WILD APPLAUSEHalo 3: ODST: Action first-person shooter. Developer: Bungie. Publisher: Microsoft. $59.99 for the Xbox 360. ESRB Rating: Mature.

The details of the Master Chief and his outer space battle against the Covenant, a theological confederation of alien races, can easily overwhelm anyone just stepping into Microsoft's Halo, a space opera franchise that stretches across several games. Instead the recently released Halo 3: ODST sets aside its iconic super soldier and brings the series back to Earth where a highly trained force of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) infiltrates a Covenant-occupied city of New Mombasa while only offering glimpses of the greater events in the Halo universe. Though with a short campaign that finishes in a few hours, ODST has a lot to offer in something billed as merely an expansion title, thanks to the exciting cooperative mode, Firefight.

As the opening mission goes astray, you take the role of the faceless Rookie who awakens hours later from a hard crash-landing in a ruined and abandoned city. The Rookie becomes a device that drives the storytelling as you search for clues to your missing squad mates. With each discovered clue, you flash back into the role of one of your missing crew, who forged ahead hours before, surviving and seeking their next objective through a series of intense action sequences in New Mombasa. In contrast, the Rookie wanders through the quiet desolate night, driven by the game's moody jazz soundtrack reminiscent of the film "Blade Runner."

The solo campaign isn't reinventing the wheel, nor was it meant to be Halo 4. The previous titles were filled with open spaces of carnage while ODST is taking the Halo franchise into a tight urban environment. Without the genetic enhancements of the super soldier Master Chief, ODST members are simply humans who rely on their tactical skills rather than charging with guns blazing. ODST is really a new Halo game to push out the super- addictive cooperative multiplayer mode, Firefight, which is similar to Gears of War 2's Horde mode or Left 4 Dead's game play.

Firefight allows up to four players to stand their ground, blasting their way through waves of Covenant baddies. From the 10 different levels to choose from, there's an array of arsenal and vehicles at your disposal. With each new round, the game play changes difficulty with different combinations of seven modifiers known as skulls taking effect. Once, tiny witless Grunts with their pea-shooters become the aggressors, lobbing five too many grenades in your direction with deadly accuracy. The less favorite skull is the Black Eye, requiring you to melee an enemy to regenerate health. With a shared pool of lives, Firefight requires a strong sense of teamwork needing to cover each other's backside. If cooperation isn't in your vocabulary, along with ODST, a second stand-alone disc offers all the multiplayer maps from the original Halo 3 for player-vs.-player death match.

The Halo 3 in the title is a misnomer, and the game should have been named ODST: A Halo Saga so it wouldn't have to carry the weight of the franchise. Although it might not satisfy its hard-core fan base known as Halo Nation, Halo 3: ODST is a smartly produced spin-off with a solidly made solo campaign with a heart-pounding multiplayer that no gamer should miss out on.

New game releases

For the week of Oct. 11-17 (partial list):

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for PS3

Brutal Legends for PS3