• Summary: Fifteen years following the events depicted in the multi-award winning "Deus Ex," the world is just beginning to recover from catastrophic depression. As an elite anti-terrorist agent, you must fight numerous militant factions bent on violently reshaping the world to suit their own agendas. Using high-tech gadgetry and futuristic body modification (or biomods), you are granted near superhuman powers. Travel the globe while uncovering fiendish plots of world domination. Unmask the conspirators, while uncovering the shocking truth behind your own origins. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 44
  2. Negative: 0 out of 44
  1. 100
    Not only the proverbial sequel-better-than-its-original, but it’s also deep, challenging, and intelligent on a level that action games usually don’t reach.
  2. Players can influence the way every action, subpolot, and mission plays out to an uparalleled degree. [Jan 2004, p.152]
  3. Ultimately, Invisible War is a very fine game spread too thin. It's a game that's made the effort to name the cat in the secretary's desk photo but not to make jumping work properly, that bothers to script loving exchanges between insignificant NPCs but pits you against clumsy and stuttering AI. [Feb 2004, p.94]

See all 44 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 43 out of 80
  2. Negative: 30 out of 80
  1. Bass
    10
    Brisk's review (see below) is spot on. Although not completely the perfect sequel that we hardcore fans were hoping for, this is still one of the most enjoyable titles that you will ever play. Any game bearing the Deus Ex name is going to be undisputably brilliant, and Invisible War is yet another masterpiece from gaming iconic Warren Spector. In my opinion the original Deus Ex is arguable the greatest game ever made, and those who do not play this sequel are missing out on what is the continuation of a truely outstanding francise. Expand
    • 2 of 3 users said yes
  2. Enjoyable but terribly shallow - like going into the kiddie pool as an adult. The levels are atrociously tiny and the art direction looks like a saturday morning cartoon in the worst way possible, but there's just enough plot and other fun mechanics (biomods, scavenging, etc) to keep it worth playing. Expand
    • 4 of 5 users said yes
  3. A.R.
    3
    Forget the lobotomised combat, level design and character customization system. I could deal with these things, like the poor AI and graphics of the original. However, simultaneous to consolisation technically, the characters are all one-dimensional and unconvincing and the narrative is alltogether forgettable. I didn't just come to trust the original Tracer Tong's judgments, I made it so that he trusted me. I understood The Smuggler's motivations and situation. I returned to warn him in to leaving New York. Alex and Jaime had their reasons for leaving UNATCO, Carter had his own opinion, opposing and just as legit, about staying - Ideological reasons. I actually REMEMBER the story behind completely peripheral and ancillary characters like Sandra Renton when I ran into her again in LA. Jock made me respect his closed nature, but I sure had fun digging around in his HK apartment reading his Emails to figure him out (indeed, a location I only found after numerous run-throughs). The info was there, it was a detailed and subtle world inhabited by complex characters. I felt sorry for Nicolette when she reminisced at the old Chateau about her past. Even minor characters like Lucius Debeers presented an unclear, heavy moral dilemma above coffee wars. I can remember the deep philosophical insights of the prototype AI in its side-room. It's ideas made me feel for where our own world is headed. It wasn't just believable, it in fact, resonated with reality. I can't even recall the names of Invisible War's secondary characters, let alone their motivations and background stories, if they had any. I do remember that you could basically double-cross all the factions and nobody really cared, though. I remember that Klara was pretty much just a vapid, ambitious nonentity. But I only remember that 'coz she was hot. The game is half the length of the original and that half is not even half as detailed. While the consolitis is inexcusable, I think it's a microcosm for larger, sustained and crippling problems with the game's narrative design and setting establishment. I felt like I was controlling the narrative more than that the world was happening around me. I'm going to give this a three. It would be nonsensical to rate this against other FPS on the market before comparing to it's predecessor. It is, after all, a sequel. Expand
    • 6 of 7 users said yes

See all 80 User Reviews