Well have fun rebuting me then, because I think DXIW is a poor game. Let's see:
- a piss poor inventory screen which is terrible to use and confusing
- tiny tiny maps which fail to create a convincing atmosphere
- unified ammo which completely kicks out the ammo & weapon strategy of the first game
- a TERRIBLE story which, near the end, proves to be entirely pointless. TERRIBLE
- weak combat - granted, DX1 had weak combat as well but was strong in other areas. DXIW isn't.

First gripe I have heard about the inventory screen. How was it confusing? It was the first game's but with a curve. And the combat was the same as the first pretty much.
The first game had tiny-ish maps too, and apparently it was never daylight so they are even in the convincing area. And how does unified ammo kick out weapon strategy? Weapons do different things and ammo is ammo, granted the special ammo types of the first game.
And the story did get kinda weird by the end, only because of the J.C/Paul Denton Alien/Merge the world with Helios ending.

Erm no and wrong. You're talking to someone who completed the first game 5 times and actually helped make one of the few mods for it so I know very well how DX1 worked.
DX1 had a drag an drop inventory screen not very different from what Diablo II had. Weapons used several boxes according to their size. To map a weapon to a hotkey, you could just drag it to the bar. You had to juggle the size some of the weapons took up against how useful they were. A big ass gun taking up 10 spaces might give room for 2 other guns and ammo for example.
In DXIW the entire system was changed to a double click/right click system where you had two rings which were both actually inventory but the outer ring could be used in combat and the inner ring couldn't be. Plus, the right clicking to swap or double clicking to use was unintuitive to say the least when dragging & dropping by mouse was 10000x easier AND faster. Not to mention that every gun used one slot so there was no trade off between power and space. Basically, no, you're wrong, it was not the first game "with a curve".
Also, claiming combat was the same is a bit naive to say the least. Since unified ammo actually threw out ammo & gun management, you no longer had an incentive to make use of ALL weapons.. Not only that but the weapon mechanics changed enough to make the tactics used in battle COMPLETELY different.
Wow you really don't know what you'er talking about. Deus Ex had the entire Liberty Isle as map INCLUDING the inside of the statue PLUS huge maps in Hong Kong PLUS Area 51 PLUS ... well you get the idea. DXIW COULDN'T have big maps because the Xbox couldn't handle them.
Also, if you don't get why unified ammo was bad, I think you need to think things through because this is something everyone agrees on - even the creators of DXIW admitted it was a bad move.

I myself consider System Shock the very best game I have ever played, and I don't really care much for cyberpunk. It's so incredibly immersive. It's basically just you, the Hacker, in a gigantic space station, all alone, against a mad AI and her army of robots and mutants. I haven't seen any other game where you feel really this hopelessly alone, fighting against incredible odds, tiny, insignificant, scared, and frustrated to no end because SHODAN is always, always one step ahead of you. And she is brilliantly written and voice-acted.
The biggest problem with SS is that its interface, while well ahead of its time, is just awful. The game desperately needs mouselook, but it just isn't there. Getting used to the controls is a chore, but ultimately worth it.
The sequel adds RPG elements to the formula, and does them really well (playing as each of the three major branches really creates quite different gameplay). The story is definitely weaker there (and the whole game was a little rushed towards the end), but it's still scary, perhaps even scarier than SS. The atmosphere of the game is still top-notch.
I still dream of the day someone makes System Shock fully playable through the System Shock 2 interface. That would be pure nirvana.

It completely underachieves. I had the highest hopes for the game when I first heard about it, picked it up on release day, and played it. I beat it a week later and that game alone made me stop having high hopes for a good sequel for any game. The UI was horrible, the inventory system was incredibly small, even with the biomod inventory upgrade, the Biomod system was smaller, the universal ammo system was the WORST idea it ever came up with, and the story line was bland and uninspired. Merging all 3 endings when the Helios ending was considered cannon was also completely out of the blue, and I just couldn't get into the world. I thought Deus Ex did a much better job of creating a world outside of the games story, with news clips and messages that really made you feel like you were a part of something huge. All IW had were coffee ads and an annoying talk bullet segment, with a handful of flavor notes.
Long story short, DX:IW was a console sequel that was given a PC release only to appease fans, which struck me as strange since the Xbox never even got Deus Ex 1, the PS2 did, and any original DX fan on the PC would have blasted the design changes.

Deus Ex: Invisible war was a disappointment, the graphics were unappealing (better than DE, but plastic (mods largely fix this)) and the game mechanics were simplified and dumbed down.
However it wasn't a bad game, it is fun to play, just a let down due to the design changes made to make it appeal to the console market (removing experience, removing ammo types, simpler maps etc). It also lacked the great story and atmosphere of the original.
It was a good game, just not a good sequel, as a previous poster mentioned it would of been received much better if it was not produced as a Dues Ex sequel.

Yeah, in my opinion, no.
Not an RPG when there are no dialogs, my friend! It doesn't take just being made by Richard Garriott to be called an RPG!
Again, I only accept a comparison side by side. Story, combat and maps are VERY similar between the two. Inventory screen? C'mon, that doesn't define any games. The only thing I completely agree with you is the BAD MOVE of having unified ammo. That was stupid.
People just love to rant. You guys are the same people that "hated" Fallout 3 just because Fallout 2 was Fallout 2.

It doesn't just take dialog at all to make a game an RPG, regardless of who created it. It is the game mechanics that make a game an RPG. The leveling up system; the character, weapon and items statistics; the rules that determine things like attack strength and damage, THAT is what makes a game an RPG, not simple dialog.
Either way, it is obvious that you weren't actually looking for a discussion on the topic, just a means of refuting anyone else's opinions, regardless of what they say, so I've said my peace on the matter and I'll be moving on to more productive disussions.

You're wrong man, I'm not that kind of person. But this thread touched two common mistakes, namely the fact that System Shock is regarded a roleplaying game without any roleplay, and the fact that Deus Ex Invisible War is worse than Deus Ex although it's a very close experience. It's just a matter of opinions really, but as I said, these are common mistakes.

You know, I only played the PS2 version of Deus Ex 1, I never knew there was that big of a significant difference, because on the PS2 version the inventory was almost the same as the DXIW. I stand corrected.

Personally my two main gripes with Invisible Wars was not the unified ammo, not even the dumbed down inventory, or the simplified gameplay but :
- The levels and more precisely the level design. Not only the level were tiny compared to the first one but most of the time they made no sense, it look like they were created with the "gives alternate route to those who are too lazy to looks 10 seconds for alternates routes" motto.
You arrive in a room and there is some guards guarding the entrance of the next room, what are you going to do ? well easy just turn your head 90 degrees to the left and what did you find ? a ventilation grate barely hidden behind some plant (and of course like all good ventilation grate should be, its located 20cm from the ground) and if you enter the ventilation system where will you end up ? Of course in the next room just behind the guards you were trying to avoid... now that's a wonderful coincidence... and there is tons and tons of stuff like that, the only way to make the "alternate path" more "obvious" would have been to have huge blinking arrow on top of them. For me it completely killed the illusion of freedom you had in the first game.
- And my second biggest gripe is the difficulty. The game was ridiculously easy and even at the very beginning.
I mean in the first game, even with the "realistic" difficulty setting, the game can become relatively easy (at least easier) near the end, but it's understandable when you have lots of upgrades and stuff like that, but even then you can't charge a big group of enemies and expect to survive for long.
In IW you can just take you gun, run into the room and shoot everybody, you don't need no silly upgrades, you don't need to "sneak" using the conveniently placed ventilation grate, just charge... and if you get killed, just get a slightly bigger gun.

Well I don't know about the PS2 version of DX, but with the PC version you had to be very careful in realistic, a direct attack against multiple enemies resulted most of the time in a rapid death.
Well the game, I speak of DX, was meant to be played stealthily (at least that's my opinion), it's like saying that using stealth makes splinter cell easier (well at least before Conviction :) ), but my problem (once again personal opinion) is that you don't need to in IW.

You know, in the PS2 version it was the same. A few good hits and you were dead, especially when the "special" agents were introduced and the special ops soldiers.
And that is true about the stealth, in DX it was harder even with stealth. Think IW they were trying to make it accessible to all types of players (Action gamers, stealth operators etc)

It would be nice for EA and GOG to come to some sort of agreement on distributing the System Shock games.