November 27th, 2003
not so invisible war
The backlash over the recently released Deus Ex 2 demo was pretty deafening after the annoucement the game had gone gold. Along with the other throes of disappointed PC gamers, I sounded off on the weekend after I played through the disappointing demo with mixed results.
Some claim that the demo’s many ailments can be fixed by doing a number of .ini tweaks, but I don’t buy it. It seems like an awful lot of effort for a demo. Adjusting that incredibly bulky and hamhanded HUD and fixing the mouse responsiveness was fairly easy to do, but if you’re looking to enhance the graphical performance you can forget it. And somehow a demo patch being released before the game goes retail on December 3rd seems like a pretty tall order. Naturally the gaming community was pretty vocal about their opinions, and prompted a response from Warren Spector himself on Ion Storm’s forums. Some especially feisty gamers have even started a petition to delay the release of the game for some additional QC, despite the fact that it’s already gold.
While I never really got to play the full version of the game until I got my new video card last year (it came free along with some other great games), I enjoyed it a LOT, and it was plastered with more “Game of the Year” awards than I’ve ever seen lavished on one title. I think for some people it was a little hard to step beyond the hype and accept a sequel that may have been “streamlined” for multiple platforms. I hate to sound like I’m aping these DX fans that are thirsty for Ion Storm’s blood, but some of the design decisions that were made over the game are just plain outlandish: A unified ammo system, ridiculous and unresponsive AI, the complete gutting of the skills system and the linearity of the missions are the ones that stick out in my mind. Deus Ex played like a futuristic RPG, and allowed a lot of creativity in completing mission objectives. I’m not entirely sold on this new “Biomod” system, as it seems like a watered-down version of character advancement from the original.
The reviews for Invisible War have already started rolling in, including Gamespy’s peculiar 4 star rating for both XBox and PC despite the complaints sprinkled throughout and the game’s obvious technical shortcomings.
As a PC game designer, Warren Spector’s name resonates with many people. Before Deus Ex, he was the man responsible for bringing us the Ultima Underworld series, the original System Shock and one of my personal all-time favorites, Thief: The Dark Project. Like Larry Holland did with Secret Weapons Over Normandy, Ion Storm Austin is trying to break into the console market with an established brand. However they both forgot that the complex and unique designs of the originals were what made them so appealing.
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