Commenting on a particular product’s “noir influences” is fast-becoming cliché in professional criticism. It’s understandable, though; “noir” can be a useful descriptor if your audience is savvy enough to know its roots. It immediately recalls worlds full of deep shadows, fast-talking private eyes and duplicitous dames. Noir, as those who bandy about the word understand it, is a word suffused with grit and grimness, implying stories full of deep melancholy played out by men with jaws perpetually clenched and fists tightened around concealed pistols. Last Tuesday, though, noir broadened its ambit of description considerably. Now, apparently, it describes videogames where you shoot purple aliens repeatedly in the face and bomb around in battlejeeps with Nathan Fillion.

Despite the developer’s (and several prominent gaming publications’) assertions on film noir’s contributions to Halo: ODST, it seems fair to say that the game would probably be dismissed by even film noir revivalists faster than it would take the Coen brothers to shout: “What have we wrought?!” But is the dismissal righteous, or is it just another way to discount gaming as a legitimate media? Is shooting aliens in the face really the grossest misuse of the term that’s come out of the recent cross-media trend toward revivalism?

Part of the problem is that no one actually agrees on what “noir” means. It began as a term used to describe films made between 1940 and 1959 (and even on these dates, there’s much disagreement) that employed expressionist lighting techniques and incorporated themes of moral ambiguity, sexuality and crime. Now, it seems kosher enough to describe something as “noir” if it shows even the barest glimmer of moral ambiguity, sexuality or crime. And even by these low, low standards for entry, Halo is still just about the least noir-themed game ever made. That is to say it’s simplistically moralist (the story is about a future war with alien invaders), asexual (what little romance that’s existed throughout the series can be summarized by the doodles in a 14-year-old’s feelings journal) and non-crime themed (it’s about a future war with alien invaders). It does employ some expressionist lighting techniques, though. So there’s that.

I suppose all of this has to have a point eventually, so here it is: Leave noir alone, critics. There are lots of good words out there. Find a new one to pick on.