Deus Ex: Invisible War wasn't what it should have been because the studio moved to an engine that was really built for Thief: 'A super-boneheaded call, very bad decision… it really tanked development'
Deus Ex: Invisible War has its defenders, including PC Gamer's own Joshua Wolens, but even the most stout-hearted of them would never go as far as saying it was a worthy sequel to the original. Where Deus Ex ripped up the rulebook and set an example that the immsim genre has struggled to replicate ever since, Invisible War was a much more trammelled game that, for all the good ideas, felt less expansive and ambitious.
Is it a decent game? I'd say yes. Is it the Deus Ex 2 we should've had?