Haze
Preview
Nothing hazy or shady about this winter...
by Liquid306
previewed on PS3
A Not Too Distant Future
Haze takes place in the year 2084, in a world ran by corrupt governments that deal in the business of war. Private Military Companies (PMC’s) are a dime a dozen in this futuristic First-Person Shooter and you are part of one. Mantel, the PMC you are a part of, convinced you that their side is the right one to fight for. Armed to the teeth with state of the art weaponry, you are in an ongoing war against other PMC’s and the Promise Hand Rebels.
Fight the Good Fight
You play Shane Carpenter, the protagonist, who is a young man in a world of war and terror. Mantel scoops you up and trains you as a soldier. Offering safety and a purpose, you feel compelled to follow Mantels lead and fight among your comrades. Set seventy-seven years in the future, high grade armor and performance enhancing drugs are par for the course when you’re playing on Mantel’s team. The drug called Nectar is the fuel that runs through the veins of every Mantel trooper. When injected, the battlefield becomes more focused and enemy targets are easier to spot. It also clears the battlefield of things that may make a soldier’s moral go down. For instance, if an area is covered in corpses and gore, a little Nectar will make it vanish from sight. As well as in combat, when you down an enemy rebel, he disappears from your vision to mask the true sight in front of you. The drug is great but beware, too much can lead you to overdose. When a Mantel soldier overdoses, they are unable to distinguish friend from foe.
This is one of the most useful pieces of knowledge on the Rebels side. The Rebels don’t have all that fancy equipment but they do have their wits. Rebels think for themselves and follow their own agenda, unlike PMC’s such as Mantel. With this knowledge, Rebels are able to gain the advantage in combat situations. If a Mantel trooper is after you as a rebel, you can sneak away and wait till you see his back. While his back is turned, throw a knife into his tube at the back of his neck to force some Nectar into the bloodstream. The trooper then turns berserk and starts to shoot his allies. Finish the job off after the rampage and the battle has been won. If the trooper gets the jump on you, he can lay a few rounds into you and you can play dead. Because of the Nectar in the soldier’s veins all he is able to see is a clear view of the battlefield. The drug causes him to block out your ‘dead’ body, resulting in a perfect opportunity for you to get up and light him up. On paper this sounds great but I’m still a little sceptical on just how well it’s going to work in heated online battles.
It’s Good to Play Together
Mantel troopers and Rebels both have their strengths and weaknesses. Mastering both is the key for survival in single and multiplayer modes. The single player campaign consists of a variety of missions including your run of the mill Rambo ‘shoot anything that moves’ to a more elaborate multi-layered lengthy affair. Multiplayer consists of a variety of game types like capture the flag, death match and team death match. The 4 player co-op missions are the real meat of the multiplayer. You can have 2 guys LAN-ing and 2 over the internet and anything in between. The co-op missions actually follow the plot of the campaign, giving the player a much more meaningful experience in the end. Many include vehicle combat where a player is driving and your buddies are on the guns or miles away sniping your foes on your tail.
Sweet Sweet Nectar
With a new twist on the somewhat stale First-Person Shooter genre and a different look on war games, Haze looks like a promising addition to any PS3 owners library. With a unique single player campaign and awesome 4 player co-op online modes, getting together with your friends online is a must. From the developers of the TimeSplitters series, you know you’re in good hands when it comes down to just plain fun.
