A massive improvement over 2, and definitely my favourite in the series. Combat is faster and less frustrating, the story is less intrusive, and the set pieces are actually a lot of fun this time around.

Some of the levels don't really work: the boat level is slow enough to feel boring, and the train level similarly feels too easy as there's not really much going on. Other than this, I loved the road trip feel of this one, with the levels actually feeling like you are making progress toward New York. The final section of the game is some of the strongest gameplay in the series, and I think it wraps up well.

The gunplay is also more fun, with the weapon wheel back from 1 giving you more choice. The enemies are less annoying, with the invisible 1-shot kill enemies a thing of the past. I feel like they got the balance right with this one. It takes everything that worked from the first two and actually stands alone as a decent shooter. If this had been the first game, I think maybe the series would have done a little better.

This is probably the worst FPS I've ever played, and one of the worst games overall that I've ever experienced.

Every encounter was an exercise in frustration. From the invisible enemies, to cramming 3 minibosses at a time into tiny playing fields, to getting downed by 3 or 4 shots, this game felt like it hadn't even been play tested.

The shooting is marginally better than the first one, but everything else that made the first game slightly interesting is gone. The setting is replaced by generic sci-fi, the plot is somehow even worse and more convoluted, the characters are boring, the boss fights are laughable, and the level design is the equivalent of a 10-year-old's Halo Forge creation. There's no flow to anything, and the game throws you from area to area without ever really telling you why you should care.

For the first third of the game I was enjoying myself, but once I hit the spaceship the quality control fell off a cliff. I can't believe the spaceship level ends with someone accidentally setting off explosives, forcing you to evacuate, it felt like they just gave up. That's how the rest of the game felt to me, too: half baked levels with vaguely interesting ideas marred by terrible enemy placement and boring, plodding plot.

I'm in too deep with this series now and bought both 2 and 3 when I played 1 so I'm going to have to see it through either way. I have truly run out of anything good to play.