Ion Storm is a bunch of hacks
Yes. I mean, what was so great about DX? It had shitty graphics (even for it's time), poor weapons, terrible action side of gameplay, terrible stealth side of gameplay, the voice acting alone makes me retch in some places. So why was it successful? Simply because it had a very intriguing and engaging story, the atmosphere felt great, and it had something we hadn't really seen in other games, the multipathed way to solve missions, which can open up other levels and gives a lot replayability. The length of the game was also a huge pro.