I played that game because I got it really cheap preowned (which hilariously this same guy said destroyed the franchise, whoops) and while I found it strangely compelling in it's own way (it probably helped that I played it during peak covid lockdown so I was in the mood for open world games I could kind of veg out to) a lot of the writing was baffling at best and incredibly hackneyed at worst - The main character is also by far the most boring which is certainly a problem.

There's a throwaway line of dialogue from a minor character about how in LA during the outbreak the LAPD all abandoned their posts and it was down to the local street/biker gangs to put their differences aside and protect the city which sounds like a way better premise for a game than the one we got.