I prefer these to the GTA series, but overall, the content is probably worse. Constant explicit unprovoked swearing immediately are a negative. However, the map is massive, and you have the ability to actually explore indoor areas like nightclubs and supermarkets. Not for kids.
It does have a lot curses, but it has a good message. In the game your a cop fighting crime. Nothing wrong with that. You can choose to be a good cop or a bad cop. I thought it was a good game.
its sumwhat violent and has some language but by the time a kid is in fifth grade they know all the meanings of those words and can handle them. violence and blood are involved but what makes this game differ from grand theft auto is that you play as a cop and can choose to do good. it is extremely fun and u could always turn low the volume and turn off subtitles so that u cannot hear the swearing or see it at the bottom of the screen. a lot of kids will wanna play this so let them get this. remember, just because you bought this one doesn't give them a right to get every "M" game in sight.
I played this game for the first time in 5th grade. Was it appropriate for me? No. Was it a blast? Yes. I was a super-crime fighting badass and that's what makes this game so cool to me.
If your kid's killing innocents and selling evidence it's entirely their choice. It's tempting at times to go on a rampage, but it is indeed a healthy release.
Bad guys are bad, and the "good" guys who're bad gets what was coming to 'em.
There's sex shops and strip clubs, the pedestrians swear almost infallibly, and there's tons of gore, (beheading old women is a particularly gratuitous example) you can involve yourself in illegal fighting circuits and street racing syndicates, and the story from the start is about a drug cartel, but as the M rating suggests, anyone Seventeen or older can handle this.
(I'm fifteen and re-own it after trading it for Golden Sun on GBA)