"overbearing story" is not quite right. The author has clearly not explored the game in an indepth way a reviewer should. You can completely ignore the story actually and do whatever you like to do. Turn off subtitles and voices, bam done you're free to do anything and you can unlock everything else except for the…

Would get pretty boring quickly if you had to drive several days just to get to a mission location in game. Seems like a non-argument to me..

Well, the hours of repetition are enjoyable because the mechanics are. The driving in this game is fun, most of the goals and objectives are fun (take down and escape missions are exceptions). Actually playing the game is an enjoyable experience. That is the only thing that matters in any game.

Sorry not a native speaker, what do you mean?

If someone doesn't want repetition, he/she should play a new game every day.

Considering this is an MMO style game, 2 hours is absolutely nothing. Actually, even if it wasn't an MMO style game that is very quick. That is my point. Did not expect to have several nearly maxed out cars within 2 weeks. And I'm not even a hardcore player.

"Building up the cars that make any of that adventure worthwhile, sadly, takes hours of joyless repetition, along with the Herculean task of not throwing your controller every time a gentle tap causes your car to spin out wildly and get stuck on a parking curb. "