My Take On Deus Ex: Invisible War After Playing...

[Toonces]

I am well into the Liberty Island level now...which I assume is close to the end of the game. My over-all impression is very positive at this point. I am a huge fan of Deus Ex and have played through it at least 5 or 6 times. Unfortunately, that does color one's impression of the sequel. Rather than post a long running narrative, it might be more useful to list the pros and cons I have come up with so far:

Cons:

1.) The graphical engine does need some serious tuning. I have the game running at 1280 x 1024 with everything maxed...except "Bloom" is turned off. It runs fine, but the huge amount of tweaking I had to do inside the .ini files is not going to be acceptable to most players. These items should either be there from the get-go, or there should be easy access to them from the user interface.

2.) I'm having some serious audio issues with my Audigy 2 sound card...but apparently so are many others and I expect this will be addressed in a patch.

3.) I understand the reasoning behind the unified ammo...to keep the size of the inventory as small as possible...but it does remove a significant fun and decision making factor from the game.

4.) Mouselag, HUD size, and several other items should be adjustable from the GUI. Most people will not go into the .ini files to edit these things and it takes much away from the game.

5.) The inventory needs a few more slots...A reduction in size from Deus Ex is okay, but this is a bit too extreme. If nothing else, add slots for the higher levels of the Strength Biomod.

Pros:

1.) The graphics, after tweaking, are outstanding!

2.) I like the game-play a lot...It's not exactly Deus Ex, but it's great on its own. If I want exact Deus Ex game-play, I will play Deus Ex again.

3.) The game is NOT too short. I have about 23 hours on the gameclock at this point and I know there are places and things that I missed. My actual time at the keyboard has to be double the 23 hours at least.

4.) Ethical quandries are much more complex in this game than in Deus Ex. Decision making is much more difficult and that, more than anything else, is what I wanted from a sequel.

5.) Others have complained, but I think the whole "Coffee Wars" things is hilarious. I have thoroughly enjoyed it!

6.) The new weapons are excellent! The Rail Gun is a terrific addition and the Alt/Fire on the Rocket Launcher...lifted directly from the UT Redeemer it seems...is just too much fun!!!

That's about it for now, but please add to the two lists.

-Toonces

[Orinoco]

For those of us who are not going to go hunting round in the .ini files, could you post what you changed and why, together with your system spec's so the less technical can enjoy the improved game too..?

[Toonces]

Here's the link for the tweak guide:

http://66.193.119.177/index.php?showtopic=206212

You'll have to decide what's best for your system. I am running an XP-2700 OC'ed to an XP-3200...it's water cooled...and a Hercules 9800 Pro 128Mb video card OC'ed to 405Mhz on the GPU and the memory is OC'ed to 702Mhz. The machine has a Gig of Corsair XMS LLPT 3200 RAM.

IMPORTANT NOTE - The tweak guide points this out, but let me restate it. MAKE A BACK-UP COPY OF ANY .INI FILE YOU MODIFY. I have been running UT and UT2003 servers since the day the games were released and I can code this stuff in my sleep...but it can be screwed up...SO MAKE BACK-UP COPIES!

Hope all of this is helpful to you!

-Toonces

[EsnRedshirt]

Actually, the Strength Biomod does increase your inventory size, if I recall correctly, by one slot per level.

[Toonces]

That is great...I will check it out the second time through...

Thanks!

-Toonces

[Breadman]

Yeah I enjoyed the game too... but I still can't figure out how you made it last 23 darn hours. I tried to go as slow as possible and it ended around the 11/12 hour mark.

My main complaint is the actual mission structure. There are quite a few "side-quests" that take no more than 15 minutes to complete at the most and if you're lucky, and then I'd say online 10 (at most) actual story-critical levels, all taking about half the time a typical level in the original would have taken. The Mako labs took me about 40 minutes and it was the first mission I truely felt was a story-critical levels. Liberty Island in teh first game however took me about 2 hours, and then the mission after it with the power plant took up to 3 hours, sometimes 4 if i listened to everyone and did all the side quests.

Bottom line... less missions and smaller missions in this sequal, but I'll admit that the quality of the missions is still there. There weren't any "awe-inspiring-never-forget" missions like in Deus Ex1 though, for example the Ocean Labs or Area 51, but nevertheless all the missions were quality. What's better though? 10 good missions? Or 7 okay missions and 3 great missions? That's just a matter of personal opinion...

I take it back though I guess... going back to the UNATCO HQ in the end of Invisible War was extremely cool for me. It was about 10x shorter than I would have liked (hell, they didn't even let you get to the MJ12 hq... best part but it was still cool and I won't forget it.

[Toonces]

Originally posted by Breadman
Yeah I enjoyed the game too... but I still can't figure out how you made it last 23 darn hours. I tried to go as slow as possible and it ended around the 11/12 hour mark.

I don't know exactly how you played the game, but I'll give you an example of a few of the time-eaters I discovered:

1.) The Mako Facility - I cleaned out the lower level and then found the basement entry. I don't know why, but I stopped at that point and started looking around for other ways inside. I found at least two more. The coolest was up on the roof. You have to jump over the ledge onto the curved roof surface below. Off to the right of where you jump down there is a rotating antenna unit protected by a security camera and a flame cannon. I crept over there and dominated the flame cannon and took control of the camera. Further on past the dish is a duct entry that takes you into a conference room directly next to the Weapons Lab with the Rail Gun in it. This side trip probably added 25 to 30 minutes of game time as getting out of that room was prettty tough at the realistic setting I was using. I then went back and cleaned out the entire building and worked my way backwards to the basement entrance. I then came back upstairs and finally went for the Rail Gun.

2.) Did you find the attic with the two Greasels and a butt-load of ammo clips in it on the way to the Nassif Greenhouse in the second visit to Cairo?

3.) How about the backdoor entrance to the weapon dealer's area in Cairo?

There are just too many to list, but if you punched your way through the Greasel nest under the Black Gate and the one in the Tarsus Facility in the Archology, then you'll know that both take a fair amount of time to get through without taking tons of damage.

My most frustrating issue that I have not resolved is that in Germany just to the left of the Tavern are three open second story windows with wires connecting them across the walkway. I have tried just about eveything and I still cannot get into them...Did you notice them?

Two more examples for you...and I won't give any spoilers here...Did you find the Assassin's Pistol or the Dragon Tooth Sword? I just don't see how anyone could get through the game quickly and find that stuff... Maybe you are just a much better player than I am and can move more quickly through the game.

-Toonces

[Orinoco]

Originally posted by Toonces
Here's the link for the tweak guide:
http://66.193.119.177/index.php?showtopic=206212

Cool, Thanks a lot.