Introduction:
I remember a couple of years back asking for Deus Ex: The Invisible War for Christmas. Unfortunately, I seem to remember getting dress shirts instead. Well, a few weeks ago I was wandering around in my local EB Games, and what do I see in the 'already played/mega reduced' section but both Deus Ex: The Invisible War AND Deus Ex: Game of the Year edition. Both had a price tag of 4.99, well within my budget. Got to the counter, and discovered that both games had been 'pennied out', i.e.: I got both games for a total of 2 cents. I decided to play the Game of the Year edition first, since I like to start from the beginning in most everything I do. What I found is a good game that is part of the genesis of the first person shooters of today. Cyberpunks. . . . . it's time to party.
Information:
Publisher: Edios
Developer: Ion Storm
Release Date: May 9, 2001
Genre: First Person RPG
ESRB Rating: Mature
Installation and Setup:
Minimum Requirements:
300mhz P2 or equiv.
Windows 95/98
64mb Ram
DirectX 7.0a compliant Video and Sound card
150mb hard drive space
Recommended Specifications:
P3 or higher processor
128mb Ram
128mb Video card
EAX or A3D compliant sound card
750mb hard drive space.
The game came on 1 CD, no problem with installation.
Graphics & Sound
For the time, you cannot beat the graphics, especially ones designed for such low end cards (relative to today, I know). The screenshots just do not do it justice. The sound effects were spot on, the music had great variety and was not overpowering, but when you listened to it, you knew when combat was about to start because the music would change even though I hadn't, say, opened the door between me and someone who would resent my intrusion.
Interface
Mouse and keyboard. The game was created prior to the gamepad, so it doesn't support it natively, but if you're running the game thru XP, then the game sees it as another keyboard, and can map accordingly. If you use the keyboard, prepare for some claw hands, trying to hold down crouch, strafe, possibly choosing rifle scope/laser pointer all with one hand.
Gameplay
This game is good, but even on easy it's tough. It's one of the few games that allows for body part damage, so if you happen to get your feet blown out from under you, you literally cannot stand until you find some healing (or start your regeneration -- more on that later)
The game is set in the cyberpunk era, when artifical augmentations are the norm (and no, I'm not talking about Pamela Anderson type of augmentations) which enhance physical ability. This technology is still kept to the military and the corporation security sectors, but it's leaking out. Another thing that's leaking out is a plague, which is slowly wiping out a fair chunk of humanity, but there is an antidote for it -- if you have the money. You are JC Denton, a new agent that is testing the newest version of the bioaugmentations, the ones that make you look like the T-1000 wearing the flesh skin instead of the Borg. Your biological brother is in the same program as you, but preceeded you by a year or so. As you follow the storyline, you discover that few people are what they say they are, and the corporations run the show (no suprise there). As you move from enforcer to rebel (again, no suprise there), you make decisions that literally mean the life and possibly death of your friends.
You can get physical enhancements to boost your effectiveness, but they cost bioenergy to run, so you have to pick and choose what and when you turn them on. Of course, as you improve them, each one costs less to use, but still can drain you at a critical time. It's real embarrassing to think that you have your ballistic armor aug on, and discover as you lie on the floor riddled w/bullets that you ran out of energy while using the enhanced vision.
One thing tho, this game is dark. Really dark. These screenshots have been lightened so that the detail can be seen. But I found myself playing with the gamma slider at 80-85% and the room lights out to be able to see effectively. Since one of your inherent abilities is 'light vision', basically flashlights for eyes -- its extremely tempting to run them constantly so that you can see what you're doing, but see the prior paragraph - if you got no energy for light, you got no energy for anything else that might be important.

Conclusion:
I'll admit it, I really liked this game. It was challenging, engaging, and the settings/locations are marvelously done. With three possible endings, the ability to enhance yourself w/bioware, ability to modify your weapons to make them more effective, and with the GOTY edition there is the addition for a network deathmatch scenerio, this game was worth it's initial cost, but for what I paid for it, I'll shop at EB Games again and again. Highly Recommended.
In the GameApex world of Do Over or no Do Over, Deus Ex: GoTY is definately worthy Do Over!