You will be able to explore what lies within the Hand of Nod, and how big the Temple of Nod really is. Its not all eye-candy either. Every building has its purpose. If you hear an enourmous Obelisk of Light, doing its tell-tale hum, better back away and cut its power by knocking out a few Power Plants. Destroying all SAM Sites will allow you to call in air reinforcements in the form of Napalm dropping A10 Warthogs.
Buildings can work two ways though.
Venture near a Radar Installment, and your radar may become victim to signal jamming. Oh, gee, great, another 3d shooter My friend, you could not be furthur from the truth. Unlike the majority of action games on the market, Renegade doesn't have one set path to follow in order to complete a mission. In order to complete mission objectives you can hi-jack a tank and jump right in to the action with blazing guns and fight until the bitter end, or you can stealthily creep around the map, avoiding confrontation, and covertly accomplish your task. Either way can be just as effective, it is purely the players option.