If you like action games, impressed by GTA, love a good story ,you should play this game , or its going to be your loss.
Now during the whole game the only thing that bothered me is two things. One thing is the camera is a bit bad(but I wouldn't mind if that game is this good) and the auto-saving feature where I can not save where I want. Thats about it. Now to the good Stuff.
This game gave me reality more than any other realistic HD graphics game. The reason is the environment is so real and interactive. Rockstar pays a lot of attention to detail and making missions (just another mission). Well What do I mean by realistic? here is what...
You can break into stores and steal. You can pick locks or break windows. You can steal car radios by breaking the window shield. Then you unscrew the screws. When you break down a car you get some goodies in its trunk. When you run through a garbage or break something down usually pieces of wood or metal would fall then you can use it to beat your opponent. It is so real you break something apart then use its pieces to beat up ur opponent. It doesnt look real , but that is how things work in real life. For example. you can take a glass bottle break it over your enemy's head then when its shattered you can stab your enemy with it! You have your own hangout, and neighbor hood. You get to excersize in your hangout and talk to your buddies. In your turf you can do deeds to your buddies(like defending them from other gangs) or collecting "protection" money. The environment is very interactive, when u enter or get out of shops the game does not stop to load which doesn't break the reality of it. You only load at the beginning of the level.
The story is great with unique characters and great boss battles. Rockstar made sure that bosses are not just "another fight". You get new characters even up to the end of the game which makes it surprising and exciting. You get to play each member of your gang, you also get to play flashback levels where you play the character and how he joined the gang in the first place which is very movie like. The flow of the story makes a lot of sense and keep things exciting I do not recall anything being really repetitive except hunting for enemy "burners" and spraying over them. Almost each mission is a different mission, and all the way to the end you get to do new stuff you have not done before in the game.
The fighting control in the game is really good and you wish you would not stop beating people up. There is a fair amount of combos and you get "super" power once you are in rage after beating a couple of guys. You can bash heads into walls and objects, you can throw people into fire-barrels or hit them with molotov , you can do double action as your partner hold your enemy and you do a special attack on them. You can grab opponents and mug them for money. its a ton of fun and each character has different set of moves.
Rockstar gives you your money's worth back. In the end the game is not over but you get to play an extra mini-game with a couple of missions more in your turf. you can replay any level you wish for fun or to score higher points and complete the bonus objectives. You also have a combat mode where you get to beat other gangs in any arena you like, its like a mini tekken or street fighter if you wish.
The only way you will regret this game is if you hate action games in the first place and you rather play paper mario over call of duty or jade empire over gears of war. As for you action lovers, you shouldn't miss on this game and its for very reasonable price now.
One thing you should be aware of is that this game is not that long and its only 15-20 hours long. if you move quickly maybe you can finish it in 12 hours. But the story felt just right, maybe if it was any longer it would be a bit of drag and if any shorter it will be just too short. But I promise its a 15 hours of fun.
I know you might kill me for this, but I enjoyed the single mode of the warriors over the single mode for halo 3!