Underneath the server issues and the Uplay issues and the piss poor coding it is a good game, its a lot of fun because its a lot like GTA.
The story is a bit lack luster and annoying but the Main Story missions are fun, I've enjoyed them all. The side missions/activities are also decent...some of them have a definite saints row 3 feel, like the spider tank.
The reason there is so much hate though...The game is a piss poor console port...Ubisoft fucked over PC gamers and have yet to say or do something about it, no news on patching/optimizing ect. Some people can't even get the game to launch (James).