The original Deus Ex, released by Ion Storm in 2000, is something of a modern classic. It may not have the notoriety of other high-profile groundbreaking titles like Super Mario 64 and Grand Theft Auto 3, but gamers in the know are well aware of the fact that Deus Ex was the trailblazer for the new pack of genre-straddling games. It was a masterfully crafted example of design that deftly blended RPG elements with a first-person shooter adventure. And it provided you with one of the few games where your personal style would become a major factor in resolving a situation. Like to sneak around and not be seen like Sam Fisher? Done. Want to artfully pop people in the head with bullets like Max Payne? Done. Want to hack the security system and turn all of the automated defenses against your enemies like . . . well okay, Deus Ex is the first game that I know of that did that. But the point was, like a overly pretentious plot point in a Matrix movie, Deus Ex was about choice.

Now the sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War is coming, and from the time I spent with the preview build, it looks like I’m going to have to choose to buy it.

The first thing that's apparent is the huge leaps in the graphics engine. When DX1 came out, it was a triumph of game design but the visual end was rather understated. Not so this time. Running on a modified version of the Unreal II engine, DX2 looks downright sexy. People with higher-end machines are going to be treated to some of the most beautiful lighting and shadow effects that'll be seen for a while. Running at higher resolutions, the whole thing looks magnificent. And if you're like me, and running on a machine that chokes on its own blood when trying to run anything more advanced than Quake II, the game still looks great even with all the effects toned down and running on the lower settings. The art design is spectacular too, providing a beautifully high-tech dark future that looks like a mixture of X-Files and Ghost in the Shell. No one will be complaining about the visual side of the game when it's released, that much is for sure.

The audio end of things is just as beautiful. Everything sounds authentic. Ion Storm made a big deal about its new sound effects techniques, and while it may not sound like a big deal, it really does help the immersiveness of the game when you accidentally knock over a stack of medical equipment and get treated to the aural cacophony of your own stupidity.

Which conveniently leads me into the physics engine. Now, being a simple console gamer, this whole "physics" thing seems like a big fad to me, but I have to admit it's very cool. While it doesn’t seem to play as huge a role in the gameplay as in the upcoming Half-Life 2 (which, is in my opinion, DXIW's only competition), it definitely makes the difference in terms of immersing the player in your environments. Which was DX1's biggest strength . . .

. . . and is another thing that continues from the original. Like I said before, Ion Storm's primary concern with DX is making sure that the player's unique playing style can be catered to no matter what that actual style is. DX2 goes on to build on this strength: while in the original game, the open-ended nature of the missions was apparent, your actual course of action in the game was fairly linear early on. Not this time around. After the game's brief introductory period, you'll be thrust into Invisible War's delicate world of choice. What method will you use to overcome the obstacles you encounter? Which of the game's factions will you side with? Will you escape the facility under enemy fire or try and ransack the doomed lab for weaponry?

To facilitate the "choose your own adventure," the wonderful bio-mods from DX1 will also be returning. You now have five bio-mod slots, a whopping decrease from the nine that were available in the first title. While it's obvious how this helps make the choices more critical, one can't help but feel a little disappointed if you’re coming in from the old game. Luckily, a lot of the better bio-mods from the first title make return appearances, like health regeneration (or as I like to call it, "mutant healing factor") and cloaking to render yourself invisible like some sort of ninja who somehow is also a cyborg. So sweet. Naturally, your choice in bio-mods should be best suited to your play style, and you'll be notified what your options are before installing them, so choose wisely. But you do have the option of swapping out, should you decide a particular mod isn’t your style; just be careful, as it's not like bio-mod cannisters are just lying around everywhere.

Along with mods, you’ll also be waging invisible war through more conventional means, and by that I mean big honkin' guns. A lot of the fun gear from DX will be back. You'll have your choice of the classic staples of FPS games with any number of special mods that will add your own twist on them. But Ion Storm has made sure to include plenty of non-lethal options for you pansy pacifists who prefer to be as meek as possible in your pursuit of a personal gaming experience.

And what of the enemies you can inflict all of these highly personalized types of mayhem on? Well, they're a lot smarter than in the first game, that's for sure. Set off an alarm, and they will look for you with more persistence than a fat man looking for his last bag of Doritos. Start attacking, and they'll take cover, and call for backup. So those of you whose personal style is "Shoot them all! SHOOT THEM ALL!" will have to polish up on your aim and make sure that you’re packing a lot of heat.

In fact, I'd say that difficulty level in DX2 has been amped up in general. You face a lot more armored enemies who aren't taken out so easily with a cap to the head. You won't find the environments littered with multitools for you to hack every security terminal you come across. Speaking of hacking, you can no longer just sit at a terminal and wait for "hacking" bar to fill up. It's an actual bio-mod this time, so don't think you’ll be disarming security systems as easily as last time - a definite plus for those gamers looking for a chance to prove how rugged a special-ops agent they are.

But as excited I am about the title, there is sadly a downside to all this good news. Yes DXIW is all the things that the original was . . . except slick. No, the graphics don't have clipping issues, it's the menu interface that has become bizarrely de-streamlined. Instead of the classical RPG "Menu Mode" where you can check on your inventory, your stats, your bio-mods, and your mission goals, we now have several disparate menus that have to be accessed through specifics keys. Ahuhwhat? Why!? I'll admit, the menu system in the original game wasn't hyper-intuitive, but it was at least functional. This is theorized as a change made due to DX2's simultaneous development for the Xbox, but I fail to see how it would make the console version any less cumbersome either. I hope and pray someone at Ion Storm or Eidos hears my prayers and offers an option to switch to any of the menus after accessing any of the menus, because IW is far to great of a title to be marred (no matter how lightly) by such a weird little flaw.

All in all, Deus Ex: Invisible War is looking to be a great follow up to a great predecessor. Hopefully some of the major-yet-minor annoyance of the menu-system will be resolved in the final version, but even if it isn't, this is still one of the most impressive releases this year. Keep an eye out for a review on coming this December, but even now it looks like one choice you shouldn't worry about is whether or not to buy this bad boy.

· · · Lee "Onimaru" Francis