...Riveting!
I sat down, put it in, waited for it to load (which was surprisingly short compared to the other GTA games), and was in. The first thing I though was, great, a cheap plotline… and I was right. So my primary impression was not so great; then after the much worn out beginning you actually got control. You were put on a bike and told to make it home while in the middle being intercepted by, if my memory serves me correctly, a rival gang. From that point on I was gripped. The annoyance I faced at the stereotypes, and the aggravation at the mostly retired missions faded as I ran from the cops or rivals at lightning fast speeds, and let me tell you, they were lightning fast. After the just-release Burnout: Revenge I have yet to see a more realistic speed portrayal. The screen actually blurs and it becomes your job to steer and avoid other cars and obstacles; and as you do you gain proves in driving or bike (depending on what you are on).
This brings me to my next point; the skill building is a great addition to the game. While some skills, like muscle, are ultra-easy to fill, the others more then make up for it. The ability to advance in your skills with guns is also an excellent addition and makes the mindless point, click, see blood spew a little more rewarding in the end. It also makes for an overall more in-depth experience which lacked in the other games.
The terrain and islands are huge with a decent variety of cars, people, and other vehicles. To be honest, one of my favorite things to do was to sit and just drive. It is that beautiful.
The improved flying is also a great addition; it is still very far from being even considered a flight simulator, but it is fun, and the inability to cross Islands early (without codes) was also a nice and challenging facet.
Finally, my favorite feature was the ability to win gang territory. I spent a great portion of my time spreading my gang’s influence before ever even doing any more missions. It doesn’t really help but it makes you feel important. The ability to recruit is also fun and helps when you just wish to cause mayhem.
There are other features to this game which I have yet to explore, such as multiplayer, but from what I can hear they are solid.
This game is everything you love in the old games plus a lot more. The only thing I will fault it with is that the people at Rockstar, have yet again, failed to write an even remotely interesting plot (a good deal of the missions are fun and interesting, but many are just repetitive and boring, but I believe the scenery does make up a bit for that ).
Really one last thing to add is that the sound options are not as great as in the other games, but there is still a variety (and while after about the 30th hour of the game the repetition is a bit much, and sometimes you just wish they would stop trying to make the host's funny... they're not, all they do is annoy me!) which is good at maintaining freshness.