Played through on Nobara Linux. The only issue I noticed was that on launch, the game screen is horizontally squashed, but tabbing out and back in fixed it.
How do you make a follow-up on a game many people consider to be one of the best in its genre, even decades after it was made? Deus Ex is one of those titles that hangs over everything that has come after it like a sword of Damocles. Each new title, no matter how good on its own, will always be compared to it.
When you look at Invisible War from the perspective of what it is, a sequel to one of the best sci-fi RPGs ever made, you can't help but feel a bit disappointed. Deus Ex offered a sprawling story set in big locations, which allowed you to move around in them in a way that suited you. Either by brawn or brains, joining alliances by the parties involved in the scheming of world domination or trying to fight against them. In theory, Invisible War is offering something similar, but not really.
Roughly 20 years after the events of the first game, Chicago is destroyed in a brutal attack. A group of Tarsus School students, engineered humans, manage to escape safely while millions of people die. After this disaster, you step into the boots of Alex D, either male or female, who is one of the students who managed to escape to Seattle. The Seattle base is soon overrun by hostile forces, and Alex needs to escape to find out what is going on. What is evident is that the attack in Chicago was linked to the attack on Seattle, despite the latter not being as drastic.
The enemies in question are the Knights Templar, who are against everything Tarsus stood for: they want to eradicate the union between humans and machines, bringing forth a new pure human race. From the get-go, Alex needs to figure out with whom to pledge allegiance. There's the WTO, rooting for pure capitalism, and the Order, an amalgamation of all the faiths of the old world. Omar's is the least story-relevant organisation of people who have completely embraced the cybernetic modifications, the Templars, who are more or less the main baddies of the story and finally, there's the remnants of ApostleCorp, founded by JC and Paul Denton.
While the story itself is pretty linear, some nuance is gained from doing different objectives for the different organisations, of which, at least in the beginning, the main ones are the WTO and the Order. Though if you so feel, you can side with the Templars as well and also end the game by completing the mission JC Denton started in the first game. Depending on what you choose, you'll get one of the 4 possible endings, either siding with Dentons, Omar, Illuminati or the Templars.
Oh yes, the Illuminati is in the game as well, and their entry to the story is a kind of plot twist. And at one point, it is revealed that the WTO and the Order are just two fronts set up by the Illuminati, still seeking a way to control the world.
So, now you might be wondering, if the story is offering all these factions and plot twists, why does Invisible War feel like a disappointment? Well, simply put, in comparison to the first game, Invisible War feels like a more linear experience with locations that are much smaller and offer far fewer and more linear ways to explore them. Most of the locations you explore are closeted corridor runs. The freedom it offers feels more like a superficial addition than a core design element, as it was in the first game.
Another aspect of it is the character progression, or rather, the lack thereof. There's no experience system in the game, just the biomods you get either by finding them in locations or being gifted as a mission reward. There's a small group of mods, including black market mods you can choose from, but each of the 5 mod slots has three options: two regular and one black market, a skill you can upgrade to 3 levels. But the thing is, after you've chosen a skill, any other skill in that slot will be replaced with a new one if you at some point decide you don't want the one you originally chose, which might not encourage exploration of the different skills on the get-go, and in general, it feels to me there's a set of skills that just make more sense to pick over others. Like, for example, hacking computers greatly surpasses any other skill that can be added to the same slot.
I can't help but feel that with the character progression limitations, Invisible War also greatly favours more of an FPS approach in terms of gaming, though with the limited inventory, of which a good part is necessary to be reserved for multi tools, first aid, power cells and grenades, you'll never carry a huge arsenal. So, the way I played it was that my main weapon was a truncheon I used to beat the enemies unconscious, which was rather simple after fully modding the strength and a couple of guns. Mechanical threats you can, at one point, take care of with one of the biomods you can install, which eliminates the need to carry EMP grenades.
All this ties into the reason why I can call Invisible War a disappointment in comparison to the first game. It is seemingly offering a similar experience, but it's in truth very limited and akin to a corridor run with a lot less room to genuinely customise Alex D. Even the choices you make in between the different organisations feel more like lip service rather than genuine story-shifting options.
All that said, Invisible War is not a flat-out terrible game. It is fun at least, and the story is interesting. There's also an added benefit of playing the game as either a male or female character, if not for anything else, just to get some alternative reactions from people as well as a different voice actor in the same role.
Deus Ex: Invisible War is more of a streamlined, more of a corridor run like of an experience in comparison to the first game. Some might even say it is more like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which restarted the franchise in 2011. That's not a sentiment I share, though, as Human Revolution feels a lot more open in terms of level design than Invisible War and has better customisation options for the character. Sure, you can choose your character's gender in DX: IW, but you'll pretty soon max out the skills you want to use.
Invisible War is one of those games I'd love to see remade and expanded. It has a lot of solid ideas in it, and with an expanded setting, choices and character progression, it would be a truly great game. Now it remains a tad disappointing sequel to a far better game.
If you are a fan of the Deus Ex series, I would say Invisible War is worth checking out. It's not an expensive game and is on sale often enough for a price of less than 2 euros. So with that price, it's more than worth picking up. You can get it from Steam and GOG.
Comments
Post a Comment