Lot of complaining from naive gamers.
First off, I do believe this game is over-rated but it is still a very good game.
The details and level of "Oh Snap!" moments are almost endless. Walking into a comedy club with my date then being surprised when Katt Williams hops on stage was an "Oh Snap!" moment. Trying to steal the car from my gun connect and being dragged for a couple yards was an "Oh Snap" moment. Clipping the top of my helicopter off the empire state inspired building and free falling for thousands of feet while i was still in the cockpit and falling to my doom was another "Oh Snap" moment. And all of this while just exploring the city.
However. It seems they took the best features from San Andreas and throw them away for an exciting yet "get it over with" story. All of the role playing aspects are gone, which made San Andreas so gripping. Now all you can do to customize your character is pick from a really weak selection of clothes. Car customs and property buying is gone as well. You can no longer assemble a little army and start wars in the streets,(in single player)this feature is reduced to calling a pair of guys for back up but that don't really do anything.
Story mode gets annoying , yes, annoying, whenever the story starts to get good, they shove a new uninteresting contact for you to do missions for, which reek of that GTA formula, with not much new added to them. Although, eventually you will have morality choices, a new and great feature of the game, but that don't really change the story too much, Basically the ending is the same with just one or the other antagonists.
I'll finish this up.
The gun play is the best it has ever been. The highlight of the game. Although, it has been compared to that of gears of war it is no where as good sadly. It has it's problems and can sometimes put you on the wrong side of the object of cover and it is not easy to stop hugging the cover when you decide you want to move up. But finding a nice place to park your car and hug up a wall while your trying to raise your wanted level is pretty fun.
The driving, is better. Not much improvement. And now you can ride taxis and skip the ride to go straight into a mission, which is a nice feature which i tend to use way too much, since it gets kind of boring driving to mission to mission.
Multiplayer is disappointing. While it is a great concept, and very fun at times. There really is no reward for playing multiplayer or even finishing a match. Soo way too often other players leave and the rooms never get filled. I can see this being an amazing feature if you knew 15 guys that had the game and start up a party with them, which is how these critics probably tested the multiplayer. But for regular gamers like me, finding 15 guys willing to play and actually staying a while is not that easy to do. So for me, most of the time I'm spent looking for the opposing team on this huge map which usually leads to a quick gun fight then i go off looking for the others.
Racing is what it is, just like single player.
The co op missions are the best, but hold the least replay value since it's the same 2 missions, over and over.
Cops n crooks. Chase crooks down, kill em, or run away from cops to a getaway vehicle.
and some other modes.. which are all basically the same level of fun. Steal a car or kill a guy before opposing players and yeah.
The multiplay is fun, very much so.... just with other great online games out right now, this will be a game you pick up when you get bored of COD and you drop again once you feel your trigger finger itching.
I suggest go into the game like you go into every other game. What i do, is i lose myself in the game. I try not to die at all. I try to play the whole game in one life so every gun fight is exciting. Every time the cops chase me, i feel a little suspense. I try to play it as simulation life game, just like ever yother action game. If I die in the game, then obviously I would of died in real life. luckily its just a game, just a simulation. Enjoy it, but if you don't pick up the game, you won't miss out on much, just another gta game.