Further to my previous post, I also decided it may be a fun idea to stick the levels into a tierlist based on my impressions of them.
Ranking is based on casual play, getting silent assassin, and just the overall vibes. Won’t go into too much detail but will give a very slight bit of info for my reasoning.
First of all the tutorial and the final two stages are in C mainly for their narrative functions and setting. Whilst it’s hard to describe any of them as fun (other than the St Petersburg revisited sniping twist), they still work well for the purposes of the story.
Anathema is, controversially, in B tier and that’s mainly just because of how broken a lot of the guard AI is. When they’re less forgiving than some of the latter game stages, it’s clear that it’s pretty broken and very unwelcoming to new - especially modern-era - gamers. That being said, the setting and the variety of approaches means that it is a good level in heart, it’s just also a bit of a pain.
The Russian stages are all in S or A tier because they’re just an absolute joy to play. Stakeout and Torpedo are slightly below in A due to having a drawn out start and finish with lots of running to get to places, but they’re still all a blast.
Tracking Hayamoto is in C with the story stages just because the setting and the idea is great, but it’s just a bit annoying. Guard AI is irritating and it’s more limiting than you think and, worst of all, the starting location is just so annoying.
Hidden Valley is also in C but no doubt higher than people think. I do like the idea, even if the trucks tend to kill people and ruin your SA rating, but that can be avoided by simply running above ground. Sure, it then becomes a rather featureless run to the end, but sedating the YAME! guards is actually pretty enjoyable.
At the Gates goes up a notch since this is basically Hidden Valley but fun. You still get to sedate some guards, but you actually do some other stuff too. Some borked AI stops it from being A, but I still like it.
Shogun Showdown does get an A rank though because it’s a fun setting that has many different approaches. The very start is a bit annoying, but once you get a disguise you’re basically free to do whatever you like.
The Malaysia missions are pretty good with Basement Killing being a fantastic Blood Money style open mission, with a fun intermission stage and another fun ending mission spoiled only by some janky AI in the dark.
Nuristan, however, is a mix of top tier assassination missions with great settings and fun kills, and one that’s just plain garbage. I like the idea of The Motorcade Interception but it’s not much fun. There is an interesting way to do it with your pistol, but it’s impossible on the GameCube. Using a sniper is tough without saving unless you do it the safe way, but even then you can just fail because the convoy hits a civilian. I wouldn’t rank it as an F, but it’s certainly my least favourite.
The final three missions in India are all really solid A tier maps. Temple City Ambush is basically a precursor to Berlin, and the other two are just great hospital missions. They have some minor issues that set them back, mainly the labyrinthine streets in TCA, the wonky hiding objective in TDOH, and the janky AI at the start of TH, but they’re still all great.
What do you think? The template I used is below if you want to make your own: