Hm, I disagree, I found them challenging and fun, not way too unforgiving or dull. Then again, I really enjoyed the planning aspect. You wouldn't get the "epic" firefights you do in Vegas, but Rainbow is supposed to "move silently, and strike like a thunderbolt" or something to that effect . The AI was bad in that it didn't really react to your presence as much as it should so ambushed were pretty easy, something the later ones are still guilty of. The whole appeal of the games was that they were unforgiving and realistic. The later ones sort of trade that for COD-esque non-stop action.