Main game
2.00 average rating based on 1 rating
From a technical perspective, the open world aspect of this game is pretty impressive; unfortunately, pretty much everything else is the opposite.
The driving is floaty and unsuited to the d-pad controls. The shooting is something you'll come to dread, as it's a tossup whether any given enemy will turn out to be a damage sponge, it's worsened by the fact that even if you lose and go back to a checkpoint (which will happen a lot) you do NOT regain any of the ammo you used up on your failed run, and it's truly bizarre to see a game with so much shooting not implement any sort of headshot mechanic the likes of which the medium had already figured out a decade and a half earlier. Even something like the auto-aim system that had been around in the console version of the GTA series for nearly a decade (and was seen in both of the PSP entries which predated this game) would have helped. The stealth sections were probably the most excusable parts of the gameplay, but it's telling that you can complete all of them without looking at the top screen. You can absolutely forget 100%ing the timed …
From a technical perspective, the open world aspect of this game is pretty impressive; unfortunately, pretty much everything else is the opposite.
The driving is floaty and unsuited to the d-pad controls. The shooting is something you'll come to dread, as it's a tossup whether any given enemy will turn out to be a damage sponge, it's worsened by the fact that even if you lose and go back to a checkpoint (which will happen a lot) you do NOT regain any of the ammo you used up on your failed run, and it's truly bizarre to see a game with so much shooting not implement any sort of headshot mechanic the likes of which the medium had already figured out a decade and a half earlier. Even something like the auto-aim system that had been around in the console version of the GTA series for nearly a decade (and was seen in both of the PSP entries which predated this game) would have helped. The stealth sections were probably the most excusable parts of the gameplay, but it's telling that you can complete all of them without looking at the top screen. You can absolutely forget 100%ing the timed challenges.
The most unique aspects of this game are probably the ones that you rarely see and that barely have any impact on the gameplay, like the photography, fiber optics, use of the 3C codes, setting up blockades (which you do a grand total of twice) and assembling squad positions before you raid a room full of enemies (which, for the last of these, I will say it was pretty fun to just dump a dozen of your guys on the other side of the field and let them shoot half the bad guys to death for you). The comic book visuals for the story cutscenes are also fairly nice, but the story itself is nothing special, none of the characters are particularly memorable, and by the time it's over you'll have spent about 10 missions just waiting for it all to finally end.
Overall, while it's worth taking a very cursory look at just for the novelty of the open world aspect on the system, it's not really worth it to play it all the way through, especially if you don't have the same level of jank-masochism that I do.