The premise behind Haze is a rather deep one. The game is set in the year 2048, where most governments have given up on keeping their own armed forces and have resorted to outsourcing military operations. One company that specialises in running private military operations is Mantel. Mantel has the advantage of soldiers that have a substance called “nectar” at their disposal. It’s a drug that enhances abilities but can be quite hazardous as well; throughout the game players will be exposed to the bleaker and unglamorous side of war.
Die scum.
The game was originally set to be released on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, however it's since been confirmed that the game will be available exclusively on the PlayStation 3 in 2007. For the uninformed, Haze is a first-person shooter. The game was originally planned to be a squad-based shooter and remnants of that plan still appear in the game. You still have a squad but it seems that they will be acting on their own now. The game follows a narrative and you’ll play through 12 different environments. These environments will range from the jungles to mountains to urban environments. The actual structure in terms of missions and objectives is unknown so far.
The main additions to the player’s arsenal will be the use of nectar. Nectar is essentially a performance-enhancing drug that will allow the player to utilise extra abilities as they play. There are four extra abilities in total, with six time-replenishing slots for their use. The four abilities are vision, foresight, focus and melee. Vision highlights enemies in red, so that they are much easier to distinguish; foresight allows you to see an event happening a couple of seconds before it actually does – such as a grenade or mine exploding; focus helps you zero in on an enemy; and melee conveniently enhances your melee abilities.
While the essence of the nectar was to make the player faster, deadlier and more resistant, there was one pervasive feeling that came with these powers and that was that they failed to impress. Vision was fine. It worked. Foresight gave the impression that it didn’t give the players enough time to react. Focus felt almost useless, as it’s an ability not dissimilar to lock-on features seen in most console shooters. And crazy melee attacks have been implemented into shooters a million times before this. This aspect of the game needs some more thought and design implementations to help these abilities rise above being useless or gimmicky. Still, we won't know their full usefullness until the final release.
This is a little bit like Saturday night. Hey, are you looking at me!?
The opposite end of the spectrum was actually more interesting. Nectar is a double-edge sword, because while it can help you, it can also harm you. Basically, if you “overdose”, your vision will become heavily distorted, so you can’t tell friend from foe. Also, the weather seems to change, from a sunny day to a rainy, miserable day and other hallucinations will take hold - it is meant to show the bleak side of war. Given that a player can overdose in ways such as having their nectar supply unit shot, we believe that this will have some implication and applications in multiplayer.
There are some other aspects of the game that have us a little concerned. The design of the first level was extremely linear and unimaginative. It was almost as that level could be played across a straight line. There were some promising signs, particularly when we saw an explosion in the distance. Hopefully, this would indicate some openess, twists or opportunities for choice in the future levels. The driving sequences were weak and looked like they needed more work. Particularly disturbing was the weakness in the AI. There were several sequences where we watched two opposing soldiers battle it out at point-blank only to be missing each other completely. Hopefully, this is a work in progress.
Thankfully, it’s far from being doom and gloom for Haze. Probably the most promising aspect of the game relates to your squad. As mentioned, you will be part of a squad of four. In solo, you’ll be playing on your own with three AI controlled members but you’ll actually be able to play through the entire story with up to three other human players through co-op - that is, four-player co-op. Given that the Free Radical team consists of several members of the original FPS multiplayer legend, GoldenEye, we're confident that this is one of the aspects that can save the game.
While there are a couple of aspects that were disappointing about Haze, there is still enough here to suggest that the game will have some new and fun things to offer. The story offers some interesting themes, and the multiplayer is sure to have some twists and be a blast with four-player co-op. However, as TimeSplitters: Future Perfect showed us, shooters have come some way since GoldenEye and until the final product is released, we're not sure if Haze will be able to keep up with the leaders of the genre. Hopefully, we'll be shown otherwise.
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