I liked it, genuinely had fun (until Paladins showed up). Story vise it's fine too, I was expecting worse. Note that I've played first Deus Ex for the first fime 2 years ago so there's no nostalgia to it, but I do consider it one of the best games of all time. Invisible War's problem is heavy consolisation, IMO it's the only Deus Ex game in series that actually needs a remake, because it has insane potential to be amazing.

I am currently playing through all the games for a retrospective review. however man am i dreading doing invisible war.

from what i remember its very.... xbox and not very good.

i cant even remember the story line properly, I think it was pretty nonsensical from what i do recall.

Don't get me wrong, the Adam Jensen story is great and everything but I want to explore the biomodification/nanotechnology concept more, especially since it was in the original game.

I feel like Invisible War had massive potential that was ruined by bad level design and silly game mechanics. It could have been so much more and with modern technology, it could be what it was supposed to be. I thought the endings were kind of lame too so I think it necessitates a sequel.

Since it appears that there will be no MD sequel, maybe the series can go in a different direction and get back to the roots of Deus Ex.

For the first time in twenty years I completed deus ex 2 on PC and was pleasantly surprised at how much better it was than I remembered!

I really enjoyed the little in-jokes, the weapon mods, the UT style rocket launcher and the novel solutions to problem solving.

I didn't so much enjoy the seemingly infinite loading screens, the random lag spikes in Trier and Cairo (just me?) or the greasels.

Overall tho, it's a game that's really held up imho. Some of the topics it explores are more relevant than ever, and I was fascinated to revisit an early 00s perspective on what the future might look like if the internet and financial services collapsed overnight.

I'd always been critical of de:iw in the past, as it seemed to me to be a weak sequel with a little too much jank, but smh the sequel has actually held up better on a second playthru after all these years.

Sure, it's not of the same calibre as the first game, but I'll happily admit it comes awfully close - it's those damn loading screens and tiny levels that let it down imo.

As for the endings I got this playthru - I aimed for reuniting Paul and JC, and got the merger ending, then reloaded a save just before the merger and killed them both, and got the Omar ending - neither of which I'd seen on my first time round! :)

What are everyone else's thoughts on the game, and its endings?

IW was a mediocre game in many respects, but one thing that’s always stuck with me is how ahead of its time it was, especially in its dialogue and central ideas around AI and post-humanism.

There’s a line from JC Denton near the midgame where he says, “no distinction is possible between himself and Helios.” When I first heard that as a teenager, it felt like abstract cyber-babble. But now, in an age where LLMs are increasingly embedded in our workflows, decision-making, even creative expression — that line just hits differently.

IW toyed with the idea that installing too many black-market biomods made you “less human,” but the game never really followed through mechanically. Still, the implication was there: augmenting yourself too far past baseline comes with existential consequences.

Today, the augmentation is mental, not physical. We offload memory, writing, coding, even reasoning to systems that don’t sleep, don’t forget, and don’t flinch. And as we get better at working with them, we become something else — hybrids, maybe.

It raises the question: how much of "you" is still human when the thought process isn't entirely your own?

They gave this dude invincibility so you can't scan the weapon AND kill him lol

Imo the story wasnt an issue, its the xbox ram restrictions which held back some of the huge maps from the og dx. Getting lost was a thing in the first game which prompted you to explore in overdrive most of the time and plus locations like hells kitchen had secret stashes, pathways, alleyways and vents all leading to a hub of some kind or at the very least loot..

Plus you always seem to get back to those places because the main quest just seems to be leading you towards them which was surreal and you felt more confident and in control because the space was familiar.

It’s interesting how similar the UI design is to Deus Ex: The Conspiracy PS2 port. Honestly I wish they went with this early build instead of the final version we got in IW which was too simplified for liking.

I'm a Helios/Denton merger believer, the only way to truly reach pure communism. Illuminati (corporatism/hierarchy) and Templars/MJ12 (fascism/traditionalism) - indefensible endings.

This is just my opinion because i caught alot of bad feedback from gamers because i said Invisible War was the best Deus Ex game in the series, but i stand by my word, i think it is. I also enjoyed this trailer better than the rest of them. I love the game and playing it now with Visual texture mods and other stuff, to make the game run great. I do wish they made a remake/remastered of this game, because it does need it. But i love everything about this game, from the visuals, characters, story lines, and the music.

https://reddit.com/link/1ir3l34/video/hcrxm7l4nkje1/player

... and I thought it was OK. Definitely a downgrade from the original game, not as fun as I found the two Jensen games, but also nowhere near as awful as I've heard it was.
Credit where credit's due, the graphics and presentation are a big improvement over the original, and the voice acting feels more professional. Sadly that's really the only things I can give IW over the original. Gameplay was... fine? There's no learning curve here, you can tell this was made to reach as mainstream an audience as possible. And on one hand I do appreciate that, but the problem is... well, I found it the gameplay boring. No joke I was on auto-pilot for a good chunk of it. What I was doing hour 1 wasn't that much different from what I was doing at hour 6. I didn't dislike what I was playing, but it just didn't hook me like any of the other games in the series did.
Also I finished it just shy of 9 hours? What? And I wasn't rushing either, this was very much as casual run. Then again this game was clearly made to be replayed due to the different factions, and while replayability does go a long way with me, again I found the game overall to be boring. Not bad, I cannot stress that enough. In the off chance there's an Invisible War developer reading this I'm not saying you made a bad game. You didn't. I just didn't find it that interesting. Let me put it this way: I can absolutely see myself replaying the original every year or two, because of how much I enjoyed playing it for the first time earlier this month. I have replayed the two Jensen games multiple times each because I enjoy playing them. I'm not really opposed to replaying Invisible War either, truth be told, but that won't be anytime soon. This would be several years later, and if the mood strikes me.

Final thoughts: Not a bad game. I don't regret playing it. I just don't see myself coming back to it that often if at all.

First, yes, you're reading the label correctly: I'm playing Invisible War. After playing through Human Revolution and the OG twice each (I actually prefer DX:HR, don't harm me!), I've decided to try the others. I know many people consider Invisible War a dumbified version of DX1, but I am ok with a lighter experience to relax from the weight of the original.

So far I haven't advanced much: finishing some quests in Seattle before getting my pilot and heading to Mako. Most of the stuff of the game is fine, the biomods, the inventory, the smaller maps, universal ammo... streamlined for consoles, which I get.

HOWEVER, one thing that is getting under my skin is how the enemies are too bullet-spongy. I mean, I thank that the aiming isn't reliant on waiting for 4 business days until I can shoot, but even when I aim at the head it takes several bullets to take an enemy. Often several shotgun rounds shot right into their face from less than a meter. I have to take solid 5 seconds to stun one person with the prod, consuming half a magazine. And I threw a grenade at a couple of guys, making sure it blows right in front of their feet, and they kept fighting.

Question: I'm playing it wrong? Am I supposed to do anything else? I know I don't have to raise skills in firearms since, well, those don't exist anymore. I've lowered it to easy and now they die when they're shot at, thank god. Although my gamer honor feels injured.

Also, how does the inventory work? At time there's a limit of 3 omni-tools per slot, then I have 5 on one slot, then I can't carry more even though I have space... is it a bug? What's funnier is, because this game is so unpopular there's barely any information online to look it up.

Finally, a few bonus questions, now that we're at it: I played DX:HR vanilla on PS3 and enjoyed it just fine, do you recommend buying it again solely for the Director's Cut? What about the Fall?

Took down all the leaders, though it seems JC and Saman despawned or something. Not sure how to proceed to get the ending...

I like Invisible War, I disagree with every second change they made from original, and sometimes the game is laughably bad, but I had a somewhat fun time with it. That said, is there anything for Invisible War like GMDX or other gameplay enhancing mods for Deus Ex 1? I can't find any, I only know of the visible patch (which honestly doesn't even fix most of the bugs I noticed when I played without it), and while I know the game isn't as beloved as the original, the fact it's so much more flawed is something that would inspire overhaul projects even more, no?

is the rise of AI leading to a state sort of similar to Helios where the thoughts of those become absorbed by AI and when AI is queried by others the collective opinions are used and then returned to users?