Deus Ex: Invisible War

Deus Ex: Invisible War is an immersive sim that blends RPG and FPS mechanics, offering players multiple ways to tackle missions.
The ability to choose between a male and female protagonist was quite impressive for a game released in 2003.
Gameplay variety is excellent, allowing both stealth and direct combat approaches.
However, enemy AI is weak, and the game suffers from noticeable graphical issues.
The universal ammo system, combined with more bugs and a less engaging story, makes this game weaker compared to the previous Deus Ex.
It's worth playing once, but the previous Deus Ex was undoubtedly better.
6/10

For decades now I've heard that Deus Ex: Invisible War is some awful game. And now that I've finally played it, I thought it was... fine. A big step down from the original, without question, but nowhere near as bad as some claim it to be. Honestly the biggest issue I had with it, I just found it boring. Which in many ways is worse than a bad game, sure, but it's certainly not a steaming turd. It goes for £5.99? There are worse things you can buy for £5.99. Don't let this be your only Deus Ex game though! I assure you, the other main 3 are far better.
(Last note, I'm only hitting "recommend" because my choices are just yes or no. I feel like there should be an in-between option here)

The best way I can describe this game is a kids "my first Deus ex play set". Its dumbed down to oblivion and worse in every way possible than its predecessor. However I am currently playing through and getting some enjoyment from it. The only reason i'm able to say that is because of the following tips I learned about this games via other players. Hopefully they will help you too.
Install the latest beta version of the "Visible Mod". The beta version is currently required to fix loading screen crashes. This mod fixes a ton of technical issues with the game.
Ranged weapons are awful in this game. Instead go full strength on arms and EMP melee damage on chest via bio mods. Use the basic baton weapon as it swings very quickly.
Since your melee, your going to get shot a lot. Being able to regenerate health is very important. You should prioritise the regenerate eye slot bio mod.
Hacking is still quite useful and should be upgraded when possible.
Multi tools are very important to progress easily in every level . I'd suggest being choosy over what you open up with them. Remember that you can use grenades to blow open doors instead of using a multi tool.
Your game will now be working well and combat is trivial with this setup. You can instead get on with the pretty decent story and learn what happened after Deus Ex 1.
Just finished the game (ignore the steam playtime as the visible mod bypassed steam).Despite the problems I still enjoyed it a lot more than i thought it would.
Note that when you reach the second last area and beyond, melee is not as useful since your enemies tend to explode when killed. Instead upgrade the mag rifle and that will see you through.

I enjoyed my time with Deus Ex: Invisible War. It is a different type of enjoyment and has a far quicker pace than the first Deus Ex. I'm not sure if everyone who enjoyed the first game will enjoy this one, as while it still offers various endings and a story where choices at least somewhat matter, it is a different style to Deus Ex.
I recommend it to people who enjoy a shooter with some stealth elements and a decent story. I cannot stress enough that the vibe differs from the first game. You may not enjoy Invisible War if you want the same or improved experience.
I played using the "Deus Ex 2 Visible Upgrade mod" from ModDB which offers quite a few fixes that I greatly enjoyed. There is also an optional texture improvement which I did not use as I felt the original graphics do just fine.

It fails to improve upon the first game in every way, but it's still a good game.

Works well on an old laptop with 12Gib of RAM, two 2-threaded CPU-cores. The game itself is full of smart philosophy and its story and old retro-style 3D-world should be viewed as an abstract expression of a really good story. You may see this game as an interactie version of a SciFi book that does have a relatively fixed story-line with relatively small amount of branches but a lot of different ways, how to accomplish the tasks of the relatively fixed story-line. It has 3D FPS fighting elements, but with the heavy use of save-game-load-game functionality it is possible to get through those scenes calmly in one's own pace and by experimenting with different weapon's types. For example, it is possible to save the game right before a fighting scene, then try the fighting scene out with one type of weapon and strategy, and then reload the game and try the same fighting scene out with another strategy or another set of weapons. Ammo is very limited, so smart use of weapons is very important in this game. Thank You for reading my comment.

I personally think this is the best one, by far.
I just love the vibe.
Best story. First thing that stands out to me is the story. The dialogue and quality of the voice actors is way ahead of it's time.
I just remember all those years ago on the OG Xbox how this one just felt right. Human Revolution felt too stiff, Mankind Divided lacked a lot of challenge and story. This one feels right at home.
Kidneythieves in the soundtrack, Bruce Somers on musical composition if memory serves right.
If you're cool with a 'retro' game....for .97 cents, I'd say you have nothing to lose.