the story, art direction, and atmosphere are impressive for the time but the gameplay leaves so much to be desired.

in a vacuum, the weighty driving mechanics are fine but when adding in things like needing to move your ass when a timer is involved or you're being chased/doing some chasing it all goes to hell. elsewhere there's interesting moments with missions being surprisingly open ended in approach options but as things progress it just ends up being shootout after shootout with the less than stellar combat.

the cops being up your ass if you so much breathe when within 200 feet of them is obnoxious and doesn't serve any purpose other than annoyance? if you pull over and get a ticket, it gets paid off with no loss (there's no money mechanic to worry about?) and if you decide to try to take off you better hope you escape fast or you're back to dealing with the rancid driving AI.

as an almost crime/mob base immersive sim of sorts this is fascinating but it feels like it came years too soon in terms of design ideas and polish. if i wasn't worried about the supposed plot changes and cuts made to the missions i'd say that i expect the remake to be an all around improvement.

i guess i'll see when i get to it.