There's also a little bit of strategy involved with the game's environments, which I thought was a nice touch. There's soldiers scattered throughout, and there's a wide variety of explosive canisters and drums just as equally distributed, so you can let loose and watch buildings and houses explode, taking the soldiers with them and leaving fiery carcasses as a result. However, I wish some more was done with the AI balance. Some soldiers are pretty smart, hiding behind objects while taking pot-shots at you, while others are dimwitted enough to just stand out in the open while you mow them down. Also, it seems that they have a bit of invulnerability on their side, as I had to give one particular soldiers three head shots to bring them down. I've heard of someone being "strong-headed" but this is a bit ridiculous.

The game's graphics represent some of the finer environments and detail I've seen in an FPS since, well, Half-Life 2. You're really dropped right into the gritty setting of a war, complete with destroyed vehicles, buildings with torn floorboards and moldy walls, and even grass-filled forests and dank caves that give you the real feeling of going underground. The frame rate is pretty constant, even in the most hectic of explosive situations, and the animation is lovely. There's also cool little "dizzy" effects that hit from time to time, slightly blurring the screen. These occur mostly after explosions or if you're hit a couple of times by gunfire, and add to the realism. But, you gotta admit, the best detail here has to be the environments themselves, and the way they just come apart as the result of your constant gunfire.

As far as the audio, it's as good as it mostly gets. The voice acting stays on target with the seriousness, and refuses to bow down to ridiculous lines of dialogue. It works really well, staying with the military-esque theme. The music is awesome, driving home the point of war and even changing tempo on occasion with the action in the game. And the sound effects are the real meat and potatoes of the game, ruling your speakers with constant gunfire and actually coming close to the point of shaking after you take out a tanker truck- with five soldiers around it. Glory!

But not all is well in Black-land, I'm afraid. Remember when I addressed the lack of multiplayer earlier in the article? Well, it actually takes more of a crucial hit here than it did for Half-Life 2. Why? Well, Half-Life 2 was more engrossing and took a little more time to complete than Black did, so the single player carried it a little bit further. Here, the game will take you six hours to complete either on easy or normal, and then...that's it. You can go through and try to complete the game on a different difficulty, or even go through again and try to find some bonus weapons that really throw some gasoline on the fire, but the appeal is limited the second time around, as you know what ambushes are coming and where soldiers are positioned.

And this is where multiplayer would've saved the day. Black built itself on the basis of having some kick-ass action behind it, and I think multiplayer, against other soldier factions, would've been a key element. The game had the environments to back it, as well as the weapons, so it kind of puzzles me why Criterion skipped the option. After all, didn't these guys thrive on multiplayer competition in Burnout 3: Takedown? I still hop on Xbox Live from time to time to take people down in their shiny coffins (aka cars).

Black has so much going for it, and for those itching to get their FPS face on in Xbox territory, it comes highly recommended...as a rental. During your time with the game, you'll enjoy the adrenaline rush and the constant action that it brings. However, I just wish Criterion thought about the long-term, as the game can only survive so long on such a short push of action. Perhaps with the sequel, we'll see a better realization of this. As is, the sun comes up on Black a bit quicker than I would have liked.