Been playing this lately. Picked it up on sale for a good price and liking it so far. It has some game play issues, but the graphics are excellent and overall it is entertaining. It seems more geared toward the stealth aspect, so it isn't exactly a shooter. It suggests that you can approach situations either way, but I find the "direct approach" of using cover and firepower to be nearly impossible on this one on normal difficulty. The AI has some aspects that are very intelligent and at the same time others that are laughable, which I'd say is typical of stealth/sneak game play. In this case though, the opponents are quite accurate and well armed enough that if you are seen, it is more or less over if you aren't near an escape route. This is my first play through too though, and I suppose this one is geared toward multiple plays as it seems there are various ways to approach situations and you would not be able to upgrade options needed to do multiple ones in one go.
What this one does a bit different is giving you a number of highly advanced tools to improve your stealth such as the ability to know how far sounds you make will travel, the ability to nearly mask all sound, the ability to track multiple targets while sneaking, "mirror" camo that allows you to move past laser detection devices, etc... They give you a way to sneak through just about every situation, but the chances of being spotted/heard are also quite high, so these tools are definitely required to get by without notice.
The second fun part is a rather simple "hacking" mini-game sort of thing for accessing areas or information, and there are a ton of options and upgrades for this as well. It is one of the most fun parts, almost as much fun in themselves as the main game, and this is pretty much required for getting into hidden areas or even access mission areas undetected.
It lacks the refinement of Metal Gear sneaking, but brings some new tools to the table that make it interesting in a different way that makes it fun too. As I progress, I will give more feedback.
