The characters are great and there's lots of interesting flavour, but no amount of flavour and fun characters can make up for how dull this is to actually play. If you actually want to chat with the other characters (which have way more expanded stories than other titles in the series), this ends up being... most of your playtime. Some missions are fun, some are alright, but if you're actually playing the game to its full potential there isn't a lot of active time here. And the new matrix setup is frankly awful. Why put a timing and memory minigame into an rpg that was previously exclusively turn-based combat and dialogue trees? (If you play turn-based rpgs because you find games involving timing and memory stressful, don't get this game - just don't.) Even if you like this kind of setup, it doesn't deliver - you can't use your programs while in stealth in the matrix, which means a lot of them aren't really working to their potential. What's the point in a skill that lets you sneak faster in the matrix if you can only use it once you've been caught?
