For Invisible War the developers are completely retooling the interface to make
it more accessible. Instead of the gameplay being interrupted by a series of menus,
the interface has been consolidated to a retina overlay. It represents the nano
device in Alex’s eye and has a circular design that lies on the outside of your screen.
The overlay has a series of rings that rotate to reveal different functions and options
depending on what items are selected or active. The overlay displays information such
as available weapons, biomod abilities, biomod energy level, health, light exposure,
and current direction. If anyone is afraid that this new overlay will take up too
much space and obstruct the action happening on screen, the team has made sure to
allow the player to define a custom transparency level--or you can set it to "0"
transparency, in which case it will only be visible when you cycle through your weapons, enable
a biomod, or interact with the interface in some other way.
The main ring of the interface displays the contents of your equipment belt and the biomods
you have installed.
The inventory, your current notes and goals, and other sub-menus overlay this main ring
when summoned.
More subtle changes include the loot corpse popup...there is none! Instead of shoving
an interaction window at you, the game lets you pick up items up from where they lie.
You pick the weapon up from the ground where it fell from your enemy’s hands or take
a sidearm out of their holster. Manually searching the corpse allows you to become
more immersed in the game and gets rid of a layer of unneeded interface.
Instead of seeing textboxes appear at the top of your screen when someone is talking
in your head, the developers have opted for holograms. These holomessages can be
played on devices that double as jukeboxes. The holo-jukeboxes allow you to watch
a recording of a performer as they sing.
The controls have also been simplified a bit. However, this change was to make
the game more accessible, not to “dumb it down.” Invisible War is to be on Xbox
as well as the PC, so ION had to think outside the box (no pun intended) to get
in all the functions they want. Even with the limited number of buttons (for Xbox
that is, PC users can still remap their keys) IW will still include features such
as jumping, leaning around corners, mantling, and alternate-fire. To get around
the constraints, the devs put in code that allows certain buttons to do different
things at different times. For example, if you’ve ever played System Shock 2 (or its demo)
you’ll know how mantling works: out in the open the jump button makes Alex jump.
When standing in front of a desk or other low object the jump button makes Alex climb onto the object.
Again, the controls are more accessible so you can have all your functions and not
have to muddle about with key combinations. Have your nummy Deus Ex cake and eat it too!
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