Frag Maniac
Dangling Participle
(Warning, some spoilers) I played the demo before buying the game, it's the Fort level and plays just the same in the game. I'm not sure what you mean by akward though.
At first the game seems daunting, and it definately helps to use cover and the crouch and lean functions. Once you get to know the game though, there are many ways to beat it easily IMO, and I still don't know why even veteran players of it say it's one of the hardest games they've played.
One of the biggest tips I can give you is to turn off the music and listen, especially when stalking through the jungle. The binocs are great for tagging and monitoring the mercs with it's built in motion tracker, and the CryVision goggles you pick up later in the game actually allow you to snipe through brush and trees without even being seen.
Two of the things I don't like about the game that are a discredit to the otherwise excellent AI IMO, are the shouts the mercs make when they've seen you, and the fact that you have an unlimited number of rocks you can throw to distract or lure the enemy.
These two things make it much easier to fight them than it realistically should be, but of course you don't have to use the rocks, or the binocs for that matter.
One thing that is really cool is driving the Buggys, Hummers and P Boats, stealing them anywhere you can. Most Hummers and P Boats are equiped with both heavy caliber machine guns and rocket launchers mounted on turrets that you can aim and shoot while driving in either 3rd person or first person mode.
You can also hop in and out of the vehicle when it's parked to use the binocs to sight in rockets from a distance before and after your shots. The maps allow for excellent long range sniper shots, and the graphics and sound are among the best in the industry.
There are places in the game where if you pull off trick manuevers, like driving to a very difficult spot, you can take the heavy machine gun or rocket launcher with you upon exiting the vehicle, depending on which was selected when you left it. The odd thing is though, when you do that the skin for the weapon doesn't show, but it's firepower is definately there to use.
Speaking of Fort, there's also a built in humorous trick you can do called Rally Pigs. Parking the buggy in an unsafe spot like on the stairs is supposed to trigger one of the wild island pigs to run to the buggy and drive it off. I've never got that one to work, at least I got tired of waiting for the pig to show anyway. Maybe you can't be facing the buggy or need to be a certain distance from it.
To suffice I put together a humor clip simulating mercs harrassing and trash talking a pig instead, I call it Grunt Talk.