If you play the original give it at least until the third mission before you give up if it doesn't click for you.
I tried to play the first level at least a dozen times before I finally got into the game.
It's a good level, but I don't think it's a good first level. Even if you do the tutorial, which you really need to, you still don't know enough yet to really enjoy that level.
When you develop an intuitive sense of what you can and cannot get away with, when guards will be able to detect you, learning that a tranquilizer dart doesn't knock out guards immediately and neither does melee attacking them from behind, at least not without upgrades.
It can be an intimidating game, but so worth it. Easily one of my favorite series.
Yeah that's probably a good way to phrase Liberty Island as. Not the best 'hey here's a game' first type of level. It's one of the most open levels in the entire game in many ways. So many ways to go about doing it, and the most obvious ones are the most difficult (running in and murdering the guards for example).
It is what sold me on the game back when it came out, but it was also a demo level at a time when entertainment wasn't consumed so quickly, friends and I got that demo on a disc back in the day and just played through that level a dozen times in a dozen different ways, and so in THAT sense it perfectly illustrates what the game is about, but it's also goin g to take a while to get used to it in this day and age which makes that harder.
It's just like Mass Effect 1 - you are not a super soldier. You cannot just shoot people, your aim is garbage and you HAVE to spend skill points to be effective with a weapon. period. Early in the game you can only spend enough points to effectively limit yourself to a few 'easy' paths through the island, at least as a newbie, but not have any idea how to utilize them. Just thoroughly explore and you'll get XP for doing side activities and probably be able to get another skill or two early enough to help out.
Generally speaking it's a game where you need to try things out, decide which approach you enjoy most on Liberty island, and PROBABLY restart then and just build in that direction. You're never going to be able to be a jack of all trades, the game rewards you for choosing a few major skills and accompanying augs and focusing on playing the game in that way. Like, as a stealth assassin, you'll want some hacking, some lockpicking, maybe sniper rifles or a silenced pistol, but you won't be able to afford pretty much anything else.
