I would also argue that reloading over and over in a stealth game isn't a bad thing at all, because people who like stealth games WANT to do that because they want to perfect their runs. If they are saying that there's so much freedom and that's bad, they are speaking from the perspective of the dude who saw a dude with a gun on the boxart and bought the game. The freedom is the entire fing point of the series, and getting killed and knowing that you messed up and shouldn't have done what you just did is all part of the process. There's too much freedom and that's bad? Hey there's also too many guns in Call of Duty games, somebody should fix that. Also Forza has many pretty cars in it, I'll play it and think "These are all so expensive and make me feel like a bum". You should fix that as well. Not to mention the freedom in GTA games, there's my destination marked on the map with a big letter but like, several different streets I could go down to get to it. That's just confusing.
I'm playing the original Deus Ex now (For the first time) and have mostly been really stealthy. I ran across 3 guys who were standing directly where I wanted to go, and my only stealth kill options were 3 shots from the tranquilizer crossbow. If I shoot one, all the others are alerted.
I wouldn't stop reloading until I figured it out. It was still a lot of fun. That's what the Hitman games are to me. If I finish a level having killed anyone else but the target, I'll go on to the next level for the time being, but there's absolutely no way in the world I'm leaving it at that.
From what they have been saying so far, I'm not sure it's even possible to get through this game without killing hundreds of dudes.
Oh, and as for series that completely fuck over their fans and are still loved? MGS2.
