Picked this up last night and it is just fantastic. It is a true evolution of the "final fight/double dragon" genre of beat them ups. It shares a lot with R*'s other games and is a hybrid between GTA and Manhunt.
If you grew up with the film, this game will just blow you away with its geeky homage to the film. The intro and first few minutes are just fan service to the extreme. The idea that the actual game starts about 3 months prior to the start of the film is great and allows the gamer to still play the cool moments of the film without being constrained by it at all.
As far as a game goes, the combat is fun and complex enough to feel pretty fresh whenever you encounter it. Between combat are GTA style things such as tagging, robbing people, stealing, and breaking into places. All of these activites play as mini games and are fun. The glue that holds all of this together is a really well thought out story and lots of in game cinemas. You never just run from one place to another, there is always a reason. There is a lot of stratagy involved too since you often have huge scale fights in which you are backed up by 8 other game members who you can order around. almost any object cn be used as a weapon, including you picking up bad guys and swinging them around.
Graphics are great and the sound/music is amazing. When trains rumble through the whole screen shakes... The music is dead on 70's techno... The voice acting is as professional as in GTA.
Controls are spot on too, and come as second nature.
My score? So far 9/10. A great diversion that is keeping me from playing other games.
If you are not a fan of the movie, you may wanna rent first... If you are a fan of the film, buy it now.
