Sub-par graphics, unexciting combat, and higher difficulty made me stop playing this game quickly.
The graphics are low. I know it's an older game, but they didn't impress me at all. The health stations look like they were stripped out of Half-Life 1. Your legs look like they're poorly drawn, fat stilts. The rest is decent but nothing impressive. Maybe it's because I'm running it on lower settings because for some reason I can't seem to run the game smoothly on the highest settings, even with a modern machine.
Most games this old but still high-rated have great gameplay, but I once again disagree. The whole sneaking aspect is decent, but enemies quickly notice you once you strike, and often do beforehand. Choosing weapons is more difficult than it needs to be. The combat - especially melee - is difficult and hard to learn, even on normal difficulty.
I will admit that I didn't go very far in to the game, so I didn't really get enough information to rate the storyline. From what I did see, it seemed above par, though nothing incredibly immersive. Beating up prison thugs, then again, doesn't quite make for a fascinating story line so I can't really say yes or no to the plot aspect.
Overall, it wasn't worth the 5 bucks I paid for it on sale. I may be the odd one out but I personally don't see why it gets such high ratings.