Another fun, run-of-the-mill FPS where weapons are the protagonist
Environment are not the only thing that RFOM borrows from classics like Halo, COD and Half Life. It plays very similarly to, which is definitely not a bad thing. Even though the difficulty level is not incredibly high, the games requires a fairly tactical approach and the use of cover is essential. A good knowledge of the weapons is also critical to succeed. This is where RFOM really shines with weapons never before seen in an FPS. Besides your typical machine gun (lifted straight from WWII), shotgun and missile-launcher, you have really cool alien weapons. In particular, one is a machine gun that allows you to tag enemies and subsequently hit them with tag-seeking bullets. Another one allows you to identify and shot enemies through walls, while another shoots ricocheting laser needles. Mastering each weapon becomes important to get through some of the game's toughest sections, where your typical Halo approach would get you immediately shot.
The game s well paced and alternates very intense, large battle sequences with more tactical situations requiring the use of sniper rifles or, as mentioned before, specific weapons. Vehicle levels (pulled directly from Halo even though Halo are thrown in for good measure and overall work pretty well. Halo does a better job at integrating them in the overall stream of the game (here you separate have vehicle and on-foot sequences) and they are not particularly challenging but are a nice variation.
Enemies are quite smart and offer a substantial challenge, forcing to you to think through the situation as opposed to get in a room and shoot everybody. The game also does a good job at not frustrating you and making you feel rewarded when you put up a good fight. The absence of bosses is quite disappointing. The few that are there are not particularly tough and get recycled a lot. This culminates in the final level where you would expect to fight something BIG but ... you don't. Level design is good but not particularly varied, bot in terms of situations and sceneries. You basically have indoor houses, city streets, country and alien base. Structurally, the game relies way more on the placement of covers to drive the action than in the design of the levels.
Graphically the game does a good job at rendering indoor and outdoor environment, even though you will rarely be blown away by what you see. The alien structures are particularly well done (but very unoriginal, being a mix of Half Life 2 and Halo), the cities are just OK. Not bad but CoD has done a better job in the past. You will come across blurry textures, low-poly objects and other little things that makes the game feel less alive than it should. Enemy models are great and animation are on par. Also noticeable are the smoke and fire particle effects.
Sonically the RFOM is great. Weapons and explosions are on point. Music accompanies the action appropriately without being intrusive and voice acting (mainly in the story-telling sequences) is good.
The campaign is probably 10-12 hours long, and after you get to the (disappointing) conclusion, you feel you have experienced all the game had to offer. There is on-line as well but I haven't tried it.
All in all a good game, the closest thing to Halo on the PS3 - that makes it particularly worthy if you don't own a 360.