Reviews// Haze

All in all, the abilities offered by Nectar add up to a satisfying package. I can see why the Mantel troopers seem to like it so much. They also serve to usher players into the action nicely. I enjoyed being able to enter the game and not get the crap shot out of me within the first few minutes of play. Those abilities might, for some, make Haze seem a bit on the easy side, but it's never a breeze.

The downside of Nectar is the ability to overdose. The stuff is put into your system by way of the bottom left shoulder button and you have to decide on the dose yourself. Go too far, however, and you'll lose control.

It's a slightly alarming feeling – one that Free Radical has pulled off well. Before I saw it in action, I was dubious as to just how well you could be made to feel you've lost control of your faculties.

The ability to perceive friend from foe evaporates, turning both entirely black and bringing a startling hue to the world around you. You'll also find your trigger finger is beyond your control, with your weapon going off at random and liable to put a bullet in anyone at close quarters. In single-player mode, however, overdosing is unlikely to trouble you much. I didn't overdose of my own accord once and only got made to overdose by the rebels (more on that later) a couple of times.

I'd insert a spoiler warning here, but for anyone who's read anything about Haze this won't come as a shock – halfway through the game you, Shane Carpenter (yes, you have the most generic American name in the history of generic American names ever) switch sides.

This opens up a whole other side to the game-play, just when you've got the Mantel abilities down pat.

As a Promised Hand rebel, you have none of the post human abilities afforded by Nectar, but you become a far wilier beast.

Using cunning and guile, you can use the Mantel troopers' Nectar use against them, causing them to overdose and either turn on each other or just become sitting ducks as they flail around uselessly.

There are a few means of achieving this. One is to strap a fallen trooper's Nectar pack to a grenade, lobbing it to produce a cloud of Nectar gas that will cause your foe to fly into a frenzy. You can tell when they've lost it because their gear turns red – the colour of your girlfriend when she's caught you looking at animé porn.

Another method is to dip your knife in Nectar (again, courtesy of a fallen Mantelist– it's all very morbid) and stick it in a trooper. Once more you'll be reminded of your girlfriend in one of her less delicate moods.

Alternatively, a well-placed shot to the Nectar pack will instigate a spoogey squirt of the stuff out of an opponents' back; there will be random gunfire galore.

The latter two options sometimes feel a bit too fiddly when you're in the heat of combat and I often found myself just shooting furiously rather than trying anything fancy.

If you feel inclined to (and I'm sure some people will), you'll be able to make your way through the rebel half of the single-player campaign without causing the troopers to OD.

When you find yourself with a bit of time, however, stealthily shivving an opponent then legging it while he shoots his mates or popping him in the pack are thoroughly satisfying. More importantly, when you find yourself up against heavy numbers the use of a well-placed Nectar grenade can be the difference between life and death.

Also related to the Nectar is the ability to play dead. One of the effects the wonder-stuff is to make troopers unable to see dead people. A bit like a reverse Haley Joel Osmond in The Sixth Sense. The upshot of this is that if you lie down and act dead, you escape the troopers' field of vision. Nifty, if your health's taking a hit and you need a moment to recover.

As a rebel, you have a couple of other moves at your disposal that are not Nectar-centric: you become more agile, able to better duck and weave to avoid enemy flak; you gain the ability to set traps, planting grenades (or Nectar grenades) under the ground to serve as mines; you become more adaptable, able to customise ammo to work in whatever weapon is to hand and use enemy vehicles.

If you find yourself unarmed you can also knock a trooper's weapon from his hands and take it for yourself. Then kill him, if we're being realistic. It's cheeky, but cheeky is acceptable in times of war.