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Techtite's X-Box Game Reviews |
"The resulting mystery is all within a world which is extremely detailed. Very little is a mere immovable level map decoration, allowing you to pick up, throw, move, push, or break through anything seen on screen, be it a bottle on a table, a chair, or even a nearby computer..." ---from the review -----------------
You may also wish to buy: Deus Ex, Invisible War: Official Strategy Guide ----------------- Sidebar : ----------------- No Sidebar Comments for this review. Yet... ----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
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Deus Ex:Invisible War
Click picture to order this game (X-Box) A Techtite ReviewThis is another time the X-Box has been given a great sequel from the PC world. Have X-Boxers heard of it? Probably. If they haven't, they sure will now! Because, while Deus Ex: Invisible War may not be as long of a game as some may hope, it's still a lot of fun, and let's put it this way: multiple game endings! Four, to be exact! While the lack of this game on the X-Box prior to this, may make the following comment immaterial, it is important for fans of this game series to know that you are not JC Denton, the original game's hero. Instead, you're a "newbie"; a young recruit to the local task force, named Alex (you can even choose, not unlike Knights of the Old Republic, whether "Alex" is male or female). Alex's school of cyborg-enhanced recruits is soon overrun, and in the confusion, you quickly discover you're not in a school at all, though rather a carefully monitored lab (!), where scientists oversee your every move above fake, holographic ceilings. What's going on? That's up to you to find out.
The resulting mystery is all within a world which is extremely detailed. Very little is a mere immovable level map decoration, allowing you to pick up, throw, move, push, or break through anything seen on screen, be it a bottle on a table, a chair, or even a nearby computer (you're a cyborg, after all, so hacking is second nature to you with the right bio- implants; more on that later). Word is this is the same game engine that will be used for the long-awaited sequel to Thief. That's awesome news. Here's one example of the alternate solutions to just about every possible puzzle, which such a realistic game engine allows. At the start of the game you must use a transit station, which has been commandeered by three seedy gang members. You can pay these guys the "toll" to use "their" transit system, either by searching for enough money here and there, or by hacking into an ATM and committing petty theft to do it(!). On the other hand, you can defeat this gang: knocking them unconscious with a broom found in the closet, or confronting them in a grisly gunfight. A nearby ventilation duct, furthermore, can be used to either sneak past these guys completely, or make a surprise assault. It's completely up to you; one of many such moments in the game.
Helping you --as with the prior game-- are your cybernetic enhancements. Six "expansion bays" (so to speak) are available, allowing for any of 18 totally different skills, with three skill levels each. While it is possible to change your mind and choose a different skill mid-game, only six are available at any one time, dependant mostly on your choice of game style. You can choose military style enhancements like night vision, stealth options like cloaking abilities, or you can seek out "black market" (think: cheating) modules, like the ability to hack into most security systems, or best of all, the ability to have a flying "spy-bot" of sorts check all nearby surroundings, totally undetected! Again; which enhancement you choose is completely up to you. As for the story; sorry if I've seen overly cryptic about it so far. This is one of those mystery-style interactive stories that are best to be kept secret, if only just a little bit. The only thing I'll reveal is that; rest easy, this is a true blue sequel, so yes JC Denton makes an appearance --eventually-- and it's a big one! However; keep in mind, this is still an open-ended game; that's the whole point. By the time JC comes along, do you even take his side...? Yes, you guessed it: that's up to you! Talk about open-ended games. Even allying with the original hero is optional.
While not spoiling anything, keep in mind that alternate solutions to any puzzle could only mean four completely alternate endings(!). This enhances replay value, of course, though it does deserve mentioning that all four endings are very pessimistic. They are happy enough for your character, to a point, but it seems like the game's design team is saying that every single political structure is flawed, leaving each ending with a slightly bitter aftertaste. The feeling is almost like watching the first Star Wars trilogy, only to have some historian scoff at how hard it will be for a band of rebels to provide any form of governmental control in a post-Empire galaxy. Yeah, that's true, but...do we really have to know this...? Each of these four endings is full of CGI video goodness, yet feels the need to offer the downside of your final decision, as well as the upside. Talk about deflating my balloon!
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like the prior game, this game's strength is in its alternate solutions to
every possible puzzle. In fact, Invisible War is one step better than the prior
game, for one distinct reason. In the prior game, JC
Denton was a loyal puppet to an apparently very seedy organization, with no
sign of an "out" (presuming you wanted one) until at least half the game was already
over! This
game has no such obligations from the very beginning. After all: your
school, and where you live, is now destroyed. Who do you trust: a laboratory that fooled you into thinking you were
in a "school," the anti-technology zealots who raided your school for unknown
purposes, or another, as yet unknown group, altogether? My advice: trust only "yourself" at first, and act like
everyone's friend until you can decide who's who. Or not; from the start,
it's all up to you.
It helps that a world with such open
possibilities is also a pretty cool world to explore. Your ongoing mystery takes you from futuristic Seattle to
Cairo to Trier, among others. While
it is sadly impossible to backtrack from city to city, all level maps in each city
are linked, meaning you can backtrack within each city, at will. This
if cool because there are several people within each city who could use
your help, cybernetic-enhanced human that you are, allowing for a variety of
optional mini-missions. One such mini-mission I enjoyed was hacking into the enrollment list of a snooty
school in Cairo, and allowing a poor little girl
admission there. Some mini-missions offered are even contradictory, so it's
not as easy as "find all missions and solve them." There are a lot
of people against other people here, so you'll have to take sides sooner or
later. As I said, however, each city is
traversable at will, so complete these mini-missions whenever you wish.
The ongoing storyline is enjoyable, if just
because the core characters are so "three dimensional" in nature,
if you catch my meaning. My favorite would have to be
a holographic singer, whose program has been modified to spy on
people within any bar she's stationed in...but who's side is she
on...? Whoever it is, they
send you on various missions to spy on people where this hologram cannot. I liked the
mini-missions she sends you on (among other things, you unearth the fiendish
plot of a shady
principal at a private school), though the point is, there are many missions to
enjoy, in even the most incongruous of locations.
There are some minor gripes; nothing major,
though a few things to consider before the inevitable Deus Ex 3,
or even the soon-to-be-released-finally Thief 3.
For one, while key characters are very well created (as I said
earlier), all of the lesser NPC's you meet look sort of, well...odd.
Simply put, they all seem to have a sort of bug-eyed
expression which I found a bit distracting. Of course, as I said; all the regular
characters within the core story look great. It's just one little faux pas
that should've been corrected.
Still,
there's no denying a world with a slew of possibilities is a welcome change in
FPS gaming. It may not be as large as the prior game, but it's a fun ride nonetheless.
As for the reality-checked endings: so what? The point isn't
how you end the game. The point is how fun the game was when getting there.
This was a fun game. That's all that really matters.