Halo: Reach

The Good
The graphics are gorgeous and evoke the feelings of a high-concept sci-fi novel trying to give off cyber-punk vibes mixed with the high-tech aesthetics of Mass Effect and the Star Wars Universe. The gameplay is nice and fast, and the action's got some real nice bite to it whenever you blow aliens to kingdom come.

It's a spectacle with not so repetitive level design which has plagued the other Halo games, and its story of following ragtag soldiers whom you don't know whether or not they'll survive the story is a nice twist to the prequel complex of storytelling.

The Bad
The characters, while nice and easy to identify and imagine, leave something to be desired as they're not very well fleshed out in the story and serve more to give the player empowerment as opposed to their own in-universe relevance in the story.

While I mentioned the prequel thing is unique to the story, there is still a sense of 'we're going to get a plot beat from the original [Halo], aren't we' vibe through Dr. Halsey's giving of Cortana to the Spartans in the game. It just seems a little pandering to me.

The Bottom Line
It's gaming's equivalent to the Star Wars and Alien movies: it's a high-concept adventure covering one faction of the greater space-time continuum we live in.

It's Goldeneye meets Half Life, evoking the movies of James Cameron in the 80s and 90s.