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Deus Ex - Invisible War Probed 48

Posted by simoniker from the denton-designs-on-greatness dept.
Thanks to UGO.com for their hands-on preview of Ion Storm's Deus Ex:Invisible War, the forthcoming sequel to the much-acclaimed FPS/RPG hybrid. The feature starts: "Few RPGs have offered the level of open-ended gameplay, the Hollywood-quality back story, or the innovative character development that Deus Ex did", and goes on to describe the changes to the sequel, which include a "simplifying [of] its character-development system" and a new interface that's "similar to Metroid Prime's visor view" - in fact, "when a menu pops up, it'll be emblazoned directly on [the new lead character] Alex's eye." The game is currently due out this December for both PC and Xbox.
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Deus Ex - Invisible War Probed More

Deus Ex - Invisible War Probed

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  • Laying in wait (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rritterson ( 588983 ) * on Wednesday August 06, 2003 @12:58AM (#6623327)
    I rarely run games on my computer, as I tend to use it more for school and utility than for pleasure.

    On my now defunct desktop, I bought an SB Live! card and it came with a copy of Deus Ex. The game was great enough that I actually went out and bought a 3d accelerator to make it playable (a Voodoo3, a week before 3dfx went belly up). To make a long story short, it was the best game I've ever played and the only game to ever to hold me from beginning to end.(I usually get bored half way through, stop, and come back in a year. I still haven't beaten starcraft)

    In the original, after the first level the graphics cease to matter. They are passable, and the story is so immersive that the graphics don't need a lot of eyecandy to hold your attention. I felt the story was better than that of HL, as the story changed based on your choices. The levels forked and different people reacted differently based on how you acted. Your abilities changed fundamentally, making your approach to the game change as you progressed. (No need to kamikaze into level 2 bots with a RPG if you can turn invisible and walk around them) If the second can be as immersive as well as improve the visual quality, I may forget what reality is, and try to activate my IR vision when I go out at night.

    I don't give a damn about Doom 3 or HL2. Yet, I'm quite eager to play The Invisible Hand.

    Nothing compares to activating your own level 2 security bots and watching them wreak havoc on the FEMA bots that used to be guarding Area 51.

  • You know... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Dimwit ( 36756 ) *
    You know, I've been waiting for ages for this to show up on Slashdot. Not because I'm a big fan of the game (hell, I haven't even played the first one), or even because I'm a big gamer (I'm not), but because I'm dating one of the developers.

    So...er...anyway. Yeah, this game r0xors. Yeah. Hardcore. Please don't hit me honey.

    (Although, ya gotta admit - being a geek and dating an attractive programmer chick who's working on a hit game is pretty cool...)
    • ... we will of course need pictures to prove your claim
    • ...being a geek and dating an attractive programmer chick who's working on a hit game...

      Ok...

      "being a geek and dating" - Now we all know thats not possible.

      "attractive programmer chick" - Slightly more possible than the geek dating thing. Not much.

      "chick who's working on a hit game" - Now, we all know chicks dont like games, unless they are Animal Crossing.

      I belive the Slashdot Community demands proof of these allegations! We need pictures!

      • /me tugs his beard

        Yep, I'm tempted to call "hogwash" on this one. I've searched for the fabled female games programmer for many, many years, just like some search for the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot or the Beast of Bodmin. The closest I ever got was the great blonde-Swede-booked-for-interview incident of '01. She never turned up, so I can't confirm if she was blonde, Swedish or even female, although none of these are subject to rigorous testing during interviews.

        Still, I guess it's some consolation to my

  • No Mac port? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Too bad... guess I'll be holding on to my hard earned for a while yet. Yes, yes, I know, PCs and consoles are where most of the gaming money is. But whilst Deus Ex 1 played well enough on my pokey old P2-266, I've decided already that my next system will be a Mac -- I have an iBook that does what I need it to, and I really dislike Windows, so...

    The other option is if they come out with a PS2 port. No? Too bad, Eidos won't be getting my money for this game, then.

    • and I really dislike Windows
      <zealot type=Linux>That is not a reason for choosing a Macintosh. That's a reason for choosing Debian.</zealot>

  • Anyone else unclear about the XP system? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ElectroKiwiMonkey ( 628003 ) on Wednesday August 06, 2003 @01:51AM (#6623520)
    To quickly paraphrase the article: Players of DX1 found that the skill point system tended to shaft them a little unless they took the time to go explore every little room, so in DX2 they're reducing the complexity by limiting it to just the bio-mods and upgrades.

    Now, my question is this: Did anyone else find that the bio-mods were almost as out of the way as the XP bonuses? That said, I really don't see how removing the skill system fixes anything.

    I understand how the skill system tended to screw you over if you picked the wrong skills, especially since certain skills (Environment Training or Swimming come to mind) were only of any use at a couple points in the game. But couldn't this have been fixed simply by taking a look at the skills you have, removing the really useless ones and then tweaking the levels so that every skill can be useful?

    For example, instead of just having a security system you can disable, doors that can be picked, and electronic locks to hack, why not put Enviro-Training to use by having electrical conduits to crawl in?

    As for other skills like Melee combat which were of extremely limited use as you got further in DX1, I would've thought the best thing to do might be simply not including items like the Dragon Tooth sword that quite simply turn your skill system on its head.

    Back more to the point of my comment, how does limiting it to just the bio-mod system help? Personally I found bio-mods to be the less-useful of the two systems, but that might be just me. If the system is going to be something along the lines of "You got this far, here's another powerup to make you happy" then I feel much of the original's open-endedness is being taken away in an effort to cater to those who just want to blaze through the game.

    Again, this all might just be me, but as someone who played through, managed to miss about half of the experience bonuses and still have a damn fine time, I really think that the developers should be rewarding those who take the time to look around, hack anonymous office systems, and make the effort to see what's on the other side of things that would otherwise just be set-pieces.
    • The XP system required micromanagement and slowed the game. It reminded me a little of the old FF problem- you have to go around and fight a long time to level up, so you can beat the boss.

      There is no reason they can't reward explorers- just hide bio-mods. I think they are doing a change much like /. did with karma- XP is a level now, not a number. You'll get bio mods at the end of each level, and they could add new ones like knuckle implants that make melee combat better.

      IMHO, this just makes the inter
    • I think that removing the XP system will make or break this game with former DX1 players.

      To me, it sounds like their just making it easier so it'll be a more mainstream game and get more sales.

      I'll buy it cause I loved the original, but I'm preparing myself to be dissapointed.
  • "...the Hollywood-quality back story..."

    I know that was meant as a sincere compliment, but it comes off like a backhanded one.
  • I was under the impression that the Gamecube was as powerful, if not MORE powerful then the xbox (Didn't nintendo make the gamecube as a pure game machine while Microsoft tried to make a do-all box with PC parts?), so why no gamecube port?

    I hope Ion Storm isn't falling under the standard misconception that gamecube owners dislike violent games with guns and blood (Animal Crossing and Super Mario Sunshine may have outsold Resident Evil Remake, Zero, 2, and 3 combined, but that's just a fluke).
  • First let me say it's the best FPS I ever played, including the original DOOM in all its innovative glory.

    However, the story started out rather good, but then just got onto the tired old Urban Legends Illuminati-are-taking-over-the-world conspiracy theories. At least, however, it fitted into the game well, rather than the usual tacked-on-at-the-end-to-justify-shooting-everythi n g feel that most FPS have.

    I also never felt the RPG element was as strong as everyone made out. Sure, you could play a few diffe
    • the good thing about the story was that it had a very good illusion that you could change how things went, the decisions you made really mattered the outcome.

      i played it through few times just to see how my decisions affected the story, which characters would appear where, and who would end up dead (also to see how many ways there were to get something done, how many ways to get past some threat), would sparing your brothers live have much meaning and so on, things that even 'real' rpgs usually lack. also
  • Loki got this game to a playable stage and a beta release was circulated ready for testing.

    We know what happened next.

    Sourcecode probably gone forever but the binary is out there somewhere with those previous beta-testers.

    Know of any who may want to share the conversion?

  • Jesus Christ Denton (Score:2, Informative)

    by superultra ( 670002 )
    Deus Ex was easily the best game I've ever played. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but feel shorthanded when I read that they had intended to incorporate more religious elements [matthewmiller.net] in DX. Here's hoping to see that crop up in DX2.
  • If this article can be believed and the release date has been pushed back to december (from 14 October), Deus Ex 2 and HL2 will have one more thing in common with the great video games of this age:

    The release schedule pioneered by id software back in the day. "It'll be done when it's done"

    But that's OK, the new system I buy to play it will be that much cheaper...
  • "Few RPGs have offered the level of open-ended gameplay, the Hollywood-quality back story, or the innovative character development that Deus Ex did"

    Anybody here never play the original Deus Ex, read Hollywood-quality, and lose any desire whatsoever to look into it.

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