Here’s a recap for those of you suffering from delay induced amnesia; Haze is a FPS from Free Radical, the development team which created the Timesplitters games and whose founding members had a hand in the seminal Goldeneye. The story is set 25 years into the future and centers around Shane Carpenter, a fresh recruit who has joined an organization named Mantel hoping to find fulfillment and adventure by fighting for a good cause. Not everything is as it seems however, and Shane soon begins to question the motivations of his employer.

Mantel, while sounding deceptively like a telecommunications company started by the Village People, is a massive militarized corporation that plays a similar role to the United Nations and deploys its high-tech army to neutralise a “vicious” terrorist group known as the Promise Hand. To make their just cause easier the company supplies their troops with an ability enhancing super-drug called Nectar. Once triggered with the L2 button, Nectar imbues you with superior soldiering abilities; your enemies become bright incandescent targets, your melee attacks send people flying, and the auto-aim gets so sharp you can shoot individual bits of dandruff off people (well, maybe not that good, but you’re getting the idea).

To its credit, Haze starts out looking quite good. The first level drops you into the lush jungles of South America to quell an insurgency caused by Promise Hand resistance fighters lead by some dude called ‘Skin Coat’. Combat-wise the guerillas don’t have much of a chance against you and your ape-headed comrades, partly because of the superior Mantel firepower and partly because your team is filled with redneck killing machines hepped up on goofballs. Said goofballs are fantastic when used in moderation - but remember when your grandma sat you down and said “too much of a good thing can be bad for you”? The old girl was either very intuitive or a recovering heroin addict….