Mark plays the PS3’s big FPS Xmas hope...
Let’s get one thing straight; Haze may be a late-2007, system-exclusive, next-gen,
four-letter, futuristic first-person shooter beginning with a H and an A, but it isn’t the
PS3’s Halo 3, and isn’t trying to be. Indeed, though Haze’s team are clearly fans of Bungie’s
blaster – they happily waxed lyrical about it during our afternoon at Free Radical’s
Nottingham HQ – with Haze they’re offering their own spin on the genre.
Haze’s scriptwriter Rob Yescombe (who, by our reckoning, is frankly a bit bonkers)
pitches Haze as ‘two games in one’. On one hand, we’ve Haze’s Mantel Troopers; the macho,
somewhat homoerotic armour-clad army-types that use a genetically enhancing substance
called Nectar; and, later in the game, are Haze’s Promise Hand rebels; an athletic,
adaptable bunch who oppose everything Mantel stand for. In Haze, you start as one side, and
switch to the other mid-way through.
A game of two halves
It’s unusual for a developer to give away their big plot twist pre-launch, but for Haze
it makes sense; allowing Yescombe to detail the fundamental differences between Haze’s
factions, which make Haze’s first and second halves unique experiences.
Nectar is the Mantel Trooper’s big combat advantage, and makes them a perfect beginning
for Haze’s frenetic FPS action, as we experienced in our first hands-on. Playing as
Sergeant Shane Carpenter, we were dropped into fierce jungle crossfire, with Yescombe
directing us to apply Nectar via L2 and explaining its benefits; namely faster movement,
harder melee attacks and orange-tinted haze which highlights enemies.
Playing Haze in this state is empowering, but there are several tradeoffs. In gameplay
terms, overdosing on Nectar makes your guy’s gun arm go crazy and involuntarily start
shooting your squadmates. In narrative terms, Nectar subdues the Trooper’s perception of
reality; they don’t see the corpses stacking up, and only occasional grim horror film-esque
flashes allude you to Haze’s harsh reality.
Haze is the product of the developers behind Timesplitters, and
directed by one of the guys behind N64 classic Goldeneye, and it shows.
Haze’s Promise Hand play similarly, but without the all-important Nectar. Instead,
they’ve the ability to quick roll, and can play dead, only to recover (prompted by a
minigame like Gears of War’s reloading) and surprise the ‘Mantel dogs’ (as they call them),
plus scavenge ammo, and use Nectar as a weapon, adapting it into grenades and knives in
order to overdose Mantel’s forces and turn them comrade-killing kamikaze.
Of the two playing styles, our hands-on with one of Haze’s later levels found playing as
Promise Hand to be much tougher. As Yescombe points out, like Haze’s Mantel Troopers
themselves, the Haze player becomes dependant on Nectar, and losing it is quite the
gameplay culture shock.
Haze is the product of the developers behind Timesplitters, and directed by one of the
guys behind N64 classic Goldeneye, and it shows. Haze’s gunplay is frantic, and enemies
have a tendency to flood at you in droves. It’s slower-paced than Timesplitters (and
there’s a discernable lack of monkeys. Shame!), but Haze is still fast by FPS standards and
has a gritty feel to its gunplay that’s more GRAW than Halo 3.
Having said that, Haze’s odes to Halo are unmistakable. Haze features future marines,
Warthog-esque vehicles, sprawling level design and four-player online co-op (albeit in
Haze, it’s drop-in, drop-out, not lobby based), plus similarly spoofed-up voice acting and
an all-important multiplayer option which should sate PS3 owner’s online cravings this
Christmas.
Halo beater
Multiplayer, however, is perhaps the one area in which Haze’s ambition differs from
Halo. Featuring 24 players and narrative based maps not unlike Enemy Territory: Quake Wars,
each of Haze’s arenas will tell a story that runs parallel to the campaign – enhancing the
singleplayer story in much the same way as the deleted scenes on a DVD.
So, Haze is looking and playing promisingly. The one phrase we’re not about to use,
however – because the Free Rad team would skin us alive – is ‘Halo beater’ (too late! Run
for your lives! – Ed). Haze may be going gun-to-gun this holiday season with what Microsoft
have dubbed The Biggest Entertainment Release Ever™ (or words to that effect), but it’s
well-polished gameplay and inventive mix of styles, plus significant PS3 exclusivity,
should see Haze move from under the Master Chief’s considerable FPS shadow.
Preview by: Mark Scott
Preview Published: 12.10.07