HAZE:An Intro

So far much of the plot behind the story has been kept under wraps. Of what is known is the HAZE is set in the 2040s in a world where NATO and WHO no longer exist and military operations are contracted out by large corporations. The largest, most dominant of these is Mantel Global Industries who possess their own army of elite soldiers that include the protagonist. Mantel (meant to draw similarities from OCP in robocop) have their hands in every market available and specialize particularly in weapon research and biomediacl experiments (sounds good already ). Of the research, their most prized is the development of a drug called NECTAR, and it is this drug which th game revolves around. Not much more is known about the background as Free Radical wish to keep it under wraps

The drug 'NECTAR' is core to the game and the player will experience first had the effects of this drug as upon administration of the drug, it turns you from an ordinary grunt into a super soldier. The only parallel of this drugs effect in a came that i can think of at the moment is the Chimera's RAGE mode in Resistance. However, unlike Chimera, who lose health and are quite vunerable while in this mode, the NECTAR buzz has no initial negative effects. To summarize they include:

-enemies outlined with an orange hue (like chimera in resistance and like predator in ....predator)
-speed increase
-increased armour
-increased rate of repair
-every kill gives you an additional boost of nectar, increasing/prolonging the effects of above

Too much of the drug however, will lead to an overdose, and from the reviews that i've read, its not meant to be a pretty feeling as your vision will become wonky, the vivid colours that you saw during the administration will be replaced with black and white and your ability to distinguish friend from foe will be effectivley removed. All these negative effects will gradually dissappear once the OD is over.

However, like everything in life, all good things must come to an end and it has been reported that the comedown from NECTAR is worse that the OD as you experience a generally errie feeling where your vision starts to fail and you get flashes of all the bodies of people that have been killed.

To summarize the above, the visual effects and atmosphere created by these highs and lows are meant to be amazing.

Total player immersion:
Free Radical have created the game so that in the single player campaign there is not one cutscene or loading screen. The player will also be in first person mode for the entire game which means that you can finish the game in FPs without any breaks whatsoever

4 player Co-op online campaign(.......just brilliant)

Vehicles heavily implied (hopefully this means we get to use vehicles in multiplayer unlike in Resistance)