The first Deus Ex game is considered to be one of the best games of all time, so when Invisible War was announced as its sequel, people had very high expectations for it. I thought all that bad rep is from people comparing it to its prequel but if you ask me, they are somewhat right. While it is very different than its prequel, it's not necessarily that bad.

The story isn't as bad as I expected. Sure it's shorter and the characters tend to keep their talk brief, but the writing is okay for the most part. The voice-acting seemed decent as well. What disappointed me is that your choices don't matter until the very last 2 sections of the game. Until then, you can piss off all of the factions as much as you'd like and they'll still forgive you in the end. It doesn't seem to matter whether you go for a non-lethal or a lethal playthrough either. The protagonist feels a bit bland though, he has a few good lines but he's not "A bomb!" like JC or Adam.

Let's talk about gameplay, which is probably the most controversial part. Invisible War simplifies or just plain abandons many gameplay mechanics from the first game without adding much of its own. Limb-based health system? Nope, one health bar for everything. Skills? Gone completely. Augmentations? Fewer slots and variety. Large, open-ended levels? Nah, you get small, tight corridors filled with loading screens. Grid-based inventory system? You get a standard slot-based one instead. They also made ammo universal, which is both good or bad - you can stick only to your favorite weapons, but when you do run out of ammo, you cannot use any of your guns, leaving you with just melee weapons, grenades and biomods. Even if a lot of the stuff is gone, the game is still kind of fun. The AI are quite dumb, however. Story time:

I was in a certain area where enemies and allies were close to each other (but couldn't see each other). (Bay 24 and Bay 23 in 2nd Cairo visit) After the enemies spotted me, I tried to knock them out with a gas grenade (which ended up landing not as close to them as I had hoped). The allies heard the enemies shooting, so they started patrolling the area and then lo and behold, they walk STRAIGHT into the gas, realize it was ME who threw that grenade and then they proceed to shoot ME because apparently, it was MY fault that they're so blind! I got so fed up, I responded with firing rockets straight at their faces, resulting in a beautiful ragdoll spectacle.

Yes, they added ragdolls to this game and it's probably the best thing they added, which brings us to the second story time:

Early in the game, there is a mission that has you knockout/kill a bunch of guards near the apartments in Lower Seattle. So I went there and knocked them all out stealthily with a boltcaster and a baton and then I threw all of the guards into the dumpster like basketballs into a hoop. Worried that they may freeze there, I gave them a nice gift in the form of a barrel fire pit and then I walked away, wishing them a good night. Shortly after I heard some moaning from the dumpster, so I came back to check up on them, only to see that the barrel set them on fire and now everyone's dead. Whoops!

Okay, back to the review - time to talk about the graphics and soundtrack. The graphics look meh, even if you install a fan-made HD texture pack. Note that this game came out around the same time as games like Max Payne 2, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time or Far Cry, and they look prettier. The UI isn't that good to navigate. Since the game was developed both for the PC and the Xbox, they had to make the UI work on both platforms. Navigating through it with a mouse and a keyboard was a pain, but I appreciate that they went for a unique, circular HUD. It's a nice break from the rectangles in other games. To be honest, I didn't really pay any attention to the soundtrack, save for the main menu theme (which went from "okay" to "great" the moment the vocals kicked in). I didn't listen to the whole soundtrack, but it seems like they went for something more ambient rather than catchy or memorable this time.

Finishing it off with technicalities, this game has a fair share of problems. For example, the devs thought it would work better if the game closed itself and relaunched every time you change levels or load a save. And because of that, every time you do either of that, you get booted into your desktop for a few seconds and then you remind all your Steam friends that you're playing Deus Ex: Invisible War because apparently everyone must know that and just one notification isn't enough. (if anyone saw me doing that, i'm sorry and please let me know so I can scream at the devs some more) The performance is pretty bad as well, the game struggled to keep a stable 60 FPS for me and during FPS drops the controls would get less responsive (which was real painful during shootouts). The levels take quite long to load as well. Not to mention that the game crashed a few times in the playthrough.

In summary, Invisible War may seem like a horrible game if you look at it as a Deus Ex game, but if you curb your expectations, it actually seems quite OK. It has some serious flaws, but it can be enjoyable. I was unsure whether to give this game 2 or 3 stars, so think of it more like a 2.5 stars rating or a 6.5/10. Now all that's left is to play Mankind Divided.

is it just me, or is this the longest review I ever wrote? Holy crap!