Deus Ex: Invisible War (Xbox)

Gamble, cheat, steal, buy weapons and deal with shady characters as you make your escape from the facility in the beginning of the game.

This game is not what it could have been, but the graphics engine is beautiful on the xbox with the exception of some pretty slow frame rates during some of the action sequences.

The storyline is a great one, but is convoluted and is not entirely explained unless you played the first game ( on PC only).

This game is the early version of the XBOX game Riddick:escape from butchers bay. The gameplay and graphics are almost identical.

A good game, just not up to the standard set by the new gen gaming consoles.

Not bad on the XBOX platform, much better however on the PC (no glitches and faster framerate)

As far as the xbox is concerned, the graphics are astounding and the game is always fun.

I had already played the first Deus Ex (pronounced 'day-us ecks') on the PC so I sort of knew what to expect when I bought Invisible War. If you are new to the series and are expecting it to be a first person shoot 'em up, then look elsewhere for your kicks.

You play the game through the eyes of an agent of some secretive militaristic organisation that carries out modifications on its agents to enhance their abilities. The story is very central to the game because at the core, Invisible War is a pseudo role playing game (RPG). All this means is that you will have to become involved in the story and listen to what people in the game are saying, otherwise it can get a bit confusing. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, steer clear - go and buy Halo 2 instead. Invisible war is set in the future and starts off in Seattle where you escape the organisation building and are free to wander the streets taking jobs from randoms you meet (to earn money) or going straight to various locations in order to progress the story. There is no set path through the game and so you can pick and choose which missions you accept and which of the many factions you ally with. The story is much too complicated to go into here in any depth and would make even the keenest science fiction reader (i.e. me) go cross eyed, but it is interesting and makes you want to progress just to see what happens next.

The free form nature of the game is slightly illusory as most of the locations are pretty sanitary and many of the members of the public you encounter don't really have anything to say, but the Blade Runner-esque setting makes a refreshing change from the sort of thing you normally expect from an RPG (wizards, magic and useless 2D top-down graphics). There are literally hundreds of items to pick up and they range from bottles and cups that can be thrown around, to weapons and health items. Ammo is universal across all weapons so if you run out, all of your guns are useless - not just the one you were using. Because ammo is so scarce, it forces you to use alternative methods to bypass obstacles such as cameras or guards. These can range from using electro-magnetic pulse grenades to disable electronics or just crouching in the shadows to avoid being seen.

Special abilities can be added to your character by collecting things called 'biomods' and they are assigned to different parts of the anatomy and offer different results, ergo if you decide to install a biomod in your legs, your character acquires the ability to run faster; in the eyes it allows for better night vision and so on and so forth. Biometric energy is consumed when these mods are activated and so canisters of energy must be collected to maintain them.

The game world is very convincing and a lot of real world laws apply. Invisible War is probably one of the best looking games on the Xbox as the graphics easily match those displayed on a top end PC. The use of lighting is simply incredible and the real time shadows are astounding. Everything is absurdly detailed and the textures are so realistic you could reach out and touch them in some places. As for the physics, they are also commendable - things can be knocked over and thrown about. Things like fire will burn and you can actually use seemingly useless items to improvise (example: I had to destroy some boxes but they were impervious to my crowbar, so I looked around and found a burning oil drum. I dragged it to the boxes and tipped it over and 'hey presto!' - they went up a treat!). The only real downside to Invisible War's stunning visuals is that it sometimes gets a little choppy as the Xbox struggles to keep everything looking sweet.

To sum up, Invisible War is a very good looking, thought provoking game but is not the kind of thing that everyone will appreciate. It can get frustratingly difficult at times and there is a lot to get your head around if you are new to the series. Fans of the original will love it, but I re-iterate that fans of running around with all guns blazing would be advised to avoid the plodding, head scratching Invisible War.

Having played Deus Ex: Invisible War's predecessor, I had great hopes for this game. Unfortunately, while it had great potential and there are some lovely features, the game is a bit of a disappointment. Firstly, the levels are far too small. Compared to the large levels on the original game, this feels claustrophobic. There are lots of corridors and indoor sections. Additionally there are hardly any inhabitants in the different levels. The game is also way to short. I think I spent less than half the time on the sequel as I did on the original. There are also awful loading times inbetween the various sections of the levels and this is frustrating and interrupts the experience. There seems to be slowdown throughout the game, perhaps the framerate wasn't fully optimised. My final criticism is the underwhelming endings...totally forgettable.

There are many good points, the lighting effects are fantastic and I loved the biomodification system however all the weapons felt underpowered. There was almost no point in having the pistol at all.

Overall a good game and well worth playing but the original set the standards so high that the sequel fails to live up to them. Fingers crossed for a third in the series on the next gen hardware...