are some other areas besides hacking I expected Invisible War to improve on but didn't. The friend-or-foe AI system is still a bit glitchy; my allied NPC was distracted trying to destroy my allied turret instead of doing anything useful. NPCs still don't care if you steal things right in front of them. I also had a few instances of hostile NPCs, along with my bioenergy levels, waiting patiently for me to finish a conversation.
One thing Invisible War really needed was a UNATCO-type experience. What I mean by this is a period where you really get to know various characters by working alongside them for several missions, feeling the different relationship dynamics, being liked by some and disliked by others. Once you develop attachments to characters and are immersed enough to feel the game world as a real world, then you can change things up and the new circumstances will have more meaning. Instead, Invisible War drops you right into the changing circumstances and you have a couple minutes to briefly talk to everyone (if you want to) before being whisked away to the next area. No one feels that real, and there's little reason to develop any attachments. Oh no, these other people are trying to invade! Why do I care about the first group of people? I have no stake in this at all beyond the fact that the plot and my unchosen dialogue tells me I do.
Another thing I greatly miss from Deus Ex is my play style actually affecting how characters respond to me. If I used non-lethal force, some would commend me, others would think me weak. If I went into the women's restroom at work, I was reprimanded! In Invisible War, no one comments or cares. There are very few actions you can take that will have any kind of lasting impact on the game world. Besides Leo and the endgame, I can only think of three or four other scenarios.
Around the seven hour mark, I stopped taking Invisible War seriously at all and fought NPCs by hitting them in the face with the riot prod. (Not quite as fun as using some berserk patches and wailing on them with a pipe as in System Shock, though.) Eventually I can across NPCs that didn't respond so well to being punched in the face, and so went back to long-distance firearms. By the last two areas, I was so tired of fighting that I got the Run Silent and Cloak augs and invisibly sprinted through the sections just to finish the game.
Some other things: Readables are very short, and generally not worth reading. The writing in Invisible War also uses a bunch of terminology and acronyms without defining them well. This is especially bad when it comes to using terms from the first Deus Ex. (I know what they are, but I don't feel this game was very accessible to people who hadn't played Deus Ex.)
Non-lethal weapons are even more underpowered than in Deus Ex; e.g., you now need two tranq darts to knock someone out, and it still isn't instant.
Augmentations have lost their bite as you can swap them in and out; I collected enough biomod canisters to fully max out my augs three times over and still hardly used them. Also, because the biomod interface is more simplified than Deus Ex's, the game cannot pace you by determining which mods you receive at what time. (I still think no game has matched the original System Shock as far as useful and cool augmentations.)
Even though I like Alexander Brandon quite a lot, I didn't care for any of the music in Invisible War.
I had quite a few crashes when the game would close to the desktop with no error messages. They occurred in specific areas of certain maps, so I had to cut my exploration short in spots just to make it to the next level. Sometimes it would also happen if I tranqed multiple NPCs at the same time.
The multitool visual effect is bugged and often doesn't play, especially if you're crouched.
I knew what all the endings were going into Invisible War and already decided to go for the JC/Helios one since that's the one I chose in Deus Ex, but the ending here was unsatisfying.
There are a few times in later levels where parts of Deus Ex maps are recreated. This can be done well (see System Shock 2), but in Invisible War it mostly just highlights how limited their engine and design are.
In summary: Deadly Shadows may be my least favourite Thief game, but it is at the minimum a decent game and a far, far better game than Invisible War. I don't think Invisible War is completely irredeemable - I did finish playing it instead of throwing my hands up in disgust after all - but there's not much to recommend it, especially compared to its predecessor.
So, what's good about Invisible War? The voice acting's not bad. There's a good mix of male and female NPCs. Invisible War actually does reward exploration, or at least what you can do in the small maps; as in Deus Ex, you can find ammo, equipment, etc., in somewhat out of the way places (under desks, behind pipes, and so on). Trier has a surprising number of readables that are actually decent. The ApostleCorp lab was somewhat neat, except that Invisible War cannot do horror or atmosphere. The Antarctic Versalife facility was better, and even had a nice ambient track!
If anyone wants to play Deus Ex: Invisible War on the PC, I will give you my copy for only the cost of shipping. (If the shipping's less than $6, I'll even pay that, too.) I have the CDs, both in very good condition, plus the manual, hardcover box, shiny slipcase, and even the kidneythieves card. I bought it second-hand, but there are hardly any signs of wear. The edges of the slipcase are the worst part, but still in good condition. There are a few photos below.
I played Deadly Shadows back in 2008. You can read my initial thoughts on it here, though I don't like it as much now; it's the only Thief game I don't have installed. I think Deadly Shadows is worth a play, but it's definitely the weakest in the series for me and the only reason I even keep my copy is if I have the urge to play the Shalebridge Cradle again. (The Shalebridge Cradle is indeed a fantastic level, but I think the effect is lessened once you know what's going to happen next and you realise it's essentially a glorified fetch quest. [So is "Return to the Haunted Cathedral" from Thief: The Dark Project, but Lauryl (Deadly Shadows) is much more tolerable than Brother Murus (The Dark Project).])
Due to some confusion on my part, I ended up buying Deus Ex: Invisible War before the first Deus Ex. It didn't matter in the end, though, as Invisible War refused to run on my older laptop despite it meeting the system requirements and Deadly Shadows running fine. I've only played Deus Ex through once - which is a bit odd as I've played The Nameless Mod (a Deus Ex game-length mod) twice - but I spent over 50 hours on my run and had an absolutely fantastic time. Together with Thief and System Shock, Deus Ex is in my personal top three games and I believe I've played every long-ish fan mission there is (The Nameless Mod, ZODIAC, 2027, Red Sun, The Cassandra Project, Burden of 80 Proof, Hotel Carone) except the most recent (Nihilum).
So much has been written about Deus Ex, including Kieron Gillen's excellent review that captures a lot of Deus Ex's strengths, that I don't feel I can add much. So, moving on to Invisible War.
I started playing Invisible War back in August when S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl's focus on shooting was driving me crazy. (I'll review Shadow of Chernobyl once I finish it, though I've been playing on and off since January, so . . . it may be a while. In short, great atmosphere and visuals, not half as much focus on exploration as what I wanted.) What a contrast that was. Moving from Shadow of Chernobyl's lack of hand-holding and difficulty (I play on the easiest setting and it still kicks my ass at times) to Invisible War's, well, we'll get to that below, was like night and day.
It took me 12 hours to play through Invisible War. 12 hours, over the course of three months, when the original took me over 50 hours over the course of less than a month. (I had more free time and was much more engaged in the game.) And yet, I feel like Invisible War overstayed its welcome by at least three hours.
Invisible War has some of the same problems Deadly Shadows, likely influenced by being released on the first-generation Xbox. Maps are relatively small and there are plentiful loading zones. No swimmable water, although Invisible War at least never draws attention to it. (Going to jail for falling in the water was one of the stupidest ideas in Deadly Shadows.) On the other hand, I thought both the player character and NPC movement was less stiff and smoother in Invisible War, though jumping and crate stacking are worse.
I started off Invisible War with the idea of playing a stealthy hacker, which, ever since Thief, tends to be my default character. The interface provoked much irritation and was clearly designed for a gamepad -- 'yes/no' prompts you have to use the mouse for; no keyboard support for custom-naming saved games, manually typing in passcodes, or writing notes in-game; no quick-save or load; no screenshot key (which is why there are no screenshots in this review, because Invisible War isn't worth the effort of using a second program); the minimum HUD is still rather invasive, and inventory management is a mess. Skill points were eliminated, as were different ammo types (yes, all firearms in the game use the same ammo, just in different amounts), the conversation log, and location-based health management. In short, the only ways to customise you character besides your play style are through your appearance, the weapons you use, and your biomods (augmentations). (I barely include dialogue choices, since there aren't very many and most don't seem to matter.) However, you can now choose to play as either a male or female.
After 30 minutes of talking to various NPCs, and three loading zones later, I had my first encounter with a hostile AI. 'Great,' I thought, 'I'll just sneak around him by using that shadow there and . . . oh, he saw me. Of course, I'm not playing Thief -- no light-based stealth. Let's try this again. Hide behind the column, lean right to see where the AI's going . . . Um, lean right. Maybe my key binding are wrong? Let's check the controls . . . and there are no lean keys. THERE ARE NO LEAN KEYS. IN A COMPLETELY FIRST-PERSON GAME. THAT IS SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT STEALTH.'
I gave up on a stealth approach then and there. I don't much like cover-based stealth compared to primarily light and sound-based stealth, and not having any leaning ability killed it. Seriously, how hard is leaning to implement? Deadly Shadows, rightfully, had leaning! (At least right and left leaning; they did take out the lean forward function if I remember correctly.) It's very important in stealth play to be able to follow AI patrols while minimising your exposure, but at the same time, you should have to take some risk when you move out of cover/shadow, which is why a third-person option decreases the tension. Not that that matters for Invisible War since there is, surprisingly, no third-person option.
I still cannot believe Ion Storm made a first-person game in 2003 without leaning. At least you can mantle now, unlike in Deus Ex. The mantling is functional, but not that great, especially after being spoiled by The Dark Mod.
One of my biggest problems with Invisible War is that the world feels tailor made for you. 'What's so wrong with that?' you may ask. 'Shouldn't the game world be centred around your player character?' It depends on what kind of game you're making, but I don't think any of my favourite games are designed with that philosophy. In the original Deus Ex, I always felt that I was caught up in all these conspiracies and plots that were much bigger than myself. I'd meet many different people, some I liked and some I didn't, some who would help me and others who wouldn't. Games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Thief, and System Shock are even starker contrasts: you're in hostile environments, often alone, and often with limited resources. Compare to Invisible War, where everyone is always trying to get you to do things for them, even if you've directly going against their requests in the past or even killed people they're allied with. (I have a note from my five-hour mark: "For some reason, both factions still trust me, even though I've hacked into and stolen a helicopter from one and ignored the other's orders twice.") I played Invisible War on the highest difficulty, which was a walk in the park compared to Shadow of Chernobyl (the AI isn't nearly as smart, and rarely looks upward) and I had so many resources (health, ammo, money, biomods, weapons) I didn't know what to do with them all.
It's not just the difficulty level, or the treatment by NPCs, but in the very level design. Invisible War is riddled with convenient air ducts. It feels like everything in the game world is there for your convenience and the NPCs all treat you like a superstar. Even worse, Invisible War has a bad habit of just telling you things instead of letting you figure it out on your own. Two examples from Cairo: (1) There's an Order quest to talk to the Omar, who are hidden somewhere in the Medina . . . except we'll give you exact directions in your objectives; (2) Talking to a woman with a sick daughter who wants to get into Tarsus Academy, I ask her what I can do to help and she says, "Well, you could either talk to the director or hack the computer system." Thanks, game. I would never have thought of that on my own.
There's nothing to fall back on, either, as the plot is terrible and the conspiracies too silly or too boring to care much about. (I know this is partly personal taste - I'm not generally a fan of conspiracy theories, but loved them in Deus Ex - but then again, this whole review is my personal thoughts.) One of the major conspiracies in the game is - wait for it - between two coffee chains! I'm serious! And it goes on, and on, and on through multiple hubs! It would have been tolerable, but still silly, in just one hub, but no.
My feelings on the various NPCs and factions range from neutral to strong dislike. In short, I didn't want to ally myself with anyone. Not even JC Denton, who I played in the first Deus Ex and should have a strong vested interest in! Of the two characters I did sort-of like, one became a villain and lost his extra dimensions (point to Invisible War: it was the only thing in the game I didn't see coming), and the other I still liked. This latter character, Leo, is one of the few interesting things about Invisible War as your interactions with him and your decisions actually (shock) have an impact, which is one of the things Deus Ex is supposed to be about!
A few of the characters from Deus Ex, including JC, have guest appearances in Invisible War. Unfortunately, all of them were better in Deus Ex and are varying degrees of bland, illogical, or out of character compared to the first game. Just as Invisible War somehow combined all of the original's endings together in its game world, other things you did in Deus Ex might not stand -- Paul died in my playthrough, so it was very disconcerting when he appeared in Invisible War. In Deus Ex, it was an emotional moment when I found his body on a table in Majestic 12.
Of all the factions, I thought the Templars were particularly poorly conceived. They're against biomodification, which is fine and a potentially interesting thread to explore. There are legitimate reasons to not support biomodification, but Invisible War is unfortunately not one for subtlety or, despite its roots, philosophy. As such, the Templars are all, 'We think people with biomods are lower than human and our plans make no sense.' Have a look at this actual Templar plan at the Tarsus Academy in Cairo, as paraphrased by me: 'We think biomodification is wrong, so instead of doing something like peacefully protesting or attacking the companies that make biomods (or people who are already augmented), we'll go after some children who may perhaps one day be augmented.'
There was one moment with the Templars I did like. In the Antarctic Versalife facility, a Tamplar asks you to save him, even after thinking you might be modified, saying things like you can get along after all. If you choose to free him, you have a dialogue choice between a friendly or a threatening one. You'd expect the threatening line would lead to the Templar turning hostile and the friendly line would keep him allied. I chose friendly and started as allied, but the more he talked the more my biomodification bothered him until he turned hostile. So much for all his talk earlier about putting our differences aside. A nice moment where people don't often change their prejudices so easily. This is what Invisible War needed much more of: characters that are interesting, even surprising at times, but believable, and choices that have consequences.
Since I'm talking about the Templars so much, I really thought their leader would face me down like Walton Simons in Deus Ex. Nope. Not only that, but despite not doing any of their quests and being outright hostile to them, the Templars kept trying to get me on their side until literally the very last map.
The faction I tolerated the most was the Omar, who are basically the polar opposite of the Templars: everyone should be biomodified and as much as possible! However, they aren't as pushy or insulting about it, though they might force mods on you once you've tentatively join them.
In slight contrast to my point about a tailor-made world, Invisible War took away Deus Ex's redundancy (I'm sorry -- they streamlined the system) in ways that are just weird. Case in point: an area with an optional objective has radiation. Deus Ex would have given you either a gas mask or hazmat suit some time ago for a one-time use in this situation in case you didn't have the Environmental augmentation. Not Invisible War. Also, there's a point (probably several) at which you can either hack a computer or run through lasers which will set off an alarm. The third option if you don't have the hacking augmentation? An air vent. (And hacking? Even worse than in Deus Ex. Totally automatic, can only do it with the black market hacking augmentation, and, since there's limited keyboard interface, you can't actually type in usernames or passwords. Also, there's no email to read.)
There are some other areas besides hacking I expected Invisible War to improve on but didn't. The friend-or-foe AI system is still a bit glitchy; my allied NPC was distracted trying to destroy my allied turret instead of doing anything useful. NPCs still don't care if you steal things right in front of them. I also had a few instances of hostile NPCs, along with my bioenergy levels, waiting patiently for me to finish a conversation.
One thing Invisible War really needed was a UNATCO-type experience. What I mean by this is a period where you really get to know various characters by working alongside them for several missions, feeling the different relationship dynamics, being liked by some and disliked by others. Once you develop attachments to characters and are immersed enough to feel the game world as a real world, then you can change things up and the new circumstances will have more meaning. Instead, Invisible War drops you right into the changing circumstances and you have a couple minutes to briefly talk to everyone (if you want to) before being whisked away to the next area. No one feels that real, and there's little reason to develop any attachments. Oh no, these other people are trying to invade! Why do I care about the first group of people? I have no stake in this at all beyond the fact that the plot and my unchosen dialogue tells me I do.
Another thing I greatly miss from Deus Ex is my play style actually affecting how characters respond to me. If I used non-lethal force, some would commend me, others would think me weak. If I went into the women's restroom at work, I was reprimanded! In Invisible War, no one comments or cares. There are very few actions you can take that will have any kind of lasting impact on the game world. Besides Leo and the endgame, I can only think of three or four other scenarios.
Around the seven hour mark, I stopped taking Invisible War seriously at all and fought NPCs by hitting them in the face with the riot prod. (Not quite as fun as using some berserk patches and wailing on them with a pipe as in System Shock, though.) Eventually I can across NPCs that didn't respond so well to being punched in the face, and so went back to long-distance firearms. By the last two areas, I was so tired of fighting that I got the Run Silent and Cloak augs and invisibly sprinted through the sections just to finish the game.
Some other things: Readables are very short, and generally not worth reading. The writing in Invisible War also uses a bunch of terminology and acronyms without defining them well. This is especially bad when it comes to using terms from the first Deus Ex. (I know what they are, but I don't feel this game was very accessible to people who hadn't played Deus Ex.)
Non-lethal weapons are even more underpowered than in Deus Ex; e.g., you now need two tranq darts to knock someone out, and it still isn't instant.
Augmentations have lost their bite as you can swap them in and out; I collected enough biomod canisters to fully max out my augs three times over and still hardly used them. Also, because the biomod interface is more simplified than Deus Ex's, the game cannot pace you by determining which mods you receive at what time. (I still think no game has matched the original System Shock as far as useful and cool augmentations.)
Even though I like Alexander Brandon quite a lot, I didn't care for any of the music in Invisible War.
I had quite a few crashes when the game would close to the desktop with no error messages. They occurred in specific areas of certain maps, so I had to cut my exploration short in spots just to make it to the next level. Sometimes it would also happen if I tranqed multiple NPCs at the same time.
The multitool visual effect is bugged and often doesn't play, especially if you're crouched.
I knew what all the endings were going into Invisible War and already decided to go for the JC/Helios one since that's the one I chose in Deus Ex, but the ending here was unsatisfying.
There are a few times in later levels where parts of Deus Ex maps are recreated. This can be done well (see System Shock 2), but in Invisible War it mostly just highlights how limited their engine and design are.
In summary: Deadly Shadows may be my least favourite Thief game, but it is at the minimum a decent game and a far, far better game than Invisible War. I don't think Invisible War is completely irredeemable - I did finish playing it instead of throwing my hands up in disgust after all - but there's not much to recommend it, especially compared to its predecessor.
So, what's good about Invisible War? The voice acting's not bad. There's a good mix of male and female NPCs. Invisible War actually does reward exploration, or at least what you can do in the small maps; as in Deus Ex, you can find ammo, equipment, etc., in somewhat out of the way places (under desks, behind pipes, and so on). Trier has a surprising number of readables that are actually decent. The ApostleCorp lab was somewhat neat, except that Invisible War cannot do horror or atmosphere. The Antarctic Versalife facility was better, and even had a nice ambient track!
If anyone wants to play Deus Ex: Invisible War on the PC, I will give you my copy for only the cost of shipping. (If the shipping's less than $6, I'll even pay that, too.) I have the CDs, both in very good condition, plus the manual, hardcover box, shiny slipcase, and even the kidneythieves card. I bought it second-hand, but there are hardly any signs of wear. The edges of the slipcase are the worst part, but still in good condition. There are a few photos below.
