I heard that exact same description for HalfLife (without the "console" part of course), and luckily my ATi card came with a free copy of HalfLife 2 and HalfLife, so I played it and all I saw was doom/quake all over again, with some dialog and story. And honestly, I prefer the camp of demons and hellish creatures roaming an alien planet that all the pretentious seriousness of HalfLife story, not to say I didn't enjoy it but I definately would never buy it, its another doom clone gameplay wise, with refined physics, but thats it, its about shooting and getting to the next room. The only interesting part, when you get to really use the gravity gun towards the end of HL2, feels more like a minigame, its too short, too underused.
From Halo the only new thing I've seen is vehicles, which really isn't new, and the odd armor system, where they can get you down in one shot. With that in mind I don't see how playing Halo would be different than my experience playing HalfLife, its another damn doom clone, again you shoot everything and go to the next room, I have seen no evidence of the opposite.