Eidos' Deus Ex is hot news in Hollywood, where Columbia has optioned the film rights, Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin has signed on to steer the project and Greg Pruss - the conceptual designer on Alien3 - is writing the script. And with all the ingredients of a deep, intelligent sci-fi franchise, Columbia's confidence in the title is well placed.
Set 20 years after the award winning first installment, Invisible War sees the biologically enhanced hero exploring a bleak, futuristic urban landscape where rival religious and political factions are battling for control of the war-ravaged earth.
Although it adopts the first-person perspective of a traditional shooting game such as GoldEye, Invisible War is closer to the role playing action of Final Fantasy, where talking to characters and solving puzzles is more important than gunplay. The vital difference in Deus Ex is that the dark story changes direction depending on the decisions you make, forcing players to consider the consequences of their actions before opening fire or double-crossing one of their associates. The slick, cinematic presentation and beautifully-realised futuristic world also make Invisible War an immersive experience, but some fans may feel that the series hasn't moved on since its 1999 debut