Deus Ex: Invisible War - PC

Amongst every genre in video games, there are a few games that stand out in a crowd for being more accomplished and more innovative than the rest. They bring new ideas into gaming and levels of interactivity that will inspire other developers to create something equally brilliant in future years. Deus Ex was one of these games. When initially announced, it was tagged as a standard first-person shooter, but it came to be known as one of the greatest FPS games ever created for PC. Four years on, and one of the industry's most anticipated sequels is finally finished.

Invisible War takes place around 20 years after the events depicted in Deus Ex, in a world only just beginning to recover from a secret, conspiratorial war and catastrophic worldwide depression. The winner-take-all geo-politics of mid-21st century Earth have given way to a struggle over more basic concerns such as food and water. Several religious and political factions see in the chaos, the opportunity to shape a worldwide government and they know that the right moves now could determine the shape of human society for centuries to come. But the secrets remain, and once again the human race is at risk of a rather nasty apocalypse. The question is, how are you involved? And how will you stop mankind from destroying itself for the second time?

In all truth, it's a great story and is extremely well told from the very beginning through a series of high-impact cut-scenes that set the mood of the game and give it its epic atmosphere. But just how well does Invisible War perform?

The earliest hours of the adventure sees players beginning in their apartment as a trainee of an elite force of fighters. You'll be briefed on your next course of action by a desktop hologram of sorts. You know something is afoot, but the hologram refuses to divulge any detailed information. Instead she gives you your orders, and for the time being all you can do is follow them. This is merely an introduction and tutorial to Invisible War, in which you learn to grasp how to explore and manage your inventory. Fair enough.

But it doesn't take long for your adventure to begin proper, and you discover just how flexible this game is. Even amidst all the fighting, you'll be able to interact with an array of non-playable characters and make decisions that can impact on how you progress through the game. NPC's can ask a great deal of questions, and in some instances, you can give two, three, or even four different responses to affect what happens to your character. What's more, the adventure features voice acting from start to finish, making it easy for players to become engrossed in the proceedings.

Before long, you'll become involved in a bloody war, and it's here that the FPS aspect of gameplay shines through. You'll be charged with taking out a plethora of sneaky enemies using a variety of weapons, and the challenge is made even more grueling by Invisible War's superior AI routines. Thankfully there are a few special 'biomod' abilities at hand, which can be activated at will. The ability to see in the dark and an invisibility cloak are among the most useful, but most prove integral to the game's play mechanic and must be used appropriately in order to proceed deeper into the game.

And that's it. The anticipated sequel to one of 2000's biggest sellers is unarguably a great game and a brilliant piece of software. It's taken developer Ion Storm a long time to bring us Invisible War, but the wait is clearly worth it. more