I beat this on Consultant and boy was it a chore at times. This isn't a run n' gun game, but hot damn, some sections are super frustrating, and not in ways I enjoyed. Take RTCW, a game released about 2 years before SOF2. That game was hard and frustrating as hell, but man did I want to get back in every time I died. Not so with this game. The ai, on Consultant at least, can mow you down before you ever see them, and unfortunately before they ever see you it seems. And their nades are F***ING ANNOYING! For some reason, they throw nades AS SOON AS THEY SEE YOU many times and you barely have any sort of way of knowing then - boom - instakill, start over yet again. Yes, you will git gud as you progress, but it still feels frustrating knowing that some ai fixes and balancing could've made it much more enjoyable. Oh yeah, and the stealth "mechanic". Absolute garbage. Even GoldenEye, released 6 years prior had the ai actually trigger an alarm before the whole level became aware of you. Nope, as soon as the ai spots you, the alarm is blaring and you can't turn it off. Lame. All this being said, this game was epic when it first came out, so you should experience it. My suggestion, use the customized difficulty and turn on autosaves. You'll be saving yourself some major frustration, unless you enjoy self-flagellation, you kinky b*tch, you.
