It's a classic game that can still hold its own with newer titles on the gba
If it's your first time playing the series, you might encounter a few stumbling blocks because this game is all about stealth. Shoot outs with your enemy are suicide because they control an unlimited amount of men. Although combat is scare or at least it should be scarce, the stealth techniques themselves are still satisfying to employ. Think of this game as less an action game than a huge puzzle game. There are a lot of weapons and items in this game, normally many of those items won't be used often and you can bypass levels with just your sneaking skills or by simply running past them and going from exit to exit until the alarm finishes and the guards stop pursuing. Bosses are interesting though as you actually have to employ weapons and use strategy, some fights can be difficult but none should be mind wrenchingly hard, forcing you to go back and forth.
Graphics are slightly dated, but they still look well of the system. There isn't that much detail, but it's bearable. There are a lot of nice details in some sceneries, but the characters all look bad, chris, for example looks like an inflated balloon.
Honestly, i have to say the sound was terrible. It's just a small loop of beeps and simple beats. Levels don't have variety. It's flat out terrible. Play with your own music or something, don't listen to this junk. It adds atmosphere for the first 3 hours maybe, afterwards no. The sound is atrocious.
The best thing going for this game is the storyline, but i wouldn't play this game again if i had free time. Too much of the game is tied to the story and serves as a reward. Times have changed, it's no longer thrilling to sneak past idiotic 2d guards. It's not the best game to replay unless you forget the storyline and want to read it again. But then again that's want wikipedia is for.
Tilt: I love this game even though it's very old simply because of the storyline and the character development. It's been a while since i've seen characters so alive and portayed so well in such a short amount of time. There isn't a lot of time wasted on exposition but the game still manages to convey all of its messages with concise and powerful quotes. Great game overall.