Following the unveiling of the not-unexpected Halo 3 expansion pack, Recon, Bungie has added a bit more flesh to the bones of the announcement.

The information came courtesy of Bungie.net community lead Brian Jarrard and Luke Smith ('Venn Diagram of Awesome' at Bungie, according to his staff profile).

"In a nutshell, Halo 3 Recon is essentially an expansion, but it is also a standalone retail product", said Jarrard. There are now plans to later distribute the game via download. He also stated, “It's certainly a one-off thing." In other words - don't expect a new sub-franchise along the lines of Halo Wars. "From Bungie's perspective, this is just us giving back to people who are currently playing Halo 3 and keeping that trilogy and that saga going a little bit longer."

Getting on to the actual content, Jarrard explained, “You will be playing the role of an ODST [Orbital Drop Shock Trooper], and the Master Chief will not be featured in this game in any way.” Smith expanded, saying, "So the events of the trailer (below, if you missed it) take place just as the Covenant blasts out of the city in end of Halo 2. So while the Master Chief is off on Delta Halo, which is where the original 'Helljumpers' [ODSTs] were introduced, you're back on Earth in the Covenant-occupied city of New Mombasa."

Pressed on whether the action is tied to New Mombasa, Smith added, "It's less of a galactic romp than Halo 2 and Halo 3, certainly." He further stated that the action is rooted in the city environments of the trailer.

Jarrard and Smith stated that this is not, as has been rumoured, a third-person game. Nor is it squad-based. Given the fact the lead character won't have any of Master Chief's superhuman qualities, however, combat will be different to previous Halo games.

The whole thing dovetails very closely with rumours SPOnG brought you back in July.

Jarrard reiterated that this is not the only project Bungie is working on right now. "This is the first time we've tried to have a smaller, nimble, more agile team of people on a project while the rest of the team tackles other projects." Many of those team members are Bungie vets, having been with the developer since Halo: Combat Evolved.

For more details on the game, take a look at the fact sheet.



^{Source: GameSpot}