This is a very promising but flawed start for the franchise. To start off, I absolutely love the concept of a slow paced and grounded stealth game. There's a bit of a learning curve when you first start because you really do have to play much slower and more meticulously than you would in Metal Gear Solid for instance. The story is serviceable albeit not terribly memorable or deep. It works well enough to tie the levels together, which are the real reason to play this game. Level design and theming varies pretty widely. The theming for the CIA and presidential palace missions are fantastic. My biggest criticism of level design is that its a bit too linear. This style of gameplay is definitely better served by more open level design as evidenced by the far superior Choas Theory. This linearity can unfortunately make the gameplay feel like its based more on trial and error than creativity and skills. There are quite a few sections where there's really only one very specific way to proceed and the player has to get themselves killed several times to be able to understand what the game wants them to do. This game is also very unforgiving about breaking stealth - if you get spotted and there's more than one enemy in the room you're probably going to die pretty quickly. The AI detection is also pretty janky at times, which can lead to what feel like unfair game overs.The difficulty does however make the game very rewarding and enjoyable once you get the hang of it. Sam Fisher, despite being capable, always feels vulnerable. This adds a nice amount of tension to the game, which perfectly compliments the slower paced stealth gameplay its going for.

Overall this is a very promising start to a franchise and a very unique stealth experience that is weighed down by jank and linearity in level design that can make the experience at times frustrating and monotonous