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Despite being one of the best FPS games available 10 years ago, this game falls short in a number of areas today.
The story and mechanics are still compelling. If you can look past the dated graphics, the art is still well done. The game also does well technically, in terms of maintaining a good framerate, etc... However, the game fails to communicate some vital information to the player and has no checkpoints, which make for some very frustrating experiences.
For example, in one level they put a tempting rocket launcher in the middle of a small open area. What they do not tell you is that the whole area is chock full of completely undetectable landmines. Landmines are supposed to be hidden and that's fine, but this is a game and there should be some indication of danger, especially given the fact that the game has no checkpoints, making the cheap death all the more frustrating.
In another example, a switch is hidden on the back side of a pillar. The problem is that there is no indication that it is there, so I wandered around for a long time looking for it, growing more frustrated the whole time.
In another case, you have to go through an area without setting off an alarm and it is timed. However, you have no idea what the correct route is until after you fail numerous times. This would be fine given a checkpoint, but you have to restart the entire level, so it is overly frustrating.
Overall, the missions are interesting, the gadgets are fun, and all the mechanics provide a wonderful variety of gaming goodness. Unfortunately, this does not overcome the lack of communication from the game. It does not overcome the lack of player training to build up skill with the various mechanics. And it certainly cannot make up for the repetitive nature of the experience due to restarting levels over and over because of the lack of checkpoints.
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