Halo 3 Recon Details Hit, Set New Mombasa on Fire

As we all learned back in late September, Halo 3 Recon is on its way, bringing with it a new 3-to-5 hour adventure starring not Master Chief but an unnamed ODST instead (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers for the laymen in the crowd). Well today, Joystiq brings news (by way of Game Informer magazine — you know, that thing that your mom throws out once a month?) that Halo 3 Recon will be an open-world game, “not a full, $60 title” and if you play it real nice, it’ll give you the highly sought after “Recon” armor (okay, so you actually have to complete the zero-point “Vidmaster” achievement for the armor). More details after the break.

CVG has more details, informing us that the game is framed around a lone ODST named “The Rookie” who has landed on New Mombasa during the events of Halo 2 and he’s on a mission to find four lost squadmates. We already know two of said squadmates — Dutch is “a big guy” and an explosives man, and Romeo is a sniper who’s “kind of a dick”, according to the GI piece.

Due to the open-world quality of H3R, you’ll be outfitted with a PDA for all your GPS tracking needs, a silenced SMG for sneakily chumpatizin’ fools and a helpful visualizer replacing the Chief’s motion-sensing capabilities. The game will be broken up into several story pieces, each activated upon encountering a specific item (portkey, anyone?) which will then transport the player into that particular squadmates shoes. Bungie Creative Director Joe Staten explained this to GI by saying, “This isn’t a crazy dream sequence or metaphorical journey that the object allows you to do. It works just like any detective show, Cold Case or Law & Order or whatever, where a detective can arrive at a crime scene, look at the chalk drawings and bullet holes and see what’s going on. He hears some echoey voices and the camera crossfades and now you’re at the scene of the crime two hours ago.” Halo 3 Recon is clearly shaping up to be a larger excursion into the Halo world than we had previously imagined. We’ll of course have more updates for you and your Halo-huggin’ self as they hit.