Previews// Haze Multi-Player Hands-On

Playing dead is another opportunity open to you. As the Mantel Troopers can't see dead bodies when they're on Nectar, faking it will put you out of their line of site. This wasn't quite as useful as I'd have hoped. I had visions of innocuously lying still until one of the Troopers was right on top of me before jumping up to do something nasty to them. Unfortunately, getting back into the action isn't as swift as I'd expected and it didn't quite play out that way.

Similarly, laying traps with grenades proved a bit ineffective for me. It's all well and good putting them down so they work as mines, but putting them somewhere where a Trooper's likely to stand on it is another proposition entirely. I expect, however, that a bit of experience will inform trap placement and make it a far more useful tool. After a few matches it occurred to me that putting one in front of a weapons rack makes a lot of sense, for example. What inappropriate joy! Again, you can see how sluggishly my brain was performing on the day...

The other map that saw a lot of action was the Mantel Land Carrier. This bestial metal bad boy is the Mantel Troopers' mobile base of operations. Imagine an aircraft carrier rolling unstoppably over the floor of the jungle, slowly destroying everything in its path and you'll get the gist.

For this level we got stuck in to Team Assault Mode. It bears a certain resemblance to a capture the flag scenario, but comes with added complications. The rebels need to grab the SQL keycard from the deck of the carrier. Once they have it, they can get to the SQL terminal to deactivate it - prompting a missile to be launched onto the carrier and winning the day. For the Troopers' part, shockingly, they need to stop the rebels doing that. If the rebels succeed in getting their mitts on the keycard, killing the appropriate soldier will return it to the deck. If the rebels get as far as the terminal, the Troopers have a one minute window in which to reactivate it.

It's not the most straightforward game mode, but it's certainly rewarding.

The deck carries a veritable bounty of weapons, vehicles and vantage points to make use of. Visually, it was also more pleasant to run around on than the filth of the swamps. It also feels bigger, but that's probably got more to do with being able to see more than a few feet past the end of your nose...

Again, this mode is a feature that will almost certainly yield greater rewards as more practice is had. It might sound like I've moaned about not being able to take advantage of all the options available in Haze's multi-player, but I'm really not complaining. Far from it. I was thrilled to see that I wasn't going to get to grips with the multi-player in the time available. The multi-player aspect of Haze is smart and well thought out. It looks set to provide a deep and involving experience that won't simply reward players with a quick trigger finger.