I just bought this game last week, and it is very hard. No you cant just blast your way through, you have to be stealh like crawl on pipes above you and stuff. It is also hard to find ammo. Some missions you arent even aloud to shoot anybody or set off a alarm. I also have Halo, but I can't say if I like one better then the other because they are both very good. I am currently on the 2nd mission on Splinter Cell, and I have had it for a week lol, so thats gotta tell you something about its difficulty.