Bungie’s eye-wideningly ambitious expansion pack for Halo 3 just had its first details revealed. We’re talking new characters, new weapons and equipment, and an open-world city that’s completely free to explore.

Unearthed by US games magazine Game Informer, the Halo 3 Recon pack will introduce a nameless, faceless player character, a PDA to plot routes through the city, and tons more in-game toys to play with.

The game will let players explore the city, looking for clues towards the disappearance of their team members, before flipping into “flashback” mode, to let you play as the missing character and discover the story behind their disappearance.

Each “flashback” level is said to last around 30 minutes, which means there’s at least two hours of play in those elements alone.

Bungie creative director, Joseph Staten, explained the gameplay, saying: “This isn’t a crazy dream sequence or metaphorical journey… It works just like any detective show, Cold Case or Law and 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.

“In Halo games you’ve been the Chief for a thousand years and the Arbiter for a little bit of time too. It’s a really nice feeling to jump into somebody else’s boots for a while.”

Check out the trailer for Halo 3 Recon below.

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Out 2009 | £TBC | Bungie (via CVG)