Deus Ex: Invisible War Retrospective

Apparently Twenty Sided’s Shamus is not done with, as he puts it, “skewering Deus Ex: Invisible War“.

The one gameplay aspect that they retained from Deus Ex to Invisible war was in offering lots of choices in how your character can behave. The sad thing is that in Invisible War the choices you get just aren’t satisfying. They’re just little detours where you choose which of the two or three factions of idiots and bastards you want to side with temporarily. No matter who you’re working for, you’ll usually travel to the same locations and do the same mission, but when you get to the end you can choose to do A or B. Perhaps A is (kill somebody) and B is (don’t). Your choice will earn you a reward from a faction in the game and scorn from the others, but down the road it doesn’t make any difference. For the most part other characters don’t seem to remember which side you’re on. You can call this (branching gameplay) if you like, but meeting the requirements of a definition while not meeting player expectations is a cunning way to disappoint the audience.