I heard a lot of people skipped it because of the shift towards action gameplay in the last game (Conviction) & because Michael Ironside retired from the role of Sam Fisher after Conviction.
Well I bought it a couple of days ago and absolutely love it.
It has some problems though. The narrative is pretty bad, and the new gameplay mechanics have some annoying issues (the contextual button causes confusion and at times fatal mistakes if you're not careful).
But the pros outweigh the cons by a mile. The gameplay is fantastic. You have plenty of options on how you want to play the game (either going completely stealthy (ghost) or guns blazing (assault) or somewhere between (panther) and have a large selection of lethal and non lethal weapons and gadgets to suit your playstyle.
But..
The best possible gameplay experience is still achieved with a stealth playstyle. It requires patience and planning (and a lot of reloading as well if you're playing on harder difficulties) and forces you to use the environment, hidden paths and all the gadgets in your inventory to progress in the game but at the same time rewards the player for their patience and skill. The enemy A.I. is very sharp and adaptive (a small mistake like leaving a window you just entered the building open can make a guard suspicious enough to start searching for you. And if they find a body they'll hunt you like mad dogs) and they have stuff like attack dogs patrolling with them that can smell you from a distance. They really nailed the level design this time as well. While still being a fairly linear game, it still offers different pathways to your objectives and multiple ways to use the environment to avoid or take down enemies.
So yeah. A good game. And a very pleasant surprise after the last 2 games. Go buy it :P
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