- How am I going to get this thing? Recon is a standalone retail disc; no downloads, no ownership of Halo 3 required. There aren't any official pricing details yet, but you can bet it will run a cool $60 like all top-tier 360 games when it's out in fall '09.
A Spartan he ain't. - What's it about? The game takes place during the latter half of Halo 2, while Master Chief is kicking it on Delta Halo. You play as a lone ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) stranded in the embattled New Mombasa just after the Prophet of Regret rudely performs a slipspace jump and sunders the city in the process. It's your job to perform mop-up and get the bad guys out of there. Lucky you!
- Does it play like Halo? Yes and no. It's a first-person game set in the Halo universe; in Jarrard's words, it "will feel like a Halo game." At the same time, your ODST is no badass cybernetic supersoldier. He's just "one lone guy in a Covenant-occupied city," which will dictate a more reserved, tactical play style. (I bet Bungie works up some lesser enemies for you to square off with too, though.)
- How much Halo 3 will be in there? It's the same engine and tech as Halo 3. But on the content side, Bungie is working furiously on building the Recon campaign from the ground up, so don't look for recycled levels or anything like that. This also won't look like the New Mombasa of Halo 2. Expect a unique experience.
- What's up with the multiplayer? Recon will have new multiplayer maps and potentially other stuff, but no more details available than that. However, it will also contain the new Mythic map pack that's hitting Marketplace in the spring.
- Points? Yeah, a full thousand points' worth of achievements for the campaign.
The new New Mombasa? - Does it have [insert my favorite Halo 3 feature]? Yep, Recon has "full feature parity" with Halo 3. So things like online four-player co-op and Forge level editing are still supported.
- Am I going to get the Recon armor? "You might, you might not," says Jarrard. Cagey. But he also pointed out that 1) the Recon armor wouldn't be so special if everyone got it, and 2) maybe that armor won't be such a big deal by this time next year, anyway. Hmm.
- Who's making this thing? Bungie formed a small splinter group to build Recon while the rest of the company focuses on other projects. (Projects? Plural?!) This team includes some Bungie vets who have been working on Halo since the beginning of the series, and they view it as a "fun creative challenge" to build up an entirely new Halo offshoot with established engine tech. This is a one-off game, though; don't expect a whole new ODST franchise. Call it Halo Gaiden.
- Anything else? Not related to Recon per se, but an upgrade is going into Bungie.net soon that will let you render your Halo 3 saved films directly to Flash videos on the web site. Not too shabby.
Lastly, here's the Recon announcement trailer in our super-duper high-res AwesomePlayer (trademark pending.)
heads up about the overlapping vids btw
I read that this wouldnt have the content of a full game, so $60 seems ridiculous, especially since in Australia that will probably equate to something more like $200.
you'll understand the only reason they mention the term 'expansion' is to help people gain a small grasp on what it is.
As they say "It's a disservice to call it just an expansion".
$60 is alot though... *has to think more about this & know how it'll actually play*
It looks sorta kinda good... have no idea how it looks a plays yet though. But I like the idea of a more stealth based game in the Halo universe. But who knows, could be a total disaster as well. As far as I know, Bungie is a fps company. Even though they really know their fps stuff, this could still go really bad. Its exciting at least.
I mean what is this game?
I'm a bit disappointed. I was expecting something different to prove in my eye Bungie has the ability to think outside of the box when it comes down to the Halo universe. But they can prove me wrong, we're not expecting it until Fall of 2009!!!!
The reason Microsoft/Bungie aren't making it DLC is because it will presumably have the size (and value) of a standalone game.