
Come on breh going with that logic Crysis would've been the highest rated game of all time by now. Ryse would be rated very high right now. The game being "bland as fukk" in your words confuses me, is it the intentional art style that's "bland" to you?? The atmosphere is supposed to convey a war torn planet with gritty locales with drab art to get the point across.
The story in particular isn't nothing impressive but again a good shooting game doesn't need to have the best writing in the world to be great. The game being great also owes itself for it's unique MP.
Telling me the user rating is an 8.1 is silly because games usually have lower user ratings due to anyone being able to write a review for it.
Halo 3 has a 7.7 user rating, would you like to explain that?
http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/halo-3
Not liking a game is

but trying to tell someone it's only gotten praise due to it's graphics is silly as there's plenty of graphical showcases with low scores i.e. Ryse. Hell have you even played the shyt?