How to stealth in MGS5?

I love stealth games and the last stealth game I played was Splinter Cell Blacklist, which in my opinion is the purest stealth game I've ever played. I played it on perfectionist and I absolutely loved it. The way I like to approach stealth games is to get by enemies like a ghost. I prefer to get by them without disturbing them, instead of silently taking everybody down. SC: Blacklist offered me all the tools to play in such a manner, with sticky noisemakers etc.

So when I got into mgs 5 I found that the stealth mechanics are very different from splinter cell. It seems that most of the time I have to take down some guard. And even then, the guards wake up after a while... I saw some walkthroughs online and the s rank players all end up shooting every guard in the head with sleep darts? That feels quite cheap to me. There was a mission, eliminate the renegade threat which i completed yesterday. I watched the s rank playthroughs and it involved some quick and easy sniper shots to the head which imo is not a fun way to finish the mission.

So can anyone help me understand how the stealth works in this game and how I can have more fun with it?

@BboyStatix:

Press and hold the Right directional button. From there you can select an empty magazine (you have an unlimited supply) that you can throw for a noise distraction.

Always pick up and deposit all bodies in a location out of public view.

Be very careful at all times. It's very easy to go too fast for a few seconds and over look an enemy or camera you didn't see.

Use your binoculars and zoom in to mark all enemies. You can go up one of the watch towers and take out the guard if he's there.

For maximum points, you want to not kill anyone, not cause any alerts, not be spotted by anyone or a camera (triggering reflex mode).

@SaintsRowLA: Wow throwing an empty magazine. That is so clever! Now that I think about it I didn't really look through my inventory properly. There seems to be stuff like smoke bombs and stuff. Definitely going to try these things out. Ty for the tips :)

So that's what the empty magazines were for in MGS3!! Love splinter cell blacklist I took my eye off the ball for a few months and never even new of this game, till it popped up on my xbox dash board, amazing game, anyway I never understood how players find it fun just to sneak past all the enemies these are terrorist scum bags they deserve an ass whooping at least,while we are not aloud to go around assaulting people in real life, why not let your hair down and kick peoples ass in a game. Each to their own I guess. Haven't played MGS5

@ariabed: Haha fair point, I'd love to lob a grenade into a room and laugh as they helplessly run for cover. But well y'know, it's just so challenging to play like a pure ghost. You have to be really tactical and you feel rewarded when you complete a level. You won't feel the same if you just perform takedowns which I think are pretty easy to pull off.

@BboyStatix: yeh I guess, either way I prefer to play stealthy and get my hands dirty it still takes a degree of skill and patience and I try my hardest not to get spotted so to add to the difficulty, and I try not to use the tag and execute feature unless I really have to.

@BboyStatix:

Deus Ex as far as the hacking and stealth.

inFAMOUS as far as the vigilante-ism goes and some open world-ishness, not any supernatural powers.

Splinter Cell for stealth and the based shooting and cover swapping

Yes, Saints Row IV has hacking.

A better amalgam would be GTA V with hacking and Splint Cell cover and cover swapping.