This game starts slow and builds from there. I thought I was going to die of boredom the first 15 minutes of it, but once I got through that, it was actually very good.
However, a criticism I make of many of these type of games is the drive to be more realistic, while giving the AI unrealistic abilities. It always annoys me when the cops are driving their cars they are demons behind the wheel, forcing their machines to do things you could never dream of. But when you steal their wheels they are not very good at all.
There were many interesting moments in this game, and the level design and progression seemed well thought out for the most part, though I was annoyed at a video game making me follow traffic laws, it melted into the background after a while.
I would have rated it higher if they had had more variety to the music.