I get why people don't like Invisible War, but I've never understood why the same people enjoy Human Revolution. I don't really care about the gameplay gripes. I mean no one is forcing you to use the takedowns, but its approach to world building and lore really gets under my skin.
Human Revolution is supposed to be a prequel, yet the technology is more advanced then it is in the original. Deus Ex had regular jets and helicopters while HR has jet propulsion airships. Hologram technology was in the early stages of development in DE, but in HR they are so lifelike Jensen can't tell the difference between a hologram and a person. Then there's the augmentations. Compare the augmentations of Anna Navarre and Gunther to the average augmented human in HR. The difference is night and day. The next two examples are just nitpicks, but I'll include them anyway. Most NPCs are dressed in these vogue fashion outfits, made up of triangles patterns. They look expensive too, which doesn't mesh well with the fact that a big chunk of the game takes place in Detroit. There's an entire city built on top of a plate, again this game is a prequel to Deus Ex, not Invisible War.
The biggest issue is the game has little to nothing to do with Deus Ex. Save for the Page intro, the e-mails on JC, and post credits reveal. Nothing that happens in the game is ever mentioned in the original. The devs clearly aren't interested in making a Deus Ex game, they just want to tell there own cyberpunk story set in its universe, and that's fine. Just call these games spin offs and stop trying to make a half arsed connection to the main games. It would make them a lot easier to play through.
If you're interested Ross from Accursed Farms does a much better job at breaking this stuff down then I have. He also has a video on Invisible War too.
https://youtu.be/vYLEuQrvND0