TreeTrunk on 6/12/2003 at 16:09

---

No... no... I'm serious. I want to know if anyone here works for one of those lobbying firms that induces the obsessive, controllable fan-type person into a frenzy of positive accolades. I'm not saying that any of you are, I am just curious if publishers in the console market hire anyone like that.

I too, think the engine has its merits. I don't care much about resolution or the like. I prefer the dynamic lighting to pretty wallpaper, and thats just my very double-plus unhumble opnion.

I also do not care if the game contains water. Call me crazy, but I don't like getting wet. Nor do I care to look at water. High-and dry thieving is for me. I must be a cat burglar.

All in all, I would rather have a thief game with dynamic lighting than with 'splash and swim' levels.

My only concern about Thief III is the AI, and NPC animation. I prefer the Dark Engine's character movement animation to the "NPC-on-a-pogo-stick" approach of the Unreal core.

Now that you have the opinion of someone thoroughly outside the baseline, go back to your arguments about water and texture size.

grapedog on 6/12/2003 at 22:49

---

If they soil Thief and System Shock like they did Deus Ex:IW, I will be plenty pissed. Did PC gamers not give enough love to Ion Storm. Was it not voted game of the year in almost every magazine that reviewed it the year it came out. They give us gold and we treat them great, now they give us the gutted out, shallow, console piece of crap. Well, I can only hope their sales fall off the face of the planet and someone slaps the design crew for putting out this...this...i can't even call it a game. It's a 15 hour torture session. I would much rather DX:3 either be for the PC or the console. At least that way I won't have to worry about some shitball attempt at a port. I would much rather let the series continue on for the PC, or die for me on the console...but not both. I wish I hadn't upgraded my vid card for this game...what a waste this game is.

Anyone who liked DX the original, for it's depth, don't get DX:IW because it's not there...

Jason Moyer on 7/12/2003 at 02:55

---

The reviewers who gave Deus Ex high marks have given Invisible War high marks.

As far as complaints go, aside from the console port complaints, people were saying the same things when DX came out. I'm sure when Thief 3 comes out we'll hear the same complaints people had about Thief 1 and 2.

Jason

CPLHicks39 on 7/12/2003 at 07:30

---

I have to disagree strongly here. The best part of Deus Ex (1) was when you were put into situations where you had to decide who to trust. This however occured only three times: at the 747, at Maggie Chow's and at Area 51. In Invisible War situations occur like this all the time, almost in every mission you go on. The choices you make determine how you uncover the story. By choosing to do one mission for a faction you affect the mission progression for other factions. What I'm trying to get across here is that in IW mission structure reacts to your choices where as in DX your choices were still recognized but it did not affect how the game progressed. Call me a fucking fanboy but I think that qualifies as more depth, not less.

The typical complaint about character depth: THERE IS NO SKIL L SYSTME THAT MAENS NO DEPTH!!!11!!!11!! If you look at the two primary means of character development in Deus Ex (1) you will see that neither were fully developed. Several Augs and Skills overlap and many are poorly balanced if not useless altogether. In the case of Invisible War you have one fully developed system. Want to be a ghost? Cloak, Thermal Mask, Move Silent and Spy Drone (or Vision Enhancement). Want to be a God of the Machines? Neural Interface, Bot Domination, Thermal Mask. Want to be a melee fighter? Strength, Electrostatic Discharge, Regeneration and Speed Enhancement. The ability to customize your characer isn't gone, in fact in my opinion it's better.

While there is no excusing Invisible War's myriad of technical issues, to accuse the game of less depth is stupid. While I don't agree with certain streamlining design decisions (Universal Ammo) in many cases those design decisions are implemented in such a way that they don't detract from the overall experience (the scarcity of ammo and the high burn rate of the powerful weapons).

I have been thoroughly entertained by Invisible War and am rapidly beginning to believe it's the superior title. While an additional two months of tweaking and testing would have gone a long ways towards making a better out of box experience, I think the core game offers a more solid experience than the original.