I preloaded it, and played it first thing in the morning on Tuesday for 30 minutes (had to goto work) and thought WOW, it looked amazing, and was fun. Couldn't wait to get home to play some more. When I did, the story seemed to stall a bit, so I was a little disappointed, but it really picked up and captured my attention. I agreed with Kevin's score after about 3 or 4 hours, but after completing the story I now like it even more. Great story, as they actually made me care about the people.
Great graphics. I am astounded by the level of detail, with the weather, like wind blowing your coat and the trees, and rain drops in puddles, the foam on the water, and how well the water moves on the rivers, the look of wet material as opposed to dry, the lighting, the level of detail is awesome.
Great gameplay. The best driving I have seen in a open world game, and the hacking abilities are innovative and fun. Makes you feel powerful. Makes you feel like you truly have options to approach a target. Using a controller, you would expect analog control, but it is not. You either walk slowly, or jog. No in between. Then you can push a button to sprint. Even Saints Row 3 had more analog movement. I thought this was odd.
Sound. The sound of weapons is great as well as the sound of bullets hitting surfaces, like the sheet metal on cars, or the rubber on tires. The music was OK, most not my taste, like a good amount of RAP, but some decent songs. The cars sound good, and the ambient sounds of a city are spot on.
Atmosphere. They placed a lot of detail in the different conversations you overhear, and how the people around you behave and react. For instance, two guys were free stylin (rapping) which I hate so I would bump into them and they respond to my intursion by stopping and saying something, but most importantly they stopped. You pull out a gun, and people start panicing, like you would expect.
Online. I think they need to iron this out a bit. I only got online a handful of times for online hacking, because most of the time it "cannot find players". But when I do get in, I think it is a blast. The cat and mouse of it is very fun.
I am knocking one point off because after the missions are done, I cannot seem to reset them, like in Far Cry 3. You have all these abilities you built up, but no reason to use them. Far Cry 3 didn't do this at first either, but then added it later because of listening to the fans. I thought they would have implemented it here, but I cannot find it if they did.
Bottom line. At the end of the story, all I could think was Masterpiece. And it is. I preordered it, and thought it would be good, but have been burned a few times on preorders, but not this time. I now plan to buy the DLC as well. Great job Ubisoft.