It was okay but I felt that:
a - it looked rushed due to all the changes to plot, approach, etc. with fairly weak graphics
b - it definately felt dumbed down around the stealth elements
c - it was different to an extent
For me, it showed all the bad decisions you see from developers when they're trying to straddle fences or aim for different goals.
I felt it showed all the symptoms of a title trying to appeal to a different crowd (action FPS/TPS) while trying to keep enough of the old style for fans.
Mostly, such attempts fail, and they did in this case, too. I just wish developers would admit that they can make a good title with certain gameplay and the potential sales are say 1.5 Million (hypothetical number off the top of my head) for a good stealth title.
Instead, they seem to think - well, the IP is known, we could keep some stealth, but add more combat/shooting and surely we'll get some of the FPS/TPS shooting crowd and sell 4 to 5 Million?
The reality is most of the time the shooting crowd sticks with the titles polished and smooth for shooting while the developer actually loses some of the core demographic crowd, too.
The reality is you can't magically make all titles hit 4 to 5 million and some would be better focusing purely on a smaller demographic to get good sales vs trying to be too much too everyone (which is where the dumbing down, over-simplifying, etc. normally creeps into the equation).
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
