Haze - interview with Free Radical

Features
By published

Dave Doak attacks the FPS

SinceHaze was announced,the TimeSplitters team's next-gen debut has been firmly kept under wraps. Leading on PS3 but also in development for Xbox 360 and PC, Haze is trying to bring with it a strong story to the world where just shooting stuff up is what it's all about.

At Ubisoft's recent press event in Paris Free Radical's main man Dave Doak was on hand to walk us through the finely-textured jungles and tell us what Nectar is all about.

Dave Doak: Well Haze is our new first person shooter and we started building the tech about three years ago. It's a war game but I think we're doing something exciting by telling a story which has got some real character. It's got some nice commentary on the world around it and the fact that war isn't all black and white, like Ghost Recon (laughs).

With a game that has only human enemies, how do you keep the combat interesting?

Doak: Something happens in the narrative of Haze that effectively changes the way you play the game. Rather than just trying to "step it up" we go for different situations. An example of that is the vehicle combat, which is quite impressive. Sometimes you're in an arena where you fighting against many enemies until you're dead or you break through.

There are some weapons and evolution in there too and that's how we introduce different elements to the gameplay. But we've tried to keep the weapon set reasonably controllable. The industry has so often in the past got caught up with "well, how many guns has your game got?"

I guess the Nectar is almost a direct response to that. We've tried to make something that's not only an interesting weapon but is an interesting gameplay mechanic that isn't just pointing a gun at someone. The Nectar provides a risk-reward and it's also a huge part of the story.