I simply want share my rather brief gameplay experience. I'm currently playing(more specifically stopped playing) the "Tears of Saint Lucia" Mission and I had SO much difficulty getting pass the first Guard(which I'm guessing is a Hammerite), first few minutes in the level. I've tried sneaking pass him, but never succeeded, he dashes towards me. Front-on combat with shortsword is also a no-no; just two whacks from his hammer and I'm already dead, forcing me to reload or restart(I've reload countless times). The diffculty is even set to easiest as possible with all the assists enabled. The guard is armored and the only way to damage him in a duel is by attacking his head since its the only unarmored part(as far as I can tell), but he's too good in parrying and blocking every of my attacks, rendering all my attacks useless. The noisemaker arrows seem rather bugged too, I fired two across the alley and most of the times(rarely he would actually inspect the noises) the guard would just stand there, ignoring the noises. In the end, I've managed to kill him though, but using archery(using broadhead arrows) in a supposingly close combat fight. One point-blank shot directly in the face with a broadhead arrow didn't kill him, amusingly. I've managed, but barely. It pretty much shows that "frontal combat" is considered as last resort in this game. Yes, its sort of a cool feature that makes the game have a realistic "feel" to it, since the main character is more of a thief and not a fighter but then still I find it outright difficult to play. Before any you say something like "You're too noob" or somewhere along those lines, I can assure you that I'm no noob or newbie in FPS stealth games. I'm not saying that I'm a professional. However, I consider myself the more "average FPS player". I've played the Thief games at hard mode(and sometimes even expert) and still found it more manageable than this game. Dont get wrong though, this game is actually pretty fun but the overall difficulty just seems to skyrocket, even at the easiest settings. Heck, I'll definitely play this game over 90% of the currently existing generic, mainstream FPS shooters out there, as long as the combat or difficulty is reworked. But at its current state, I might wait till an update lowers its overall difficulty, if there is ever going to be one.