Haze updated impressions

After confirming the existence of Haze, devloper 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.

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.

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.

But as the guerrilla's were driven back, we witnessed some truly bizarre sights. As Jake sprinted into cover, blossoms drifted through the jungle clearing and across his path. As he drew a bead on an enemy position, a brilliant white butterfly fluttered down to land delicately on the barrel of Jake's machine gun.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games. 

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