Someone once possibly said, "football, it's a game of two halves." It is indubitably true. Just as it's true of the Beautiful Game, it's also true of Haze. Or, as Free Radical likes to tell us, it's two games in one.

You have to play as Mantel Troopers, private soldiers doing the work of the Mantel Corporation in all their neon glory. Then you have to play as the rebels they're fighting in a South American backwater country, The Promised Hand.

It's as a Mantel Soldier that you begin Ha ... more >>

Someone once possibly said, "football, it's a game of two halves." It is indubitably true. Just as it's true of the Beautiful Game, it's also true of Haze. Or, as Free Radical likes to tell us, it's two games in one.

You have to play as Mantel Troopers, private soldiers doing the work of the Mantel Corporation in all their neon glory. Then you have to play as the rebels they're fighting in a South American backwater country, The Promised Hand.

It's as a Mantel Soldier that you begin Haze, under the name of Shane Carpenter (formerly Jake Carpenter, wonderful how things change through the development process, isn't it?).

If you've seen anything of Haze before reading this, you'll know that the defining feature of playing as a Mantel Trooper is Nectar. Nectar is, in essence, a performance enhancing drug (and key element of the plot). It has numerous features - the most immediate being that your enemies glow in a somewhat sinister fashion.

The next most obvious feature is that you get a noticeable spring to your step when you're on the stuff. As there's no sprint button and your enemies aren't slow to take a pop at you, it's a welcome feature. Nectar gives you the mysterious ability to pre-empt explosions. Just before something goes boom, you'll see a ripple emanate from of it. I'm not sure how the science of drugs making one precognitive works, but ours is not to question why. Throw in increased strength and speedy healing, and Nectar's doing alright by you.

Nectar comes with a catch, however. Pump too much into your body and you'll overdose. The result is a distinct loss of control.

But Haze is a game of two halves! Halfway through the game you'll switch sides, and a whole great bunch of new, Nectarless tactics come into play. You'll try to push the Mantel Troopers into overdose by creating clouds of Nectar around them, sticking a knife dipped into the stuff in their guts, or putting a well-placed shot to their supply. Throw in sneaky tactics like playing dead, planting mines and stealing weapons and you have what is essentially a different game.

Haze comes packaged with a four player co-op option that allows you to play right through the single player campaign with your mates and a bounty of multi-player options.

So... it's a game of two halves and then some. << less