Silent Storm has great encounter design.
It has many type of terrain map different in each country.
In each map, entry location of party is different. Time to enter also different thanks to game clock too, and that lead to different experience, because night is easier to sneak than day, (possibly) less neutral NPc than day. RNG loot also can be different, because if you luck in a map with good loot it make it worth while: some good pistols? Some good explosive/med tool/engineer tool? This lead to some exciting expectations.
Thus Silent Storm has great encounter design. It's a model of encounter design for any game I can think of.
Silent Storm Sentinels drop that design, sadly. Mostly because they think story dont allow it (I think) but in that way the encounter design of SSS is sadly lacking compared to its sister.
Eh, yes and no. The combat in SS is superb, but it's strength lies in the destructable environments, which provide you with endless options in every encounter. I recall a fight against 6 or so British soldiers in a tiny hallway: I used my machine gunner to fire at them in full auto, but he fired so many shots that he destroyed a wooden supporting beam under the floor, with 4 of my enemies plunging into the basement below (and a couple of them dying from the fall). Every floor/ceiling/wall in that game is destructable, so you can knock holes in any surface and use that to your advantage. And that's great. But the encounter design itself is fairly bland, usually against very same-y groups of enemies that take defensive positions and drag you into a war of attrition, whereby you take pot shots at each other from afar. It becomes a lot more fun indoors, when you start slinging grenades their way and watching the whole structure collapse around you.