this is a super cool GAME. story, is, like okay. i am fine with the meta-narrative aspect, i like when games call me a piece of shit (and I don't even think the game is doing that, i think it's calling the US military a piece of shit and it's nice for at least one game to do that even with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, the likelihood of getting another game like this seems slim).

but war crimes and horrific immersive in-game violence aside, this is a really well put together game with some generic cover shooting and a generic nolan north voice performance hiding some great sand and glass related set pieces in plain sight. this has some of the richest oranges and blues i've ever seen in AAA game as well (perhaps that's what hurts it the most, that even if the colour pallete is trying to lull you in to a darker story, the aesthetic never actually shifts to match it, unlike kane & lynch 2 which committed the entire game through to being completely hideous. the psychedelic rock soundtrack also makes me want to play it again which seems bad for a game where you kill about 60 innocent local civilians in order to advance)