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Beautifully executed game destroyed by its save system

Everything others have said about the brilliance of this game and the attention to detail is true. I won't repeat it.
This is another game where you have to unlock possibilities by completing missions, so claims about how freeform or nonlinear it is are exaggerated. This becomes a problem, given what I describe below.

Why, then, am I giving this game such a low rating?

Simply put, this game manages to squander all of its assets by a typically frustrating console save game structure.
Many of you will be familiar with the problem I describe, but I'm going to do so, in some detail, to make clear what a tedious chore this game can become.

I can't emphasize enough how this will leave everyone, but the die hard game fanatic, wanting to put their fist through the monitor and throw the keyboard across the room(and I am generally an easygoing person, not inclined to violence).

You can save, outside a mission, by entering a particular hotel or buying other buildings for save points throughout the city. So far, so good.
You can't save during a mission, however.
Typical scenario. You go to location A to get a cut scene describing the mission. This sends you to location B in preparation for the mission(to meet someone or change clothes for the mission). Then you head to C where you might have to protect someone by gunning down baddies. After a series of shootouts, and 20 minutes into the mission, you get a cut scene which prepares you for a chase. You jump a bike and prepare to give chase but mistype a key and hit an obstacle being thrown from the bike. Before you can get back on the bike the mission ends in failure, since you lost the chase. At this point you get to go back to location A and retrigger the mission.

Here's another, though this is a sub-mission and thankfully doesn't have to be completed to advance the story. You steal an ambulance and try to complete a series of 12 levels. Each level requires that you race around picking up the number of wounded corresponding to the level number and deliver them to the hospital within the time limit provided. Sound like fun?
You can't save between levels; the timer countdown continues. You could play perfectly to level 11 and accidentally hit the f key(which causes you to exit your vehicle) or you could accidentally hit one of the victims and kill them. You know what happens. Forty minutes of your time wasted and you get to start over at level ONE.

By this time you will probably be wondering if this is a game or a sadistic experiment in psychological torture. One thing it isn't, is FUN.

In short, if you are the type of person who loves the typical console save system and playing missions over and over until you get the execution down perfectly, you will likely love this game. If you are not, I have to warn you strongly to avoid this game. I regret my purchase and I regret giving money to a company that would put me through the frustration I endured. I doubt I will ever bother completing this game. My time is worth too much to me.

What a bitter disappointment. Another brilliant game turned from joy to mind numbing frustration by the supremely idiotic choice of save game system coupled with sadistic mission completion requirements.