Despite it's certainly a good game, I feel some disappointment when playing. I preferred GTA San Andreas ....
Is it a good game? Absolutely
Are the graphics impressive? For sure
Is the gameplay immersive? Also, look at my playing time (and not finished yet)
What about the storyline? not bad, certainly one of the best in gameland.
And yet, only a 8. Reason is that I just expected more. All the things above were already present at previous GTA games and this one doesn't bring that much extra (except the Multiplayer, but I cannot judge this one).
You play as the Serbian immigrant Niko in the big Liberty City (GTA's for New York). You will get a lot of missions, from driving through the city to cleaning up a room of foes (the classical GTA stuff). All this is worked out correctly, missions are OK, not too long, not too short.
However, I do think there are some flaws which are not being resolved from previous games:
- the shooting is a bit difficult to handle, the auto-aiming is not always helping you, so can be quite frustrating
- the social aspect with servicing your girlfriends and mates is a bit dull, always the same and always succesfull also
- driving is OK, but can be a bit more realistic. The cornering of the cars is really bad.
- I do miss the non-city landscape from GTA San Andreas. Maybe this was a dull aspect from the previous games, but I liked the races in this.
- I also miss the classic GTA side missions, like ambulance, fire truck, taxi (is a mission for Roman, but not the same and way to easy)
As a conclusion, as this was not called GTA, I would probably rate it a fat 9, because it is an impressive game. But this is the next GTA game and as such expectations are higher and I do miss some classical elements not retaken in the game.
However, I will for sure buy the next GTA once it is on the shelves ;-)