It is twenty years since the end of the global conspiracy depicted in Deus Ex. In the aftermath, a catastrophic depression has crippled the world and warring corporate governments use terrorism as the primary tool to enforce their own violently destructive agendas.

A few days before the start of Deus Ex: Invisible War, Alex D is roused from sleep and rushed to a secret airfield to be transported away from the only world he (or she, if the player so chooses) has ever known. Confined to a new training facility in Seattle "for his own safety," Alex learns that the city of Chicago, his home, was completely destroyed by a terrorist nanotech attack.

The only fragments of Alex's former world are now confined to the training facility in Seattle: Billie Adams (a fellow trainee from Chicago), two other students from the Seattle program and - always - the expectation that the mysterious rites and trials of his training will lead to a lucrative job as a corporate mercenary and spy.

Right from the start you are put in the middle of events that will help path where you will go in the game. Various options exist for completing each task from chatting, bribing or fighting your way through if applicable. These events are what give Deus Ex such a special feel. It is not your linier FPS that most of us have become accustomed too, regardless of what the developer tells us the game offers.

From the beginning you can choose to either join a cult that is responsible for attacking the Seattle training facility, or choose to fight against them. After finishing some quests assigned by both groups you can decide which faction to ally yourself with.

Controls through the game are a tad confusing at first. You have two separate aspects to manage within the gameplay. Weapons and various items all reside in your tool belt, while your biomods are given their own area to control. By default the number pad will help you navigate through. After the slight learning curve to understand exactly how your biomods work

Biomods are used to customize, upgrade and exploit the superhuman powers of your character - see through walls, leap 40 feet into the air, regenerate critical body damage or render yourself invisible. They come in two blends; official and black market. As it would suggest the official biomods give you technology that would be used for good, while the black market mods give you some shady, but useful, skills. Biomods are a skill to be learned though as they use your internal power supply and are only to be used at key moments. The mods are what give the game the RPG character creation and advancement through choice of biomods, weapons and inventory.

Weapons include close and long range weaponry; stun prod, energy blade, grenades, bolt caster, shotgun, sniper rifle, and the rocket launcher w/ cam-guided missiles. It is possible though to make it through the game purely on stealth though.

Visually the game is based on the Unreal engine, but has a great deal of rebuilt code. One of the main changes is the Havok-driven physics simulation. Every object in the world can be interacted with now. Desk drawers slide open, vending machines can tip over, phones fall off the hook, and many objects can be picked up and thrown around, interacting with the world just as you would expect them to. Right from the start of the game you are greeted with a basketball and numerous objects in your room to toss around.

While the game is built on the Unreal engine though, the game feels laggy. With my systems specs I was only able to play the game at 800x600 and still suffered from somewhat sluggish response. Patch v1.1 was aimed to correct this issue, and while it does help greatly, it still does not feel as though the game is not eating system resources. The game does not feature a ton of eye candy, though is very eye pleasing, to create the high system stress it applies.

Invisible War incorporates physics sound and sound propagation. In the end what this means is that dragging a barrel over cement, and then pulling it across a board will produce two unique sounds. A lot of interaction is done with NPC’s and the voice acting accomplishes what it needs to.

Deus Ex Invisible War offers four unique ending, and numerous ways to reach all of them. While Invisible War most likely will not win many Game of the Year awards, it is an amazing story to watch unfold as you play through the game. Thanks to the non-linier gameplay, interactive environments and addicting story Deus Ex Invisible war belongs in your collection. Despite some of the issues with performance, even at 640x480 with details turned down, the epic story brought to you would keep you playing.

Reviewer System Specifications
Intel Celeron 2.6 GHz, 384 MB RAM, Windows XP Pro, DirectX 9.0b, ATI Radeon 9600SE 128 meg, audio (onboard), CD/CDRW, Logitech USB Wheel Mouse, standard keyboard.

System Requirements
Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz (or AMD Athlon XP equivalent); 256 MB System RAM; Windows 98SE/2000/XP (95/NT not supported); 32 MB 100% DirectX 9.x compatible 3D graphics cards; 100% DirectX 9.x compatible-Compatible Sound Card; Quad Speed (4X) CD-ROM drive; 2GB free disk space; 100% Windows 98SE/2000/XP compatible mouse and keyboard.