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In what appears to be the start of a big pre-release marketing blitz at Ion Storm, an increasing number of articles and interviews have been posted on the web since the beginning of the year with members of the Deus Ex 2: Invisible War design team.

This week saw the release of another two features regarding the highly-anticipated upcoming first-person shooter/strategy game. PC gaming web sites IGN and Gamespy have both recently posted new Deus Ex 2 articles, each focusing on entirely different aspects of the upcoming sequel.

IGN's article takes a first look at the game, detailing in great length gameplay issues, narrative points, and even describing animatics (rough animations) of the opening sequence:

It begins on a rooftop high above the city of Chicago. A group of guys are running towards a waiting helicopter as the camera pans down to an office below them. Two figures are found inside discussing a potential terrorist threat and the need to evacuate the building.

The camera shifts to the street below as a hooded figure emerges from an alley. Casting furtive glances from side to side, he steps out in the street. Meanwhile the pair in the office have dispatched a few stunbots to seek out the terrorist. These small robots float down the streets as the hooded figure draws a small purple-pink tube from his pocket.

As the hooded figure is discovered, he snaps open the small tube, now revealed as a nanite detonator, and a brilliant electrical glow starts to spread out all around him. The glow disintegrates everything it touches, from cars to office buildings to stunbots and, of course, Mr. Hooded Terrorist himself. The pair in the office race up to the roof as the building crumbles beneath them. Boarding a waiting helicopter, the duo makes good their escape. The scene transitions to Seattle as a fleet of helicopters makes their way to the sunrise.

Destroying Chicago...not a bad way to start a game.

GameSpy: Why did you choose to go with Unreal technology again?
Harvey Smith: I don't know if everyone knows this, but we pretty much started with Unreal, we used their editor, we used a lot of their file formats, but we replaced the renderer, we replaced the AI, we replaced the sound propagation, we replaced the physics. So, like what's left? We're using the editor and the file formats. And we even had to change all the file formats with our own object system because it had to be more memory efficient to work on consoles. Unreal's very much a PC engine.

The reason we went with it is it's a really nice package. It's graphically pretty (even though we ended up replacing the renderer). Alright, let me rephrase that. The best ... the number one reason we went with it is because we had used it before, and all of our designers were familiar with the toolset. We had a group of people that very rapidly understood the technology and could build levels and prototype areas. That was the main emphasis in our reasoning. And it's very expensive to build an editor. The Unreal editor is really nice.

Gamespy Interview with DX2's Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bare

IGN's First Look at Deus Ex 2: Invisible War

Official Deus Ex 2 Website

Eidos Interactive

Ion Storm (add to watch list)

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