I finally got around to playing this "legendary" game. Does it live up to the hype?

It some areas yes, and in others I was disappointed. This game shines the most in the open ended ways to get though situations. The game throws seemly impossible situations at you but most of the time there's another way if you look around. The story has a lot of layers. On the surface, you are stopping terrorists, fighting against a malevolent organization, saving the world from a virus, uncovering the illuminati. But, it gets deep, talking about not only real world issues but arguably the biggest ones that's shaping everything about our civilization and giving us a glimpse of how it works and where it's taking us. I haven't seen any other game come close to this in terms of a story that has so much real world content in it.

Sometimes things can get a bit overwhelming, though. You'll have 5 people calling you in a row talking about things while you are in the middle of fighting. A few areas of the game are complete BS. I had no clue how the game wanted me get past certain parts. So, I had to basically brute force my way through.

I loved all the different locations around the world you visit. Highlights for me were Hong Kong and the underwater base. Paris would have been cool to explore without worrying about being seen. I didn't get to explore it as much as I'd like.

Also, it's also worth mentioning, I played on realistic difficulty as I was told that was the best way to play the game. Now that I've finally finished the game. I would not recommend you play on realistic for your first playthrough. You really have to explore every nook and cranny for ammo because there's parts of the game if you don't have much ammo, you are basically screwed. I spent days on parts that only should have taken minutes.

With that being said, amazing game. I can see why so many regard this as the best game of all time.