I couldnt agree more Lewis. I still consider the original Deus Ex as one of my top 5, maybe 3 FPS games of all time. What was gone for me in the second was atleast the illusion that a choice could potentially close the door to another path of the game, thus making all the decisions feel more critical.

And, you hit the nail on the head. The sequel was environmentally sterile, lifeless, and disjointed. And, there was very little of the world that was not readily visible or detectable once you were inside. The original did a great job of suggesting a larger game environment, and then exposing you to the interactive areas nicely through good level design flow. A world that *feels* infinitely explorable is much more believable, even if in reality it isnt!

I have high hopes for DX3. In my mind, despite the fact that the original had its issues, it set the bar incredibly high.

While I worked on the project, I would have to agree about your comment concerning atmosphere. The mantra was "Immersive Simulation", which honestly went against my principles of games being things that elevate an experience, not approximate it. DX did this as you say despite it's voice acting. It was much more colorful and the soundtrack had a chance to breathe a bit thematically. There were a lot more in the way of gradient-based single color palette environments in IW, and the soundtrack was specifically subdued. A good idea in some ares, definitely not all.

There were a lot of elements that stood out well, such as the physics system generating all manner of mini-game situations, and overall the sfx were well done (thanks primarily to the great Todd Simmons). Power ups were also a bit more fun.

But there was also less "hook" in the story. Blessing Sheldon Pacotti for his talents as a writer, the game wasn't really written for dialogue, it "spoke" like a novel. In DX1 it appeared that the dialogue got points across as simply as possible, even with the different factions and their motivations, and most of the complex lines were relegated to transmissions rather than in-person conversation. Whereas in IW, giving the player simple choices against thugs sometimes took several minutes of dialogue setup.

I enjoyed working on the title and probably enjoy it more than most, but your points are well made.

To me, the most important "flavor text" of the original DX was when I looked at my weapons, and they had years of manufacture and companies in their descriptions. There were few dates mentioned in the game, and this made it hard to gauge the exact timeline. Little touches like this one resulted in a much more lived-in world that still avoided confronting issues such as the exact date. Likewise, even when you were under the ocean or in Area 51, you felt like this was a place that could potentially exist. IW was lots of fun, but I think you found the problem was that the world felt surreal. I enjoyed both games, and DX is still my favorite game of all time, but your writing has helped me understand somewhat of why I didn't like IW nearly as much.

It's tough being a sequel to one of the best PC games of all time. If I never played Deus Ex 1, I would have enjoyed the sequel much more. Deus Ex wrecked me (for a lot of games.)

This article was really good. One important angle I'd like to mention though is the move to consoles brought with Deus Ex 2 -- I don't think this helped much. As you mentioned, the removal of the skill system, ammo system, and the mouse-friendly GUI went a long way to eviscerate some of the core elements of the game. You can't take out these things without replacing them with a better idea -- which didn't happen in either of the 3 things that I mentioned.

As for the setting: Deus Ex 2 felt much to 'sci-fi' for me. Some halls were so antiseptic it was like walking on the Enterprise. Deus Ex 1 had a gritty, great dark cyberpunk thing going on.

Again though, it was because Deus Ex had such great everything: music, level design, core design, writing, interface, that put the above-average game sequel in a paler light.

For any Deus Ex fans out there, I highly recommend The Nameless Mod (a full conversion mod.) It is a impressive and fantastic mod with many hours of gameplay. Strangely, it felt much more 'Deus Ex' than did Invisible War; for myself anyways.

I loved Invisible Wars. The fps with an rpg twist was a ton of fun, and I must of played through it half a dozen times plus. I often wonder if I would still feel this way after playing the original.

In regards to environment, Invisible Wars started out really strong. Seattle was a multilayered gritty futuristic city. The upper levels felt entirely different from the lower slums, and there were plenty of quests and people to interact with. This created a realistic and vibrant city to play around in.

Unfortunately Seattle was the exception. Other regions had multiple areas but failed to create the same realism of Seattle. In one city it felt like my only choices were between an airport terminal and a village--not very exciting.

I see the same pattern in games today. Towns start out as dynamic, large, and vibrant population centers, but by the end they are smaller, duller, and less exciting. I’m looking at you Fable 2. It’s odd, or sad, that one of the best environments I’ve ever seen is one of the oldest. Each area in Ocarina of Time was chalk full of lively goodness.

I mostly agree with the article, although I believe Kevin has described perfectly the main reason why I didn't enjoy Invisible War as much as the original. Deus Ex is simply too good. There are few, if any, other games that can live up to its standards, so even if IW is a great game it just can't match its predecessor.

If I were to have played IW without first playing DX1 it would probably have been an almost as memorable experience as playing through DX1 the first time. The main problem I had with IW was that it was, as I felt it, a dumbed down version of DX1, which is something I feel many games suffer from these days.

I guess this is caused by the high costs involved in developing great games require that as many as possible buy the games. This in turn results in developers needing to make their games as accessible as possible, which in my book often means "dumbing it down". This doesn't always have to be a bad thing, and I have had these kind of discussions regarding our own games, often resulting in an agreement to simplify and make it more accessible. I mean, who wouldn't want to have as many people as possible playing their game?

@Joshua: I actually felt the opposite: Seattle didn't feel at all like a real city. The 'new' Seattle was a maze of walkways and park areas, with a bar, coffee shop and a single apartment building. It was never really explained why it was necessary to build it in the first place. It lost the solid grounding in the real world that Deus Ex had. It's something that Half-Life 2 was able to do so well - the background of a crumbling Eastern Europe made the sci-fi technology of the Combine believable. Hong Kong in the original Deus Ex did a much better job of blending the upper and lower classes, high and low technology, from the poorest people in the filthy canals to the glistening hallways and labs of VersaLife. They were blended together in a realistic way, as opposed to the separation in IW. I still enjoyed the game, but the atmosphere was not one of its strong points.

I haven't actually beaten DX:IW, but from what I remember of seattle it felt really clausterphobic. I also remember getting multiple people talking to me telling me to do stuff and I didn't know who I was supposed to listen to or what I was supposed to do.

Denby, really all I can do is agree with you. However there is only one point I would like to make. the PC controls felt a little floaty. the game really didn't feel right to me and I just couldn't get into it. the main reason why I stopped playing that game was because of the feel.

At any point in IW, I was having the feeling of being in a kind of experiment, like a rat. I was given these obvious alternatives and had to pick one before I could continue to the next loading screen. It was a very artificial experience, while DX1 was a very emotional one for me.

I loved this game though some design choices were questionable, as the article already covered.
I have played through this game 4 or 5 times now, and still enjoy playing it from time to time.
If I was going to list a complaint, I would say that the worlds - levels felt much more confined than the original. The graphics were great for it's time though. I loved the look and feel of the game.
Brandon's music was a major reason why i loved this series. Both titles had so much atmosphere due to his soundtrack. I love the music so much I use it as ringtones on my cell phone :).

I just recently discovered Vampire:Bloodlines and absolutely love it. It's very much like the deus ex games.
I had no idea how good it was till I just decided to get it and play it. Im very glad I did.
I was glad to see it mentioned in this article, it deserves praise, and with the community made patches, its a great game.

The main difference between Deus Ex and DX:IW was that Deus Ex presented so many choices (fight, evade, converse, buy, manipulate, navigate, open, unlock, damage, discover, read) that it seemed to the player that your choices were unlimited; while DX:IW seemed more like a "choose-your-own-adventure" game, where you could pick from only two options (help A, help B).

There were events in Deus Ex of such complexity that I can't think of whether they've ever been equaled: Do you follow orders and kill Lebedev? Or let Agent Navarre do it? Or kill Nararre instead to hear Lebedev out? Each instance leads to a different logical conclusion, with its own dialogue and consequences. And don't get me started on how many different ways the finale with Sandra Renton, her father, and JoJo could play out...