Did you ever play Conviction or Blacklist?
Conviction was a bit divisive because it was more action oriented, but I thought it was brilliant. The developers of the game wanted to make Sam like a Panther, instead of a weak guy hiding in the dark, you were a creature that used the dark to attack from. Rocksteady has all but admitted they ripped the 'Panther' philosophy right from Conviction for Arkham Asylum, which also used very aggressive stealth.
Black List is kind of the Splinter Cell buffet. You can play the game however you want. There are three 'trees' - Assault, Panther, Ghost. Assault is just straight up shooting, and it's not great. Panther basically continues the balance of Conviction and it's excellent. Ghost is just what it sounds like - get in and out without an enemy even seeing you.
The level design in Black List is the best of any game in the franchise. It dethroned Chaos Theory.
It's one of a few games I keep an Xbox 360 around to replay.