Deus Ex: Invisible War

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Deus Ex: Invisible War
Windows version cover art
Developer(s) Ion Storm Inc.
Publisher(s) Eidos Interactive
Designer(s) Warren Spector, Harvey Smith
Engine Unreal Engine 2.0
Release date(s) NA December 3, 2003
EU March 4, 2004
JP June 17, 2004
Genre(s) FPS / RPG
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: M (Mature)
USK: 16+
PEGI: 16+
OFLC: M15+
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Xbox
Media 1 DVD, 2 CD-ROMs
System requirements 1.5 GHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 9.0, 2.0 GB available hard disk space, Windows 98 (WIN)
Input Keyboard, mouse, or gamepad

Deus Ex: Invisible War is a computer and video game produced by now-defunct developer Ion Storm. It is the official sequel to the influential and critically acclaimed computer game Deus Ex (2000). Invisible War was released for Microsoft Windows computers and the Xbox game console in the U.S. on December 3, 2003, and was released worldwide in March 2004. [1] Its title comes from the Latin Deus ex machina, "God from [a] Machine" as explained in the original game of the series.

Invisible War was originally planned as the second title in a Deus Ex franchise. A follow-up was put into development, with the name Deus Ex: Clan Wars, as a multiplayer-focused third game in the series. However, after the relatively unspectacular commercial performance of Deus Ex: Invisible War, the decision was made to set the game in its own universe, and it was eventually published under the title Project: Snowblind [2].

Contents

[edit] Overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The protagonist of the game is "Alex D.", a 21-year-old (players can pick both Alex's gender and skin color). Some of the characters from the original game reprise their roles in this sequel - including Paul Denton, Tracer Tong, Nicolette DuClare, Chad Dumier and JC Denton (the previous game's protagonist). As before, the action takes place in a number of real-world locations, including Seattle, an arcology and surrounding Medina in Cairo, the Black Gate and its environs in Trier in Germany, Antarctica, and concluding on an ice-bound Liberty Island, the starting point of the first game.

Like its predecessor, the game features non-linear gameplay, while still retaining a largely linear central plot. Similarly, nanotechnology and conspiracy theories again play a major role in the action, and action once more concerns the conflict between different secretive organizations, this time the WTO, The Order (both of which are later show to be branches of The Illuminati) and The Knights Templar. However, some players feel that an in-depth story line took a back seat for more action. This is possibly due to the removal of some items from the original Deus Ex, such as computers that allow the player to read email, as well as less character development.

[edit] Plot

The player character, Alex D, begins the game shortly after escaping a massive terrorist attack in Chicago. It later transpires that the city was attacked in order to destroy a single laboratory. Alex is one of the trainees/guinea pigs of this laboratory.

Although there are many, many casualties and the terrorists essentially achieve their objective of destroying the Chicago facility, Alex along with her/his fellow trainees and the project leaders are safely evacuated to a facility based in Seattle before Chicago is seemingly destroyed.

After being moved to the Seattle facility, Alex and fellow program trainees Billie Adams, Leo Jankowski and Klara Sparks are kept in the dark about what really happened to Chicago. However before they have a chance to find out, the facility is attacked by Seeker warriors of The Order Church who may or may not have been responsible for the terrorist attack in the first place.

The player, as Alex, must then escape the lab, and find out what has been happening.

[edit] Gameplay

Similar to the original Deus Ex, gameplay consists of a mix of exploring city environments and conversing with the inhabitants, and infiltrating facilities patrolled by hostile guards. Players are usually presented with multiple approaches to any given problem; they can bypass obstacles by crawling around in the air vents, use shadows to sneak past enemies, or simply use their weapons to kill everything in sight.

[edit] Presentation

Invisible War uses a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine 2 developed by Epic Games, Inc. Amongst the added or replaced features are a custom renderer with real-time lighting and the Havok v2.0 middleware physics engine, as opposed to the Unreal Engine's Karma middleware solution. Havok v2.0 is also seen in such titles as Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne and Painkiller. Every object in the world has a size, weight, and mass, and can be picked up and thrown, nudged, or blown around by the force of an explosion. Lights can be moved, and this alters the shadows cast by objects.

As a consequence of console-oriented development, the game's levels are significantly smaller than those seen in the original Deus Ex. Console-oriented development also has had consequences for the game's graphics: the game's characters are slightly less detailed and have somewhat lower polygon counts than those seen in, for example, Unreal II.

Many other features, such as visual 'bloom', which creates a slight blurring of the game's lighting similar to a streetlamp on a foggy day, were intended as aesthetic choices but perceived by customers as a console-centric modification. In the case of bloom, what was meant to create a noir mood simply caused the image to appear somewhat fuzzy and out-of-focus, leading players to believe that the effect had been put in place to save processing power.

[edit] Differences from the original Deus Ex

  • Character development has been simplified significantly in Invisible War. Players no longer earn "skill points" from completing objectives for upgrading their character's abilities. Instead, the player character starts without any limits to his or her normal abilities (such as aiming, proficiency with items, etc.) All upgrades are achieved through acquiring biomods that give the player character special powers (such as increased strength, invisibility, or the ability to control robots) but cost energy to use. Additionally, weapons may be modified and upgraded through the course of the game (a feature available from the original game).
  • Combat is also more action-oriented than in the original Deus Ex. Weapons no longer have a varying reticule to simulate weapon inexperience or inaccuracy while moving — a player simply needs to point and shoot. Both the player and enemy characters can withstand more damage than in the previous game, making player death less common. Enemies are more maneuverable than those in the original game (capable of side-stepping, rolling, and running behind cover), but compared to other first-person shooters released at the time, the AI is slower, less responsive, and inefficient at navigating the game environment.
  • Instead of different ammunition types for each gun, all weapons draw from the player's reserve of "Universal Ammo". Each gun uses a different amount of Universal Ammo per shot, with weak weapons such as the pistol using very little ammo, and strong weapons such as the rocket launcher using large amounts of ammo. The drawback of this system is that, once a player runs out of ammo, none of the weapons are usable. The player can carry enough ammo to kill at most a dozen people before running out. However, most killed enemies drop partially full clips of ammo to replenish the stock; also, weapon modifications can reduce ammunition consumption.
  • Biomods function similarly to the nano-augmentations of the original Deus Ex. The major difference is that they are not permanent, and can be swapped for a different biomod if the situation requires it. Some biomods, such as the ability to hack computers, replace abilities that are acquired in Deus Ex through use of skill points. There are also far fewer biomods in Invisible War than there are nano-augmentations in Deus Ex.
  • Damage is no longer modular. Instead of having separate health for the player's head, torso, and appendages, the player has a common pool of 130 hit points which varies based upon the selected difficulty. Similarly, enemies sustain the same amount of damage regardless of where they are injured. For many weapons, headshots do not do extra damage (the only weapons that do still cause headshots are the pistol and the sniper rifle). Originally, headshots from the pistol did not instantly kill an enemy, requiring 3 or 4 headshots. However, the second patch released increased the pistol headshot multiplier, meaning that it now takes approximately 1 or 2 headshots to take down an enemy. In the original Deus Ex, by contrast, players were encouraged to take careful aim where they wanted to damage when the situation permitted, in order to conserve ammunition, expedite the desired effect and avoid alerting enemies - for instance, due to the player's agility and speed, he was often capable of performing quick-kills by rushing up silently behind adversaries and shooting them point blank in the base of the skull, whereas as a shot in the arm would likely send the same enemy running and screaming over the radio.
  • The inventory system has been simplified. In the original Deus Ex, objects take up different amounts of space in the player's inventory. In Invisible War, object size is irrelevant; the player has 12 or more inventory slots (12 is standard, can be increased through certain biomods). Each inventory slot can carry one item, regardless of size, i.e., a slot can accommodate either one rocket launcher OR one pistol. The exception is that some small items (e.g., medkits) are stacked, so that one inventory slot may contain multiple small items.
  • The inventory system also allows the carrying of duplicate items. For example, a player may have 3 pistols and 2 SMGs. In Deus Ex, the player was only allowed one instance of each weapon.
  • Weapon modifiers are attached to an individual item, not to an entire class of weapons. In Deus Ex, if a pistol was equipped with a silencer, then thrown away, the player could pick up any other pistol and find it equipped with a silencer. In DX:IW, modifications to a weapon have no effect on others of its type. A player may equip one sniper rifle (e.g.) with a silencer and EMP damage, and another with rapid fire.
  • The story is now told more through character interactions than through hacking computers and reading emails. Books and newspapers in the game world are still readable.
  • Levels are significantly smaller due to the compromises in simultaneous PC and Xbox development. The Xbox's 64 MB of RAM caused each level to be broken up into smaller areas. The available space is more densely layered, with overhead air vents, underground tunnels, and multiple story buildings.
  • The original Deus Ex renders certain characters invulnerable to prevent the player from disrupting the plot at various points in the game. Invisible War handles this differently, by designating certain areas in which player weapons are disabled, and throwing heavy objects causes no damage. There are also a few cases where important characters are positioned behind bullet-proof glass in order to achieve the same level of invulnerability. All characters outside of these areas can be harmed and killed. This violates a premise of the game, that you can kill whoever you want. There are times, namely through use of glitches, where a player can take a shot at a target, and he will not die however much damage is dealt.
  • The appearance of "multitools" has changed significantly from the original game, in which they resembled mobile phones. Now they look more like screwdrivers. They now combine the lockpicks and multitools from the previous game into a single item.
  • While the original Deus Ex setting was close to classical cyberpunk, in Invisible War the theme was changed to postcyberpunk and biopunk, dealing more with the personal themes of transhumanism. The major concept of Invisible War is the future of the human body, and the relative dangers and merits of the nanotechnological or genetic transformation of humanity. The original Deus Ex dealt mostly with the social aspects of cybernetic and biological technology, such as the effect of enhanced humans on unenhanced humans, and vice versa, while Invisible War is more focused on the influence of enhancement on the person itself and the loss of personal identity as a human.

[edit] Weaponry

The weapons of the computer and video game Deus Ex: Invisible War, like those of its predecessor Deus Ex, can be divided into a number of main groupings. The six categories are: Melee Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Pistols, Ranged Weapons, Heavy Weaponry, and Mines. Also, as with Deus Ex, most guns within the game can be modified in certain categories with Modification Kits, which can be found and purchased throughout Invisible War and which improve those specific aspects.

However, unlike in Deus Ex, the weapons of Invisible War all use the same ammunition, dubbed "Universal Ammo". This unusual set-up is explained by the game through the science of nanotechnology. A cartridge of Universal Ammo is composed of a number of nanoparticles which assemble themselves into whatever projectile is required, depending on the weapon they are loaded into. Given this, logically various amounts of UA are needed depending on the weapon used, with some - such as the rocket-launcher - requiring much more than others - such as the pistol.

[edit] Melee

  • Combat Knife: Military-grade knife which can be used for slashing opponents.
  • Crowbar: A standard metal implement, useful for breaking objects, or as a cudgel.
  • Energy Blade: Visually similar to the "Dragon's Tooth Sword" of Deus Ex, the energy blade is a well-balanced, katana like sword, which is enhanced by plasma-electric charge to increase the blade's striking damage. As described by the game, the energy blade has its own internal power source, and does not require the use of UA or power cells.
  • Riot Control Baton: A non-lethal police baton, used to knock opponents unconscious.
  • Stun Prod: The direct descendant of the its sister weapon from the first game, the stun prod is a rechargeable electroshock gun which uses UA as an energy source, and as such, is the only melee weapon within the game which utilizes UA.
  • Toxin Blade (Secret Weapon): This weapon has an internal supply poisons that are transmitted via nanotubes when the blade is in use. Thus when the blade makes a cut, it administers the poison at the same time.
  • Dragon Tooth Sword (Secret Weapon): Essentially the same as an Energy Blade. It uses the Energy Blade's model, but does slightly more damage.

[edit] Grenades

All grenades in the game will explode in a short period of time after being thrown, with alt-fire making them explode immediately on contact.

  • Concussion Grenade: The game's basic anti-personnel grenade. It causes a high amount of damage within its radius and is extremely noisy.
  • EMP Grenade: Emits a large Electromagnetic (EMP) blast when detonated. It is very effective against all electronic and mechanical enemies.
  • Gas Grenade: Discharges a large amount of a non-lethal incapacitating gas. It is relatively quiet when compared to other grenades.
  • Scrambler Grenade: As with the scramble grenade in Deus Ex, the scrambler grenade utilizes a viral electronic attack to temporarily cause enemy robots to regard the player as neutral, and to attack their allies (with no actual damage done to the target).
  • Flash Bomb: The equivalent to what is used by many real-life SWAT teams, the flash bomb emits an extremely bright flash which temporarily blinds organic units without doing any physical damage.
  • Spiderbomb: Instead of exploding upon being thrown, this device deploys a small robot that resembles a spider. The spiderbot will autonomously move and attack any nearby enemy with its small EMP and electrical attack.
  • Noisemaker: Though it does no physical damage, upon being thrown the noisemaker emits sound and can be used as a distraction by the stealth centered player.

[edit] Pistol

  • Ballistic Pistol: A standard semi-automatic pistol manufactured by MAKO Ballistics (as are most weapons within the game world). This is the first weapon acquired by the player upon starting the game. Alternative Fire turns on the gun's mounted flashlight.
  • Boltcaster: The Invisible War equivalent of Deus Ex's Mini-Crossbow. The boltcaster accelerates a bolt toward the target through electromagnetism in the vein of a rail gun. The bolt is filled with a powerful biotoxin which inflicts non-lethal poison damage to the target over time. Alt-fire toggles the weapon's "smart" scope.
  • Red Greasel Hunter (Secret Weapon): Like the Pistol, but fitted with a red (or "thermal") flashlight. A red light is typically better to use for low light situations, without washing out natural night vision.
  • Assassin Pistol (Secret Weapon): Like the standard pistol, but comes attached with a scope and is slightlly more powerful.
  • Hellfire Boltcaster (Secret Weapon): Like the standard boltcaster, but fires incendiary bolts instead of toxin bolts. Also it is perhaps the hardest specail weapon to find, and the most powerful. It enables one hit burning kills, where the charecter effected by the bolt runs around screaming, on fire until they expire.

[edit] Ranged

  • Shotgun: A powerful anti-personnel weapon, the shotgun fires a blast of pellets which can kill most unarmored opponents with one or two shots. Alternate fire launches a smoke canister.
  • SMG: Compact and fully automatic, the submachine gun, or SMG, is a moderately effective personnel weapon. The gun unfortunately also uses up UA at a prodigious rate, and produces a wandering shot group after extended auto-fire. Alternative fire launches a flash bang grenade, useful for temporarily incapacitating the enemy.
  • Sniper Rifle: An extremely powerful and accurate distance weapon, headshots from which almost always mean an instant kill for human enemies. Downsides include its slow refire rate and the high cost of each shot in UA. Alternative fire toggles the weapons "smart" scope.
  • Mag Rail: An experimental MAKO Ballistics weapon system, the mag rail fires a powerful energy beam which can silence most human targets with a few shots. The alternative fire is an EMP blast which can be fired through walls and other obstacles, and which does heavy damage to all non-shielded electronic components.
  • Widowmaker SMG (Secret Weapon): This contains all the features of the normal SMG, but instead fires a Spiderbomb instead of a Flash Grenade at the cost of more UA.

[edit] Heavy

  • Flamethrower: A very effective anti-personnel weapon which spews a stream of flaming napalm onto the target. The flame engulfed individual will often run around in panic, setting other objects and persons alight, increasing the effectiveness of the weapon, but also increasing its danger to the player when used in an enclosed environment. Alternative fire launches a glob of napalm that sticks to a surface and burns brightly for a period of time.
  • Rocket Launcher: The most powerful weapon in the game, the rocket launcher also uses the greatest amount of UA per shot. As with all heavy weapons within Invisible War, head shots do not do additional damage. Alternative fire allows the rocket to be manually guided to the target thanks to a camera mounted on each projectile.

[edit] Mines

  • Concussion Proximity Mine: A simple explosive device which can be attached to most surfaces and which detonates when approached, causing a substantial amount of damage.
  • EMP Proximity Mine: Works on the same principle as the Concussion Mine except that instead of exploding, it emits an EMP blast which damages all electronics-using enemies and devices.

[edit] Weapon Modifications

Can be added to the pistol, boltcaster, shotgun, SMG, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, and mag rail only. Also, each weapon can support at the most two modifications, and mods cannot be swapped out once installed.

  • Ammo Scavenger: Causes the weapon to use less UA for each shot.
  • EMP Converter: Adds EMP damage to the weapon's normal attack (if it does not already have it).
  • Fragmentary Round: Causes upgraded weapon's projectiles to explode on contact, causing extra damage.
  • Glass Destabilizer: Causes panes of glass to dissolve at the molecular level upon being shot. Useful for accessing glass enclosed areas without setting off alarms.
  • Increased Damage: Enables the affected weapon to deal more damage per shot.
  • Increased Range: Increases the effective range of the weapon.
  • Refire Rate: Enables the weapon to be fired more rapidly.
  • Silencer: Silences noise created by the weapon to enable a more stealthy attack.
Spoilers end here.

[edit] Characters

Main article: Deus Ex: Invisible War characters

[edit] Trivia

  • The songs of the fictional pop star "NG Resonance" featured in Invisible War were actually original compositions by the industrial rock band Kidneythieves. The character's voice was also provided by lead singer Free Dominguez.
  • In the last level of the game, if the player carries a UNATCO flag found at the entrance of the organization's ruined Liberty Island base down to the bathroom in the office of its former director Joseph Manderley and holds it while flushing the toilet, an easter egg will open, transporting the player to the secret "real" ending for the game. [3].

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Deus Ex series by Ion Storm
Games Deus Ex · Deus Ex: Invisible War
Characters JC Denton · Paul Denton · Tracer Tong · Alex D · Major Deus Ex characters · Minor Deus Ex characters · Deus Ex: Invisible War characters
Organizations UNATCO · NSF · Majestic 12 · X-51 · The Illuminati · The Knights Templar · The Order · WTO · The Omar · ApostleCorp
Miscellaneous Robots in Deus Ex · The Collapse
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