Grenades leave lasting damage to the environments. All of this is greatly improved over the original, although I have to say I still wish you could shoot out exterior lights. Speaking of lighting, lighting effects in general are very well done so far. Computer screens cast a nice glow, lanterns provide a low light in dark rooms, and exterior lights do a good job of creating shadowed areas. The character animations in RS are also much improved.
Movement is more fluid, realistic, and believable.
The characters simply look more realistic. The movement of your own operatives is equally well-done. Many of the screenshots in this article were taken with this new view. The screen in RS can be adjusted to provide as much or as little information as is needed. Players can choose to have the full status bar in view, just a map window, or nothing at all other than the game graphics.