Fantastic tactical shooter. If you are a fan of games like the classic Rainbow Six series and the older Hitman entries you will feel right at home here. As I understand it, some of the developers that worked on this game went on to make the first Mafia game as well.
A slower paced, grounded World War 2 shooter from the eyes of a British commando squad, this reminds me so much of the classic Hitman games because you can take your time in a level so you can learn all the enemy placements and good routes enabling you to complete the mission in an efficient and really satisfying manner. Guns are highly lethal like in Rainbow Six and just one or two shots will drop anyone, including you. You have a HUD element telling you at what range you start being visible to the enemy so you have to move through the shadows and manage your stance as well as your speed using a control scheme like Splinter Cell where you regulate your speed between four levels.
The level of micromanagement here is just right. Setting up attacks where the AI squad mates will start shooting at anything you left them pointing at or having everyone wait until just the right time to spring an ambush, it really feels like you are commanding an elite unit of soldiers wreaking havoc on the enemy. There is a disguise system, encumbrance and stamina system, light and environment based stealth, inventory management across missions, first and third person aiming, individual skill leveling (though this is not that important since you can just make a well rounded squad without any significant weaknesses right from the start of a campaign), squad and individual commands, tactical camera with planned sequential commands, nice weapon variety - I feel like I only really scratched the surface of this game and I certainly took my time with it.
When I truly knew this game was special was the fourth mission. This game lets you take control of any unit in your squad at any time and will thus let you be really precise in your positioning. After a couple of retries, I decided to set up a sniper overlooking the entire base, had one guy move stealthily beside him going forward into cover and the other two led a head-on assault with the heavy weapons guy covering the lighter and faster moving guy with a submachine gun. Machine gunner guy spent all his ammo so I made the third guy meet up with them in the base and give him his extra rifle and a few shots so he can fend for himself. Switching back and forth between the guys at the front and the sniper overhead, I pulled off a successful assault without any hits taken. That's when I knew this was great. At the end you have to fight in extremely tight quarters and enemies start coming at you from both ends of submarine leaving little room for error when bullets start flying. The very next mission takes place in a wide-open airfield and gives you a ton of options with regards to loadouts and approach. It gives you a vehicle as well, meaning even more options. I liked going loud and fast here as the jeep lets you reposition quickly. This is also the first time you encounter enemy tanks and you will have to outmaneuver them to destroy them as they are quite dangerous.
I have a couple of nitpicks here and there with the gameplay but the game is just greater than the sum of its parts so I can easily forgive some of the faults here.
It still plays well on modern PCs. You just need a widescreen patch first then I suggest customizing the keybinds to your liking and you're all set. If you have a keypad available on your keyboard that works really well with the squad commands. I have the GOG copy and I am happy to report no issues on my end. The GOG copy comes with the expansion too and it has some great levels.
I highly recommend this game if you like stealth games and tactical shooters. I can see myself revisiting this game multiple times in the future and going through it all over again.