level of difficulty

[michi]

is it just my feeling, or is this much more difficult than the first part?

i played the first one several times in the highest difficulty, but this seems very hard to me.

did somebody else experience this?

[Kleerex]

You can make this game as easy or hard as you want with custom difficulty. Yes, the default difficulty levels are harder than in the first game, but that makes game all the more enjoyable.

[Semipalmated Plover]

Yes it's more difficult, but in a much more realistic way in the things the AI actually notice.

In the first game, leaning out from somewhere was like a magic cloaking field around you. You could do it to a ridiculous extent.
You could also do things like fling doors open right in front of AI (without them seeing you directly) on the other side of the wall/door and they wouldn't take any notice at all.

So to me it's just more realistic AI, resulting in it being more challenging, which is good because the first game was ridiculously easy for stealth game players.

[michi]

Thank you

[Jouchebag]

Their AI still has hilarious screw-ups, though.

I killed a guard in a double-doorway, left his body right between the wide open doors. A patrolling guard saw the body and came to investigate. I was caught unready for another guard, standing right next to the door and the body. I was about to smack F9 to save my ghost run.

But for some reason, the guard stepped on the other one's corpse, turned around, closed the double doors behind himself for no reason, exposing his back to me, and got himself murdered.

I then opened the double doors again, now with two bodies in the doorway. Another guard came by, I think I accidentally hit the wall when I jumped guard #2 because I was so surprised he didn't notice me standing by the door. He then did the same exact thing: stepped on the bodies, turned around, closed the double doors, got murdered.

I killed 3 guards, one at a time, without moving more than a few feet from the door.