Yeah, I just finished it and felt the same. I got low chaos pretty easily, but by replaying sections rather than by actually being able to react to situations on the fly. If you end up in a one-on-one with a guard your only non-lethal recourse is the combat sleep dart, whereas Solid Snake or Sam Fisher always have some kind of CQC takedown option to defuse the situation before more guards are alerted. You end up freezing time and running away a lot, or just save scumming.
Yeah, I just finished it and felt the same. I got low chaos pretty easily, but by replaying sections rather than by actually being able to react to situations on the fly. If you end up in a one-on-one with a guard your only non-lethal recourse is the combat sleep dart, whereas Solid Snake or Sam Fisher always have some kind of CQC takedown option to defuse the situation before more guards are alerted. You end up freezing time and running away a lot, or just save scumming.