Now, if like a lot of people in the office your favourite film ever is Starship Troopers, your second favourite film ever is RoboCop and your third favourite film ever is Total Recall, you're going to completely LOVE Haze. It's the new game from the genius development team behind the slick TimeSplitters series, and is therefore bound to be three things; violent, funny and good.
You are a member of the Mantel Global Industries' private army. It's the year 2025, and everyone's really happy about their lives and jobs thanks to the globe-spanning Mantel corp and its feel-good super-drug Nectar. Everyone's on Nectar. Everyone's happy. The people don't complain, the soldiers can't get enough of going to war, nobody feels tired all the time and borderline suicidal. Five pints of Nectar for everyone, please.
You are Jake Carpenter, a newly-enlisted soldier in Mantel's Nectar-crazed freelance army, a group of meatheads that's happy to pile in and sort out trouble hotspots across the world for the right price. You swear a lot, engage in boisterous chit-chat and fight your way through war zones without a care in the world - or a care for the indigenous species that live within that particular realm.
The one level we've seen was set in a South American jungle. You're choppered in, dropped off and left to kill whatever you like.
The jungle scenery's spectacular, with the action taking place in a confined basin, surrounded by waterfalls and trees, plus it's packed with cowering locals. It's a fast, bloody game - imagine some of Halo 2's most aggressive levels, only instead set on Earth, in a misty jungle and with loads more biting, swearing and spitting.
The plot appears to cover a gradual disintegration in Mantel's business, with its Nectar drug and mechanical systems seeming to unhinge the mental stability of its soldiers. The demo level ends with an out of control soldier gunning down one of the innocent villagers. We'll have more on Haze as we get closer to its 2007 release date.
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