Crysis 2

Picked this game up to have an nice mindless shooter and that is sort of exactly what I got. This game has some really good looking graphics, even on the Xbox. Once you get past that though everything else feels rather "ho-hum". 
 
One of the core pieces of the gameplay is the ability to go stealth or use a sort of armor to approach scenarios. While fairly interesting at first, it grows rather tedious once the game progresses. Almost all of the level designs drop you into a large area. You develop a routine where you scan everything from a distance and then proceed through the level. It becomes rather mechanical in its nature. Add to the fact that enemies seem to have the ability to stop and shoot you from hundreds of yards away before I even know they are there and things get a bit frustrating quickly.  
 
Overall the shooting mechanic itself is fair and has a very COD feel. There does not appear to be a huge variety of weapons however throughout the game and enemy types grow repetitive rather quickly.  
 
From a gameplay perspective I have no idea what is going on. There is apparently no background to the events of the first game, which were PC only. The whole premise actually feels pretty weak to be honest. As a soldier dropped into New York under attack, my character seems awfully willing to take orders and directions from people who have no business giving him orders and who never explain to our protagonist why he should be doing what he is doing. They just say get to point "A" and I do it with little understanding to the cause and effect of the situation.  
 
THe end game also grows rather frustrating since the difficulty ramps up by throwing more and more enemies at you. If you played the game in a mostly stealth manner to this point, the last few scenarios make it almost impossible to get through using stealth.