No, it means exactly that. Only single thing which is holding Invicible War above water is it's storyline and the references to the orginal game. First game had a better storyline ofcourse and the main characters in IW are all forgetable but you can try to play iw for the sake of storyline which is in fact somewhat intresting. I can't think of single other reason why i would like to play it.
I may look this issue through DX1 glasses but even if I ignore the entire dx1 element, the game remains still extremly flawed.
First of all the whole inventory thing was a big mess. It didn't work properly and the limited space drove me nuts because they removed the easily functional click and drop system. Its one thing to have a console interface but when it doesn't even work on console game pad properly, you have to draw some conclusions. Did they even test it on real gamers?.
Moreover what annoyed me a great deal in IW was how levels felt small and claustrophobic. You rarely got to experience that open space feeling that made dx1 locations so memorable and real-like. They didn't even understand that this very design philosophy was behind their success. All dx1 levels followed non linear design formula. For example the NSF-base at new york city had multiple entry points. You could blast your way in through the front door or sneak through roofs. Or take a hidden basement route through sewer system and hack your way past electronic defenses.
In iw most levels consisted of linear and artificial tunnels. They didn't even feel real. the linear design wasn't the only failure. IW locations also lacked detail. Dx1 locations were full of small datacubes, newspapers, everyday furniture and household items, lights, atms, computer terminals, phones. The player was able to interact with the gameworld. He could use atms to get more credits, use computer terminals to hack into systems and read people's emails and gather valuable info etc. In IW they removed this aspect almost entirely. Non-linear interactive gameworld was replaced with static gameworld.
Universal ammo must be the saddest single thing in the whole fucking game. It totally wrecked the fun part for me. While i was able to complete game i couldn't look past the dumbness of this concept. What ever Harvey smith and co were smoking while creating this thing…
And have you guys forgotten how they removed skills, streamlined weapon/item upgrades, removed location based damage system and made aug choises reversibe. In a sense basicly ruining everything which made dx1 character building fun.
And you say it is a decent game…I can understand this somewhat if I take it as a pure shooter, but even then the gameplay remains flawed as hell. Simply put its not a fun game to play.