I love Deus Ex. I still play it from time to time.
Deus Ex: Invisible War was to me the single greatest disappointment in my entire time as a gamer. Not exaggerating in the slightest.
I had massively high hopes for it, I was loving everything I was hearing about it, the trailers looked pretty cool, I had my pre-order about a year in advance, I had my promotional t-shirt... I was psyched. The install process felt like it was going so slow that time had perhaps frozen, because I just couldn't wait any longer to play.
Then the intro cinematic happened. Then the training level happened. I was shocked at what I got for all my expectations. I tried my best to be objective, that this was a brand new game, that it needed to be judged upon its own merits. I used all my willpower to be optimistic. I played through the entire game. I then uninstalled, quietly reflected to myself, and didn't touch the game for years.
When I heard about the prequel, I decided to play the first two games again to get myself brushed up on the universe again. I was hesitant about IW, but I decided that maybe I just made bad choices in the game the first time around, so I resolved to do the exact opposite of everything I did in my first playthrough. I still hated the game. It was ugly, even by the standards of the time. It was buggy. It had universal ammunition. The skills and augmentations were all watered down. The characters were completely forgettable - even the ones that in the original game were completely unforgettable. The writing was awful. The story was atrocious. Just a complete and total waste.
I really, really want Human Revolution to be the Deus Ex universe continuation that I had been so hopeful for. I really want to find myself completely in love with it. But after how bad Invisible War scarred the gamer in me, I can't help but be cautious and not get my hopes up to high. I mean... regenerating health? Item highlighting? Third-person snap-cover? A past that looks significantly more technologically advanced than the future? Mech agents that appear to be so powerful that I question why Nano Augmented agents would have been considered an upgrade? Skepticism of this game's quality as a worthy Deus Ex title is constantly rising.
But of course, I'll still buy it. I'll even shell out for the collector's edition. I'll still be there for the midnight release. I'll still wear my old promotional Deus Ex t-shirt. Partly to give this game the benefit of the doubt, but mostly out of respect for the game that pretty much solidified my interest in video games.