Lol the game is just plain horrible.
It try to be a "Jack of all trades" by offering free approach, be it stealth or hard action u pick, but "master of none" automatically come from it because it isnt possible to fine-balance such thing. Difficulty doesnt solve fundamental problem that gameplay and AI is just plain dumb(xboxed) as result of this.
Its 2013 but I feel AI is way worse and non-challenging than decade back. Enemy often stay not too far away in sunny daylight and dont see how u just eliminated his fellow in plain sight.
So called "dark areas" where he doesnt suppose to notice u is but a little less sunlight but still plain sight that even guy with lens nr. 18 couldnt miss.
Of course sound is almost irrelevant, u really have to make big noise by loud shooting or else they dont care. You can disable fellow comrade 1-2m from other, u can jump and fall near such a distance but yeah, AI is looking in opposite direction so... obviously he also cannot hear you! You can get his attention in which case he will promptly come to your location(cover) like a sheeple where u can execute him on simple button press - this way u can take one by one et infinity - bravo.
Speaking of which, even if AI see you it take often so much time to react that you got enough time to come closer and kill him! I say it again, enemy spot you, you are maybe 2m from him, you come closer and execute while he stand there as a piece of dumb$&¦*, deciding if he see something or not. Of course, that all during nice sunny day outside.
As if that wasnt enough, Fisher poses abilities like shooting multiple targets etc. Really big fun of that, they may as well turn on god mode by default in future.
And when enemy does spot u(providing he was far enough to have time to kick his senses on), it will often make s-l-o-w d-u-m-b walk towards you "hmm, I think I saw something". Of course if its close enough u can execute him on simple button press from the front as said before, I wonder how would that work in real life... And when they finally spot you fully, game turn into GoW FPS while AI usually keep behind its cover - never ever trying anything clever against you. Oh and your health regenerate like in CoD, so much for atmosphere of danger.
And of course thats not enough. Level design and whole game concept is just as bad. Areas contain various crates and obstacles that just fit for your cover, everything was placed so that you as a gamer do not struggle too much. Every area or room you step in have cover obstacles in place that allow you to hide, of course they are there for that very reason making level design unrealistic and artificial.
Levels are also linear despite their pitiful attempt to provide "multiple access solution". Old FPS games like Doom, Quake or Duke Nukem 3D were *way* more open and that was... oh god time`s really flying. Can I have a true open area please? Of course not because game story and interaction rely on scripted events and check points.
The real problem is that it all become trite, boring and dumb. Upping difficulty doesnt help to fix the structural problem. AI is plain horrible, acting slow and unnatural. Level design is linear and artificial. There is a lack of realism or even slight randomness, whether in AI behavior, events happening around you or gameplay design. Levels and everything was preset in a way so that you could cake-walk with right timing and thats a problem. Theme once again include places like middle east(remember time when WW2 games became "oh not that again"?), I found characters and story rather unimpressive and boring.
Oh btw of course enemy is almost always facing you its back, walking from you, looking "elsewhere" etc. u know... (sarcasm=ON)they really did their best to give you feel of realism and THREAT(/sarcasm).
Lasers can be disabled by shooting panels that lie just next to them, and I mean right next to them. Disabled-friendly game.
Game is not broken or anything, its a fairly common game like many others released in recent years. But it doesnt bring or offer anything spectacular or unique(like it used to be with games long, long time ago - few exceptions aside). It did not made series more realistic nor attractive nor imaginative. Even if it has more than Conviction in it, that one was released long time ago and this one is still lacking and stripped down compared to very first titles in series. Thanks to its "please all" approach it have a set of its own problems. And what about those distracting reward/achievement popups, button-press popups, cover scripts, etc... I want *natural* gameplay.
Anyway, enjoy your newest Splinter Cell, on your brand new dual GPU and latest rig in full details(it still look mediocre to me), I was just talking to myself.