The original Deus Ex was an
instant classic because it challenged popular conceptions of First-Person Shooters and
Role-Playing Games, blending the two genres so perfectly that it won Game of the Year
awards for both. DX2: Invisible War magnifies everything good from the first title while
bringing its own innovation to the table, creating a thrilling new game thats sure
to receive Game of the Year accolades. Details like a more accessible user interface are
also likely to attract new fans as DX2 makes itself available to more casual gamers.
Deus
Ex mined the dark caverns of conspiracy theories and plunged players into a world of
behind-the-scenes puppeteering and worldwide political manipulation. Those elements of
uncertainty were a primary reason behind the games success, for they exploited some
of the Information Ages most troubling anxieties. Ours is a world constantly being
assaulted by data in the form of images and noise, and we depend on pictures to get our
news even as we recognize how susceptible these pictures are to manipulation. Because we
gather our news from second-hand sources and can never be sure of what were looking
at, people are unrelentingly reminded of the impossibility of knowing the whole truth.
Anxiety leads to fear. Deus Ex helped people investigate these fears, even to combat them,
and DX2 continues the battle by confronting the same uncertainty on an even broader scale.
Deus Ex may also be credited with driving a new trend in gaming: according to most
reliable demographics, the fastest growing population of gamers is women. Bill Money, the
games producer, notes that women in general prefer puzzle games to more violent
titles, and Deus Ex certainly offered as many opportunities to puzzle through tight
situations as it did to pick up a gun and start blazing. DX2 will stay true to this trend,
offering multiple styles of game play from a tool-centric, ethically minded
sneak-and-let-live approach through the more common
grab-a-gun-in-every-limb-and-dont-spare-the-triggers. Notable is the fact that,
where most FPSs emphasize new weapons in their sequels, DX2 emphasizes as many new tools
and gadgets. Particularly exciting is a series of black market bio-augmentations that
allow you to see through walls, steal the remaining life force from corpses, leap forty
feet into the air, or be invisible to radar.
The
Unreal Warfare engine was extensively rewritten for this title to evoke a darker, more
brooding atmosphere. Since shadow is so integral to this game, both thematically and
practically, great care has been taken to faithfully replicate its behavior. When enemies
walk by a stationary light source, for example, their shadow flares large against the wall
and then slinks away exactly as it would in real life. The physics engine attached to
every object allows a superlative degree of interactivity with the environment, allowing
players to actively change the world around them. Particularly notable in the demo was a
halogen lamp that got knocked over and rolled across the floor, casting a spotlight
through the room and foiling good hiding spots. Touches like this flesh out a game
reality, making it as convincing as it is darkly beautiful.
But
DX2 offers more than a pretty face. Emergent experiences in the tradition of Half-Life add
spontaneity to game play, like when a monster breaks through a closed door to attack you
because it sensed you from the other side. Unlike Half-Life, however, these emergent
experiences arent predetermined; rather, theyre bound to the AI, so the
patrolling monster might miss you at the door but sense you farther down the hall. Stealth
becomes very important here, and DX2 acknowledges its import by having darkness and sound
affect enemy awareness. Other intriguing features of AI are creatures with unusual
behavior, like a ferocious fish that wont attack unless youre bleeding or a
cybergenetic baboon that stalks along the shadows, watching with its glowing red eyes as
it drops mines behind you to cut off your exit.
The
AI allows a non-linear story progression, with responsive plot branches that promise an
unprecedented freedom of choice. Qualities like this take DX2 from FPS into the territory
of RPG. There are also a broad variety of game locations, including faithfully reproduced
real-world places like Red Square, London, and Seattle. The story opens about twenty years
after the events of Deus Ex, when humanity is finally starting to recover from a worldwide
depression caused by chaotic technology and a secret, conspiratorial war. During the
recovery effort to clean up biological and nano-tech fallout while securing food, water,
and civil law, several political and religious factions attempt to fill the vacuum of
power and faith by swaying events favorably toward their agendas. You must find the
identities of these mysterious Illuminati figures, as well as the secrets of your own
strange origins. This archetypal quest for self-discovery is set against humanitys
own dark struggle to raise itself from despair into hope. Count on 20-30 hours of game
play, though with 30,000 lines of dialogue, considerably more play is available for those
explorer types.
Certain to make Game of the Year in a variety of genres, DX2 will hit stores some time
next year.