If you read this review, you'll get the idea of what's in store. This game was aggrivating but I still wrote the review.
How do i think it is?...look at my score. You're probably better off renting it first before blowing your money on it...but that's just my opinion. the graphics aren't that bad. when they were going for the griddy, cold, london-type feel, they definitely got it. the graphics are better than i had thought they would be. the sound is pretty good in my opinion. the gun shots are good, the car engines could have sounded a little more realistic and been a little louder, and the tire screeching is pretty good. and in my opinion they did the voice work well enough. the miserably distressed main character, the big time mob boss, and everyone else sound pretty good for my taste.
but now the gameplay...this is the part that probably really brakes up the game...alot! first off, the car handling sucks. it just sucks. and since your also in a car so much in the game, it doesn't really make the experience any more enjoyable. the cars handle like they have minds of their own sometimes. they handle so that when u go around cornors too sharply, the car spins out or loses control, (unless u can keep control of the car).
It's also annoying as all hell that they don't give u a map, either on the game screen or in the pause menu. this really screws up every little chance of fun u can possibly squeeze out of the game...cause all it gives u to guide u through the damn big ass, confusing ass, and small cramped ass streets of london, are your own g-d damn blinkers. this really sucks cuase if your destination is is west and your heading north...the blinkers are constantly going untill u start heading or facing west. so your constantly going in and out of streets.
the gun play is good, u don't have any max payne/true crime thing going, but it's considerable. u push the R1 button to auto aim on someone, which somtimes poses the same problem as GTA. u try 2 aim at the cop infront of u but then he aims at the person 70 ft down the street from u, so that's really annoyin.
the missions are annoying as annoying gets in some cases. first of all, if u wanna free roam, u have to go into the mission, AND THEN, u still gotta sit through the damn movies and cut scenes cause it doesn't let u skip through them, and they're like 10 minutes long. then the missions themselves are so freakin hard. u always got the cops on ur ass chasin u through the city. then u got triads chasin u if u head in2 their territory, and u gotta lose them. and when u free roam, there isn't anything special to do. all u do is go up to 1 or 2 ppl, take them hostage infront of a cop, get the cop 2 surrender, then blow bullet through the hostage's head.
and then the only other thing there really is to do, is find a mansion with a Nissan Skyline, a Lotus Elise, a TVR (something, i forgot), a little go-kart, each of which are really, really, really fast considering this game's standards.
all in all, i suggest buying this game as a 5 day rental, use the cheat 2 unlock the free roam mode, that's right...mode, cause it does exist but u can only unlock it after u've beaten the game. or if u actually want somthing 2 do, then actually do the missions, but i'm warning u bout all the damn cops. unlike in GTA, in here if u crash in2 other cars near a cop, u get chased. If u travel on the wrong side of the road near a cop car, u get chased.
So have fun. ;-P