Yeah destruction is cool.
Alright so I picked up the game last night and played a few hours.
So far it is very fun. There are lots of guys to shoot and lots of things to blow apart. One of the best levels I have gone though so far is the graveyard level. You start out at the beginning of a graveyard with a sniper at the other end. Its pretty intense running around behind grave stones and having them explode and expose you as the sniper tries picking you off. Another great scene was going to a warehouse whose one whole wall was a window (kinda like you would see in an airplane hangar) and exploding barrels in front of the windows. The whole side of the building blows out with shards of glass flying all over the place.
One of the problems reviewers had with the game is the pacing. Its fast paced the entire time with almost no time to rest. Once you clear out an area its kinda nice to just walk around at your leisure and destroy things before you move to the next wave of guys. Also the length of the game is kind of disappointing. You do tend to move though levels slowly as you really need to utilize cover. this is not a run and gun type of game. But there are only 8 levels (I think) and I have made it though 4 or 5 already.
The graphics are great. The smoke and sparks and explosions look fantastic. The lighting in areas of the warehouse looks really good. You see light beaming in through windows and through smoke and dust.
So far I would give it about an 8.5 out of 10
I can’t wait to play this game… 
does it run in 1080i?
bought it and all I can say is HELL FUCKING YEAH…
here’s part of an e-mail I sent my buddy about this.
One of the coolest things about Black is the visuals and how realistic they are. It’s setup in widescreen HD, natch! Chunky dirt when a 40mm grenade hits the ground, blue flame when a gas tank goes up, flying glass shards when a frag detonates in a town. Reload a gun, and your vision blurs as the clips are locked in. Dust kicks up from missed shots.
It wasn’t even twenty years ago when cutting edge was 256 color sprite animations and 8-bit processors. Now… The sound effects (like an RPG for example) sound like they were captured from actual weaponry or from movie soundtracks. “Fwissssssssssssh-screeeeEEEE!” Also sweet is the deformable terrain objects - throw a grenade near a wall and part of the wall comes down. The background for the title screen is high-render weapons being loaded, fired, and reloaded. Ugh.
lotta fun!
-edit- I really hope there’s more than 8 levels, but after beating the piss outta the second level on normal, I had 8% completion. keep in mind that this took about an hour and twenty minutes of roaming through a pretty big forest environment, lot of “hide-and-seek” action.
this is a great game. I got pretty far, to the bridge level. i’m only on easy but it is getting harder. the graphics are amazing, blowup everything you can see which helps some time.
I’m actually stuck at the bridge level right now. I only tried it once, but those dudes with the armor and shotguns really do a number on me.
there’s a rocket launcher up on the scafolding early on. helps a little with those pesky shotgun-toting maniacs.
after the second rpg, watch out for the landmines, the first time i tried, they told me to clear the minefield as i stepped on a mine, but whatever, got through it much quicker after. I just beat the game, i don’t like the ending story. it just stops.