Halo 3: Recon An Open-World Game?

The Recon expansion to Halo 3 is due in fall 2009, which is way too far away for one to muster up any sort of desire for it. However, Recon is a departure from the Halo series in a few different ways and these differences may turn this into a project worth marking on ye olde calendar.

Previously we only knew the basics of the game - you play an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper in New Mombasa during Halo 2 - but now the latest issue of Game Informer (via CVG) has shed further light on the project. The most striking thing is that, for the first time in the series, you'll be allowed to explore. The trooper you control, The Rookie, has been separated from his four teammates and must navigate through New Mombasa to find them. You can head to the last-known coordinates of your teammates in any order and presumably there'll be some fun stuff to do/kill on the way to each of these locations.

When you reach one of the four waypoints, the Rookie will see clues that his comrade was there (ex: a sniper rifle hanging from a street light). Then he'll make like Willem Dafoe's character in Boondock Saints and piece together what happened at the scene. The game will then go into a flashback and put you in control of the teammate. These flashbacks are the sort of linear levels that you'd expect from Halo games. Playing as the ODST's will be different than controlling Master Chief, though. Specifically, you'll no longer have shields, a motion sensor, or the ability to dual-wield weapons. While you might encounter familiar enemies from previous Halo games, the tactics you must utilize to defeat them will be different.

I'm curious how extensive the exploration portion of Recon ends up being. The expansion's said to be only 3-5 hours long so it's probably not that involved but we'll see. If nothing else, it could signal that the series is moving toward a more open-ended model with Halo 4 and beyond.