I had the opportunity to play this game, and surprise surprise it isn't just a standard 1st person shooter. If anything, it's similar to mass effect. It is a tongue-in-cheek fun to play Role playing strategy game.

Examples: I head-shot someone: My character laughs to herself and says "i'm really good at this" or i level up and she gives an evil "Is there NO Limit To My POWER?!?"

And of course plenty of achievements to unlock, which all grant xp, diminishing xp returns for killing bad-guys, a vehicle control (and personal shield) setup obviously ripped directly from HALO, and this game is a real winner. I've spent hours playing it. And your character is fully customizable with four character classes and a skill tree for each. What fun.
I give it a 9 out of 10.

pro:
runs on a relatively weak system by today's standards (4.0 vista experience index, recommends a 5.0)
unlimited levels
equipment upgrades
powerups
tongue-in-cheek humor, including little robots that remind you of wall-e
an original plot
original monsters
fun gameplay in general
a skill progression with unique abilities for each character class.

cons:
creatures can respawn with you literally right on top of them. I saw a bandit blink into existence fully armed about 5 foot in front of me.
The game has "respawn points" for when you die. This makes it easy to cheat in some cases because while hitpoints on creatures reset to full when you die, dead ones stay dead. Therefore if you wade into a herd of monsters you can pick off one at a time before you die, then run back and kill another one.

It's a keeper. I have it now.

p.s. thanks to a Best-Buy black-friday sale, i also am now the proud owner of Bioshock ($5), Far-cry 2 ($5), and Assassin's Creed ($5).

As for assassin's creed, i would have to say this game has the highest recommended vista index i've seen to date with 5.5, and absolutely REQUIRES a 5.0. And trust me, it needs it. my 2gb core2duo system with ddr3 system ram? The game was completely unplayable on it. I had to install it on my main system (4gb ddr2, 8600 gt nvidia, phenom x4 9600) to enjoy it.