indeed. its been said to be an open world game in which you 'the rookie' along with your squad was dropped into new mombasa in drop pods but were split up and the rest of your team is either missing or dead. you must search the city to find out what happened to them by finding artifacts such as the sniper rifle of a member of your squad which is hanging off a power line. these artifacts trigger flashbacks which progress the storyline in figuring out what happened to your squad
Imagine if in O.D.S.T. (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, if you didn't know) multiplayer you could choose where too drop...
the ODST multiplayer is Halo 3 Multiplayer. It is an expansion, not a enw game, so still same old same old with multiplayer. That's not to say they won't throw something extra in though, for forge or for multi.