Tuesday 16 May 2006
After confirming the existence of Haze, Free Radical's next-gen and PC shooter, Ubisoft was keen to show us just how the game will turn out. So we've been bombarded with the first in-game action, and now we're going to tell you all about it.
As we've already reported, Haze is set in a future world where wars are fought by corporate armies and biotechnology has reached an incredibly advanced level. As the leader in the field of both biotech and mercenary combat, the Mantel corporation brings the two fields together by giving each of their soldiers a chemical supplement called Nectar - a sinister drug that Mantel claims causes nothing but beneficial effects.
Above: As Jake Carpenter, you're a pawn in Mantel's mercenary business interests
The demo we've seen shows a Mantel mercenary mission in full flow, with Jake Carpenter - your character - and his squad sent into a South African jungle. Jake's mission is to take down a warlord, who Mantel says is laying waste to the jungle in order to build a complex of condos.
Jake ziplines from his hovercraft transport to the ground, straight into action in the shadow of one of the most impressive looking jungle environments this side of EA's Crysis. From the looks of it you'll be fighting most of your missions as part of a squad - three other soldiers joined Jake on the ground, pumping rounds into the warlord's guerrilla fighters entrenched in the undergrowth.
