Interesting that you describe ghost mode as not being "loose and anything-goes," because I had the exact opposite experience.
In a regular Hitman map I move slowly and make every attempt to not be seen or heard; Basically I play the game as explicitly designed. In ghost mode however, it's a race, so I'm ignoring everyone and everything that isn't giving me the fastest direct line to getting a kill before my opponent. This causes me to essentially end a ghost map with half the NPCs either unconscious or chasing after me in a huff.
The rest of the review I absolutely agree with, bar the cutscene complaint but that's just subjective.
section09's comments