I was looking at my collection of games and came across Deus Ex. It a wonderful game but unfortunately many people never gave it a chance due to its dated graphics. Anyways, if you never checked out the original you should consider Invisible War. It will at least allow people to start to understand what all the talk was about when the original hit the shelves.
Invisible War’s story is its best feature. Set years after the events of the original, Invisible War tells the story of Alex D. You begin as a student at Tarsus, which at first appears to be a training ground for an elite security force, but quickly reveals itself as something much more sinister. The story gets interesting right away as the entire city of Chicago is destroyed in the opening cut-scene and only gets more involved as the game moves along.
They story has so many twists and turns that any attempt to summarize it falls victim to uncertainty. But at the most basic level it comes down to a war of philosophies and morality, with several factions trying to enlist your aid as biomodification threatens to become more common. You must decide who to help which is cool however there are some problems with it. Many of the decisions you make have little punishment. For example, there is no punishment for trying to play the factions against each other. Later in the game it becomes clear that there are significant reasons for this lack of consequence, but its disappointing that you are easily forgiven for failing to perform assignments that you have accepted.
What does save the game from most of its problems is the moral choices you constantly have to make. There is rarely an evil or good choice and there are lots of twists right up until the end that will make you unsure of whom to trust. The game has four possible endings and strangely none of them is definitely the “right” ending. What appears to be the good ending is actually somewhat scary while the most unsatisfying ending in terms of morality is also the most rewarding.
The fact that you can talk about this game in terms of morality should be enough to recommend it to its target audience. Invisible war is sometimes repetitive and frustrating, but the choices you make are not, which helps keep things interesting even when you’re unlocking another door with a multitool for the 30th time.