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Haze, since its announcement in 2006, has gone through a lot. To begin with was a standard ‘not-ready-yet’ delay which set the game’s release as winter 2007, rather than its original date of summer 2007. Then Ubisoft announced that Haze would be a Playstation 3 exclusive, stating the development for the Xbox 360 and PC had been scrapped. Finally came a further delay to May this year. As customary with any new game, with only a couple of weeks left until the long awaited release, Free Radical have spat out a demo to finally show off what they’ve been up to over the last couple of years. The vital question is whether the game has the legs to stand up to the hype, justifying the constant delays.

First off, a bit of background information is in order. Haze grants you control of Shane Carpenter, a 25 year-old soldier part of a global corporation called Mantel. Mantel predominately works in the biomedical field, but also has its fingers in weapon development, in the form of a Private Military Company (as is always the case). Mantel’s chief creation is a drug called Nectar which is a stimulator allowing Mantel’s soldiers to push themselves harder and stronger. The game’s story unfolds over three days as the forces of Mantel battle it out with a rebel faction called The Promise Hand. Over the time span of the game, Shane begins to become disillusioned as he sees the effect of Nectar of his fellow soldiers, eventually turning to the rebel cause.

Demos always come with the warning; “Does Not Reflect the Finished Product.” This seems to be the case as it seems to be a fairly old build of Haze, with the engine looking just like the E3 2007 shots. The positives and negatives are obvious to this, but we’ll let you decide whether it affects your purchase.

The demo starts off with Shane as a Mantel soldier, with your squad on the outskirts of jungle engaging with Rebel forces. There’s plenty of cover to utilise, allowing you to outflank the Rebels or snipe from a distance. One of the effects of Nectar is a heat-sensor view, which will be used because without it, we found it very difficult to find the insurgents in the densely foliaged undergrowth. You’ll need to use the view-type, but obviously within reason as you’re only given six doses of Nectar, each lasting 3 minutes. With the view enabled your enemies will glow yellow and stand out like a sore thumb. Also, you can restock your Nectar supplies from your teammates, so it’s not that big a deal.

After clearing your way through the jungle to a downed transport, (your main objective) you’re ambushed by more rebels. Again a simple activation of Nectar will result in a quick slaughter and subsequent ‘move out.’ A stunning vista then opens up with an astonishing draw distance. Albeit it was all trees, but it’s definitely impressive. A cut scene (in-engine) follows and then another encounter with rebel forces, before the final fight of the level. All the while this is going on, if playing online anyone can jump in and out for up to four player co-op. It’s looking promising, but we’ll need to see more before we make up our minds. Our review’s on its way as soon as possible.

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