Romance with ‘Halo’ series fading

I once told you "video games are as good as girlfriends -- and as bad," because games and girls can both be fun, cute, smart, stupid, high maintenance, clumsy, manipulative, and sometimes they won't acknowledge you won a fight they started.

I'm sure all these good and bad traits also could apply to me and other men. I'm just writing from a male perspective.

Anyhow, the new "Halo" sequel "Halo ODST" inspires a new game-girlfriend corollary: Relationships deteriorate (with game series and with significant others), but you keep plugging away, because you hope long-gone magic will return.

I mean, look at the five phases of the "Halo" series so far. It's much like a once-promising relationship on the wane.

When you met "Halo," it was novel and exotic. You could play with it for months. It seemed cool and infatuating.

The next phase, "Halo 2," was not as novel but there was still that joy of repetition, to paraphrase Prince.

"Halo 3" was comfortable, and sometimes redundant.

Then came "Halo Wars," where you had to strategize every move in order to avoid a fight, but inevitably, there'd be a fight, and this grew tiresome.

And now, "Halo ODST" strikes into part five of the relationship: It's trying to resurrect the feelings you got when you met "Halo," by acting similarly, but something seems off, so you don't expect a tight future between the two of you, anymore.

OK, the girl-game corollary sort of ends here with "Halo ODST," because "Halo ODST" turns out to be more fun and thoughtful than a souring relationship.

"Halo ODST" is a shooter set in the 26th century, taking place in the sci-fi time before "Halo 3." You play as a rookie soldier for most of the game. You walk through city streets, blasting aliens with laser guns, machine guns and shotguns.

This main rookie section of the game is unusual for "Halo," because the setting is neo-noir. Exteriors are darkly lighted. The music score is down tempo. And you move alone as this rookie, as opposed to previous "Halos," where you never felt lonely among your bonded buds.

During other, large parts of "ODST," you play flashback battles, where you portray different soldiers who kill aliens in intense firefights. These flashbacks are more "Halo"-like (and entertaining) than the main story line of the game.

I like "ODST's" cheeky, comedic dialogue, which reminds me of the very funny "Halo" spoofs on Machinima.com.

There are two real downers. "ODST" is short. I finished "ODST" in eight hours. So for replay value, I can replay it on the hardest setting, or I can go online for multiplayer action.

And it's not as pretty as "Halo" used to be.

If you do feel lonely playing the solo mission of "Halo ODST," don't fret. You can go online with its multiplayer disc, choosing among 24 maps, three of them new and the rest from previous "Halo" outings. These are multiplayer shootouts, or two-person cooperative blast-outs.

If you feel lonely in real life, get a girlfriend (or a boyfriend). But be ready for the deterioration effect. It is no fun.

("Halo ODST" by Microsoft retails for $60 for Xbox 360 -- Plays fairly fun but too short. Looks good but not great. Challenging. Rated "M" for blood, language and violence. Three stars out of four.)

Contact Doug Elfman at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.