It is a bit counterintuitive and a bit silly when you think of the fact that even as a n00b he should have some experience with firearms to even be considered.
The flipside of course is that its an rpg and thats how they work

Yes, but many RPGs give you bonus starting stats to accompany the class the player chooses. They could also give you a number of stats that you place into categories yourself, Fallout 3 style. If they had taken a few pointers from Fallout 3, I think the game could've been so much better. Kind of scary to think that they will also be making the new Fallout game. Hope they don't fuck up what 3 made awesome.

If you're playing the recruit the whole point is that he is completely wet behind the ears, use the recruit dialogue in the base to find out just how wet you are (and for the recruit perk bonuses to unlock, need to use it at least 10 times to get them all). They mention they are taking an incredible risk with him because he has potential, his dossier is the size of a pamphlet. The 'bonus' of the recruit is that you get to unlock the veteran after completing it with the recruit.
If you don't want to be completely wet behind the ears choose one of the others like Freelancer, then you can start with skill points to spend, while the others get skill points spent already but can still be reallocated.

So many things about what you said make me angry. But I'll be nice. :P

I'm guessing it's the whole "be more like Fallout 3" thing? People seem pretty divided over that game.

Sort of like how they give you skills and let you assign them when playing something other than a recruit, you mean?

I think I'm not describing competently what I need from that game. I wish they just made it easier to shoot things. Mass Effect 1 is probably a better example of how to do it right.

I never really had a problem shooting anything.
Which weapons precisely did you have a problem with? Played as a recruit?
Playing through the game as veteran now, maxed out the things I wanted and have points left.
:)

Alot easier, I left mine at three for everything since it makes the character quite well rounded (James Bond always used different weapons after all but favoured pistols), but the difficulty is alot lower regardless. As a recruit I was only able to get my three specialist skills up high enough (partly because I went for lots of stealth, which eats up alot of AP), but as a Veteran I'll probably be able to get quite a mix of skills this time.

No problem, put out a lot of points now, nearly maxed out pistol and stealth.
A long with lots of points for the passives (The one with brilliance) and martial arts.
I'm at level 11 I think.
I wish more games used stuff like these. Veteran I mean. Also perks, perks are great.
So, yeah it's a lot easier with Veteran.
Pretty sure the ending would be pretty messy on hard.
Since the difficulty doesn't really scale up, then the end is much, much harder.
At least compared to the rest of the game.

Damn, that sucks. It should definitely scale. :(

I finished Taipei before I got to Moscow.

It arrived yesterday, I played through the "intro" part of the game and the first two sidemissions of the first main mission.
WHAT A GAME! Absolutely a blast to play!

I'm finishing Taipei and done with Rome. Love the game so far, don't what the bitching on the reviews are for.