Is it as bad as everybody says it is because I just got a game that requires it and I am not even sure it is worth playing it.

If you spent money purchasing it in the first then why wouldn't you try the game out at the very least? Also, who says Games for Windows Live! is bad?

Every single forum thread on the internet that involves gfwl is riddled with comments about how people using have lost saves or have to restart their computer.

Restart their computer in order to do what? Solve a hard lock, I am going to guess?

I played Batman: Arkham Asylum with it, and it was fine. If you have an Xbox LIVE account, you can just use that, it's the same thing. I'll admit, it's kind of a hassle to set up at the beginning, but once you're in, you stay logged in for however long the game stays installed. So really you just log in the first time you play the game and then forget about it entirely.

Its not nearly as bad as Origin, I'll tell you that. I've got a few games that require it, and the only bugs were with the game itself, usually not with GFWL. At least you don't have to pay for it anymore.

GFWL>Origin+Steam
It works without any problems, and as far as I remember, you don't have to be online to install/play the game.