This game without LIVE is like the FPS equivalent of chess. OFFICIAL REVIEW
GamePlay-Just like Halo the gameplay is great the first hour and it declines steadily afterward, although it doesn't give you as much of a migraine as HALO. The screenshots decieve you into thinking the game is somewhat better than it is. You play as an elite and it is honestly somewhat disappointing. Despite the fact that elites have excellent peripheral vision the field of view is the same. The HUD is the same. And the melee-ing is (just as you guessed it) essentially the same. You are the Elite Chieftain, so I guess you've never been trained like the rest of the elites? It is just like being the MasterChief, except you are an elite. They obviously did that for multiplayer balance, but still, such obvious laziness cannot make a good game. The essential shooting mechanics are just, shoot as much as you can, hope you don't run out of ammo for your weak outdated weapons, aim for the head, strafe back and forth randomly, hear yourself being injured, take cover, die, then restart last checkpoint. There is no sprinting in single player just like the first Halo (although the run speed is faster in HALO). The game would be better if it had side strafing and double jumping like Metroid Prime.
Graphics: Although there are more textures than Halo, some of them are actually worse. On my XBOX characters and maps appear after a delay, as well as the texture detail. Although there are some objects with to many repeats, but compared to many XBOX games, the game has excellent gfx.
Sound-There aren't enough musical scores to keep this game going but the music is possibly improved from its predecessor. Multiplayer however would be much improved with background music.
Value-The single player story goes way too fast and you are left sad at the games un-predictable ending, but you will have lots of fun on XBOX live if you have a cable modem.
Tilt-If you are not a die-hard Halo fan, do not buy this game unless you have friends to play it with.
ALTERED REVIEW: If you have a decent player to play with, the multi-player combat is much augmented, allowing your world-view to change entirely on this game.