Spoken from both sides of the track.
Yes, the gameplay gets repetative, yes the cutscenes are way too long with no way to stop them, and yes, you don't have nearly as much freedom as you might expect, and ok, yes the storyline kinda blows. However, if you go into this with expectations of say....GTA meets Oblivion, you are going to be disappointed. You expect something, and it doesn't deliver what you wanted. This = disappointment.
I went into this game with an open mind. I wanted to see what kind of crap I could do with scaling walls, what kind of cool death animations I could pull off, and how I could torture the townfolk. I can do it all, and so far it hasn't gotten old. To be perfectly honest, I love just walking away from it while the cutscenes play, and then terrorizing the townfolk. So it gets old, what game doesn't get old after a while right? The graphics look great imo. If you can view it on an HDTV, you won't be heartbroken.
Now, i've played some horrid games, and I've played some damn good games on the PS3. This is one of those games that is up there with the upper crowd of games. Is it the best? No, not really. Is it the worst? Hell no. Could it have been better? Yes. Could it have been worse? Much much worse.
All I'm saying is, don't expect this to be the next messiah, and I don't think you'll be too disappointed. The controls are easy to manage although jumping can be awkward at some minor pionts. (Like post jumping) Death animations are awsome. (but can get repetative) and you do have quite a bit of freedom in each city.
Rent it first, and go into this with an open mind. I can see why people like it, and I can see why people hate it. Personally, with so many limited options, I think it's much better than what we've been fed with previous titles.