They finally got it right, despite of flaws.
Game present itself in WW2 era, main protagonist is Irish auto-mechanic and driver with pretty good personality and character. He found himself in Paris after some disturbing events and start his bloody carrier by helping resistance. Its more deep than this though...
I liked this rather unusual approach and settings as am tired of always American/Russian/British against Germans games. Also, he does have very good personality and voice acting is awesome as well. It sometimes almost reached GTA4 level in this regard.
While graphics may at times look older(game still look great), level design is awesome. Paris looks great with many distinct places and buildings. Not only that, but like GTA:SA this game also have countryside and very nice as well. So its not just some sterile urban map. Overall I really liked map and level design. When you get a view on the city from zeppelin(yes they are there) you will see its best.
There are some great cars from that era, you will see some pretty cool old ones(Mafia anyone?) there including sports cars. Music that play in them is fitting well that time, although I like more oldies from `60+ era.
Story is not bad actually, finally its not just dumb shooting after shooting without meaning. I'll not spoil anything but will say more I played more interesting it got and while on the whole its not too complex its pretty natural and involving.
But the best thing was that they made enemy respawn under control. These GTA clones usually had constant respawning I always hated and it turned me off(FarCry2, Mercenaries 2, Red Faction Guerrilla...). Here enemy still does spawn, but there is certain feel of limited resources he have. Its possible to fight until they are simply gone in that area you are - at least for certain amount of time. But its still done like GTA4 that area of danger is circle you must escape. While not perfectly done, its finally playable for me.
There are flaws though. Enemy AI is bad, they may stand still next room and "trigger" when you start shooting at them. Pedestrian traffic is stupidly jumping into your car line instead of out too often. There are some other flaws but none of them was stopper. Ending was epic and little disappointing at the same time. Main quest wasn't too long but there is lot of side quests to do.
On my intel e7400@3.6ghz CPU and nvidia gtx-260 GPU I didn't experienced single crash and was playing on full details + AAx4.
You can climb buildings in a veins of Assassins Creed and I liked it very much. It gave game more depth and possibilities of how to accomplish mission. There is also stealth system, not perfect but does help. So while I could get spotted next to car I was supposed to steal from enemy area, it was still easier to approach it from back building and then just run through main gate with it, instead of front assault. You can also wear enemy uniform and it does help at times. As I said, not perfect or as good as for example Hitman series, but still good.
When you travel in car with someone there is always chat as known from GTA and add to story and characters personality. It was finally good direction Pandemic studios took. Game have some RPG elements like upgrading or maps buying. Its not very deep but add a little as well.
In the end, game was enjoyment while it last. I recommend it to everyone to try at least. It started to be like 7/10 game, then more and more I though about 8/10 or so and after finishing it I thing its somewhere between 7-8/10 depending how you can tolerate few things. I grew to like characters, especially our Irishman protagonist and I think they made good job with his personality as well as story. In the end it was very good(if not great) game worth playing.