I want to echo the sentiments of most of the people who have posted in this thread so far. SHIV is visually fantastic, but there are a number of serious flaws that make the game a bear to play. Ubisoft has done a wonderful job producing the game, but they were probably forced to release it before the developers were entirely happy with the end-product.
Let me reiterate - I really think the developers did a great job. They should simply stomp out a few of the experience-killing bugs. As always, the mod community will do the fine tweaking to make the game more enjoyable.
Thanks Ubisoft for such a good game, just continue to support it!
Tom Dean