Against my better judgement (sort of like sticking my head in the P&R forum here LOL) I went ahead and purchased this.
I have 15 hours in and only now at 15 hours do I start to see some of the paint peeling off the nice exterior. But I haven’t uncovered anything that wasn’t already stated in the numerous reviews, I guess I just don’t see it as harshly as other reviewers did.
The characters, GI Joe shtick, cutscenes, story and overall campy humor are quite good which is no surprise. The synergy (or lack thereof) between the various characters is fun to play around with as well. The city design is serviceable, but not as horrid as others have said. And I never really had a problem with situational awareness maybe because I knew what to look for on the screen regarding taking hits, etc.
What is horrid though, is the absolute repetition of the missions that aren’t story missions. I see why people nailed this title pretty hard on this one thing. They are literally the same mission copypasta style over and over and over. Endless bases with the same few rooms reused ad infinitum. This is what is dragging the game down for me heavily.
The strength of the story and characters has me slogging through but man the mission design is so uninspired by comparison. I also would not have been happy with this as a full price title. I got it for about US $40 so at that price point I can’t complain.