The game is way too difficult even on "rookie" settings. I used to love the older splinter cell games because I felt like I was making progress and have a bit of a chance. In this game, no matter what mission I am playing I either die too fast or I am detected too quickly. The game could be great but I have to give it an overall 5.5 because it is just way too difficult on rookie for the casual gamer. Maybe they should add one level below rookie where you don't die so easily (about 3 shots). I can't imagine how difficult normal would be. Maybe it's just me and I am just no good at this style of game. I would love to play it for the game play and the story, but I get tired of running through missions 5 to 10 times in a row because right at the end I am detected or killed so easily. If there were some simpler mission in the beginning to build up some money for better gear, then maybe I might be interested. For now, I think I just wasted $59.
[Update]: I have since learned that the missions that I was playing were the coop/solo missions. Those do not have checkpoints, making solo nearly impossible. There are many of those side missions. The solo only missions are for the main story line, and they do have checkpoints, and are much easier because of the checkpoints, but still very challenging. I have upgraded my rating to a 7.0. I won't go higher because the story missions seem very linear (no solo only side missions that I have noticed yet).
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