The human factor in the war-is-hell scenes (which feature a horse-loving German officer, played by Peter Hermann) is less convincingly drawn, incorporating clichés that have been staples of combat-theme films since the dawn of movies.
But even those comedies often have dark undercurrents, as with the combat-theme "Tropic Thunder," an August release directed by Ben Stiller, or the stoner crime caper "Pineapple Express" with Seth Rogen.
Beneath the game's balletic, stop/start combat are themes of susceptibility and conformity – the more your character, or perhaps you, accept what you are told, the more ensnared in an enigmatic, assimilative system you become.
In a more militaristic variation on the reality theme, "Combat Missions," also created for USA, features teams of ex-Green Berets, ex-Navy Seals and other elite-force types dropping from helicopters, storming rooftops and braving staged explosions to rescue simulated hostages.
O'Donnell confirmed that the chanting monks of Halo: Combat Evolveds choral theme, along with additional guitars by Steve Vai, would return in Halo 2. O'Donnell noted that the new setting of Africa prompted him to look at "Afro-Cuban" influences, but most of this type of music did not make it to the final product.
But his most common theme is combat, and how it affects those who have the least say in it, "those whom geography condemns to war".Mr Fenton describes visiting an orphanage of exiled Cambodian children, each "caught in the tight security of grief".
Combat is a sub-theme: no military hand goes unshaken.
The game, which revolves around fantasy-themed dungeon combat, is one of the most keenly awaited titles of the last decade.
While Down Terrace also had themes of combat – its bent protagonists represented Blair, Wheatley explains, "and they waged war on all these other people cause they thought they were right", Kill List is largely about a small business failing.
