I've played the game around seven years ago for the first time on my laptop and enjoyed my time a lot. Back when I got my first PS4 around a year later (2017ish), I got the game on there too but ended up not playing the game at all because I couldn't get used to the controller gameplay.
A couple of days ago, I started the game up again for lack of other games to play right now and have, as many probably, started a low-chaos ghost run. For the uninitiated, "ghost" means that you go through the entire game without being detected once. To achieve this, you're either cracked at the game and know what you're doing, or you resort to save scumming, which I also did.
However, I seem to have fucked up in the last mission (saving Emily, getting rid of the two Pendleton twins) and have been detected somewhere without noticing it and loading a previous save. When I ended the mission and was shown the statistics, I contemplated starting the mission over because I didn't ghost through to mission but opted not to.
While I do feel kinda bummed about "messing up" the achievement, I feel like this'll prove to be beneficial for my overall experience with the game since I won't have to keep reloading the same passages for 15 times just to get some arbitrary achievement that doesn't even bear any meaning.
I'll still go for a low-chaos run (not killing anyone), but I won't be bothered to keep reloading saves now: If I'm detected, I run away and hide and take the game on naturally.
How have your experiences with the game been? Which playstyle do you prefer? What games did you ruin for yourself in hindsight because of save scumming?
I've ruined games for myself by starting over repeatedly to get some achievement I don't even enjoy trying to get, not having fun, and never finishing the game. (I do the same thing with higher difficulties.)
I wish there was an option to just disable all achievements in games - it would help me enjoy games a lot more. You're probably thinking "If he doesn't like achievements, why doesn't he just ignore them?" but I can't.
The worst is actually a sandbox game I play that tracks achievements per-save. (It'll tell you that you failed the achievement in that save even if you already got it in a different one.) There's an achievement that requires doing something boring for several hours as soon as you start the game, or otherwise you can't get it on that save. So of course I feel compelled to do that boring thing every single time I want to start a new save.
I ignore them completely, have never once targeted one, and disable them from popping up where I can.
I still hate them existing. Knowing they're there annoys me.
I completely understand where you come from. Sometimes I just can't ignore options because they are there.