The game’s reign in blood is short, but unique and brutal enough to make it one of the most refreshing FPS titles in recent memory.
Halo looks a lot like well you might expect an adaptation of the game would, but it fails to distinguish itself from similar sci-fi fare.
The game runs away from any grand moment of clarity, skipping over self-reflection and settling for the thrill of nostalgia.
The game comes down to the indisputable truth that, when it comes to space travel, the journey is everything.
This spectacle is impressive on its own merits, but it spins the story’s wheels for way too long.
It has its share of fun diversions from the main quest, but the game doesn’t necessarily care if you do any of them.
When a game plays as well as this one does, even a bit of monotony is easily forgivable.
The most interesting thing about the game is its JRPG-influenced fetish for opaque systems.
With only momentary cutscenes and in-game plot sequences affording a brief respite from combat chaos, this FPS piles on enough frantic firefight action to at times be downright draining.
If familiarity occasionally breeds disenchantment, the game’s design is so sharp as to at least refine clichés.
As the fall and winter months barrel down upon us, so does the cavalcade of retail video game releases.
It remains fundamentally about proceeding straight to the next skirmish, killing every enemy in sight, and then escaping to a checkpoint so an ignorable, if attractive, cutscene can begin.
Looking at story, character and design while ignoring interactivity would be akin to analyzing a movie based solely on the script; the entire point of the medium would be lost.