Haze: Exclusive Hands-On Preview

The Other Side

The rebellious Promise Hand, led by a man known only as Skincoat, aren't by any means inferior to the Mantel troopers however and a large portion of the Rebel's arsenal is given over to ways to turn Nectar against Mantel.

You see, Nectar has a downside like all good things and while using it occasionally will give players boosts relevant to the gameplay style, abuse of it will prove detrimental. Overdosing can occur both from using too much Nectar, using it too often or by being forced into it by a rebel attack. When a player overdoses - and this can happen to squad members as well as the main character - then everybody on the level is marked only by a silhouette so that you can't distinguish between friend and foes.

To complicate matters, overdosing troopers will go into a frenzy and will fire their weapons randomly at the nearest person, whether enemy or ally. In fact, players have to fight the urge by pulling their aim away from characters whilst also coping with blurred vision until the overdose passes.

Intriguingly, this actually effects other Mantel troopers around the player and it's possible that it will all become too much for them, forcing them to commit suicide in a number of ways. In fact, some off the motion captures used for the wounded animations were based on Rob himself, so when you see the shot in the arse writhing on the floor animation on a Mantel trooper, then you'll another of Rob's contributions to the game.


The Promise Hand are experts in guerilla tactics and can use a variety of techniques to force Mantel troopers into this overdose state. The first and hardest way to do it is to shoot the Nectar pack located on the back of the trooper's neck - one hit here will push a dumper truck full of the yellow stuff into his bloodstream, turning his visor red and sending him into frenzy. Handy if he's standing in a group of other troopers, all of whom will start running for cover or trying to eliminate the threat.

Rebels can also take the Nectar from the corpses of the troopers and strap a reservoir of the stuff to a grenade to make an offensive smoke grenade which makes troopers inside rage-out, but leaves Rebels unharmed thanks to their lack of Mantel armour. Smearing a knife in Nectar will also give you a single chance to bring down the red mist on an enemy by throwing the blade or slicing through the armour.

Rebels can do more than just this however and can perform some advanced moves like stealing enemy weapons in a rather stunningly animated melee attack or scavenging ammo from spare weapons and laying quick traps. The most interesting skill though draws back to the story of the game and the way the Nectar has the effect of censoring reality for Mantel troopers. While combat is thrilling enough for troopers, it has to be said it feels a little empty and awful because of the way bodies disappear and the gore is kept to a minimum.


What would seem at first to be a flaw in game design however is actually a deliberate gameplay aspect and there are points in the game where the flow of Nectar is disrupted, causing players to see the world as it really is - with fallen enemies and allies still laying on the floor, writhing in pain. The world suddenly becomes less bright and harder to navigate too, screams and groans drowning out the suddenly sadistic comments of your fellow troopers.

In one of the most intelligent fusions of gameplay and narrative in recent memory, the rebels have found a way to exploit this censoring effect of Nectar by playing dead. Doing so is only possible in the middle of a fire fight, once a rebel has taken a certain amount of damage and can therefore fake death realistically. A tap of L2 at the right moment will drop the player to the ground, causing them to suddenly become invisible to troopers unless a stray round forces them back to their feet.

It's a perfect way for rebels to gain an upper hand in battle and, though it took a bit of practice, it was soon possible for us to play dead and let troopers move on past us, only to jump up and put a round in the Nectar pack, sending them into a rage and forcing them to kill their own team mates.