As interesting as the settings and situations are in Halo and Black Ops II, they’re practically irrelevant to those who enjoy these games. Shooters engage people as a presentation of conundrums that last as long as a quick exchange of gunfire and that are eligible for a painless do-over after any failure.

Someone once said that video games were really just about cleaning, about finding the right tools to scrub enemies from a scene. In Halo games the vacuum, mop and dust rag have been the gun, the grenade and the melee. Recent versions have added equipment like jetpacks or, in Halo 4, a floating sentry turret and glide jets, among other things. The typical encounter has involved approaching an enemy force and maybe tossing a grenade to make it scramble or drop its shields, then shooting it to soften it up further, then running in to punch it, then hanging back to heal rapidly.

Halo 4, which plays more like a stunningly beautiful remake than like a sequel, does little to change this other than to introduce one excellent new enemy, the Promethean. This bad guy is a sort of robo-knight who is often abetted by machine-gun-armed attack dogs and a floating turret that can douse the knight with shields or even revive it. The Promethean presents a challenge for players who must decide during encounter after encounter in which order to eliminate those foes and with which weapons.

The best experience involves cranking the difficulty to Heroic and engaging a set of enemies, trying new strategies repeatedly and scavenging weapons or equipment from the battlefield until the right solution is found, and the enemies are dusted. These phases of stressed decision-making are training for the more unpredictable encounters with rival players in the competitive multiplayer mode. A good minute of Halo combat is like a good minute in the gym: The rest of your life is momentarily forgotten while you sweat it out, and then you’re happy that the challenge is done, and that you are in some way improved.