I'm a big fan of (most of) the Grand Theft Auto series, and I got my start with GTA 2, which American Fugitive was very much inspired by. So this is ideally right up my alley. I'm a fair way into the introductory missions, and thus far I am feelin' good about it. Breakin' tha law, breakin' tha law!
Closing in on 9 hours with American Fugitive, and . . . it's alright. I mean, I'm enjoying it, I'm still playing it, I do intend to finish it. I've found a core set of vehicles that I like, it does hit those GTA gameplay vibes, and I do feel some investment in the story and characters. It's just-
The game lacks a bit of polish and cohesive direction. In the attached screenshot the game is telling me I need to return to the vehicle in 10 seconds, despite the fact that I am obviously in a vehicle and not in a mission that requires me to be in a vehicle.
These sorts of bugs and glitches aren't constant, nor have I run into any that are actually game breaking, but it does still happen enough to be annoying. The above glitch stayed in place until I eventually shut the game off and restarted it, which definitely isn't great.
More problematic is the way the game's tone bounces around from time to time. Every once in a while it's like the writer(s) remember, oh yeah, this is a GTA-like, and some over-the-top and usually violent humor leaks out, like one mission about cleaning up hopping garbage bags for a serial killer.
And honestly I wouldn't have an issue with this except the rest of the game generally stays within the bounds of being serious and somewhat realistic. And, unfortunately, a little bland. I am still invested, as I said, but not like *super* invested.
Aaaaand American Fugitive is done. It was, as I said, alright. Not great, not awful. Just okay. The main problem is that while it wears its GTA lineage on its sleeve, it also doesn't bring anything new to the table. It doesn't even do things AS WELL as most GTA games do.
So ultimately, the question I had to ask myself was, why play this when you could just play GTA instead? And yeah, ultimately, my recommendation is that folks should just play GTA instead. Or Saints Row or what have you, anything else that's similar and isn't "just okay".