Published by: Ubisoft
Developed by: Free Radical Design
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Release Date: November 19, 2007
Also available on: PC
Rating: Pending

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Free Radical Company Director Dave “Double-D” Doak surprised many people in the HAZE Developer Vid-Diary announcing that HAZE was Playstation 3 exclusive. This was followed by reports of Ubisoft confirming that announcement at the end of August. This lead to many blogs and forum posts by Xbox fans denouncing the game as average or poor, but Sony fans fired back with praise and shouts of “Halo-Killer”. Can HAZE be the game that knocks the Xbox down a notch and gives Halo a taste of its own nectar? Who knows but it should be fun to watch.

Free Radical brought the Timesplitters franchise to PS2 and now with Ubisoft, they will be bringing HAZE to the PS3 in an all new FPS. HAZE takes place in the future, 41 years to be exact and shows Earth in completely different light. It seems private military will become one of the main economic sources at that time, leading the way of course is Mantel. Mantel is more than a military police force as gamers will find they have their hand in many areas of business around the globe. One of Mantel’s other primary focuses is biomedical research and enhancements. During the progress of the game, players will find Mantel is not the great company or savior they may lead others to believe.

Players will take on the role as Shane Carpenter, orphaned during the World Games also known as “The Games of Terror”. Shane would be taken in by Mantel and trained as one of their elite soldiers, thanks to Nectar. Shane will learn to “Fight the good fight” or so he thinks in the beginning. Until on one patrol he will be attacked by rebels and set free of Mantel and Nectar or as Shane puts it “born again.”

HAZE is promising not to be your everyday FPS. Free Radical is bringing plenty of new aspects to HAZE that may set this game above the rest of the First-Person Shooters out there. Will the changes be enough or accepted by the FPS genre society to help take the PS3 to the next level and knock the king of FP off its mountain? Time will tell, but till then let's look at what HAZE is showing.

The Nectar. Nectar is like super-dosed adrenaline. Free Radical believes in three core actions to all great FPS; Avoiding, Spying and Killing. When Shane plays as an elite Mantel soldier he relies on Nectar to enhance these three core abilities. Like all enhancing drugs you get the good and the bad. We will take a second to look at the four positive side effects of Nectar.

First is Foresight or the sense of danger coming your way (think Spidey-sense). When Shane is about to be attacked there will be a rippling affect coming from the direction of danger towards Shane.

Second is Perception or increased sight. With a quick dose of Nectar, players will be able to have the ability to see hidden enemies giving them a kind of aura around them.

Next is Melee Blast or super-strength. During Melee battles, Nectar will increase Shane’s strength allowing him to bull over enemies with a single hit.

Finally, the last ability is Focus. Focus is pretty self explanatory; gamers will have enhanced concentration allowing them to take that exceptional kill-shot.

As said before, with good there must be bad. Nectar comes with two potential side effects; Overdose and Withdrawal. Overdose will cause gamers to have blurred vision and loose control of your shooting. This can lead to attacking anyone... friend or foe. Not a lot has been revealed about withdrawal, though it appears gamers will see the world in complete opposites in almost slow-motion effect.

As always, Free Radical is never one to pull a punch when it comes to their games and their multiplayer options are no exception. Haze is looking to be the first first-person shooter on the PS3 to carry several options including four-player co-op. In single player mode, Shane fights along side of three teammates that can be AI controlled or by three friends through split-screen, online, or even LAN.

HAZE has several other features that will keep gamers playing for hours, like weapon stealing and the use of vehicles. If Free Radical does it right and brings what it promises to gamers the PS3 and Sony fans alike will have a game they can stand up against any FPS on the market. Time will tell. As for me I am looking forward to another FPS and hopefully this will be everything they say it will.