IGN: There are two distinctive sides to Haze, with the trooper and the rebel sections of the game both having their own unique feel. How did this come about?
Derek Littlewood:
When we started making the game there were two things we wanted to do – it's something that's been established in our previous games, and particularly Second Sight has been noted for raising this – we wanted to have a story that explored the idea of putting the player in a situation where the guys that they're fighting against aren't just these generic villain stereotypes, and we want to put the player in a position where they ask the question 'Am I actually on the right side of this war', which implied this idea of switching sides.
IGN: We particularly enjoyed some of the touches employed when playing as a trooper, like bodies fading out of view after dying – they seem like a cute little reference to gaming's past.
Derek Littlewood:
One of the things about playing as a trooper is that there is a feel about it – Nectar is just a power-up, and that's what makes the game interesting, so you have the trooper stuff which is just standard FPS, you've got your power-up and the bodies fading out, but the rebel is a complete flip-side, it gives you all these other options, and that's what makes [the game] so interesting, because you've got these two asymmetric sides, and you're always looking for the different ways they interlock and the different ways the abilities can be used against each other.
IGN: There are some elements of Haze's story that can be seen as erring on the political. The nectar itself could be seen as reference to some of the more outlandish theories surrounding Gulf War Syndrome.
Derek Littlewood:
There are a number of parallels that you can draw with real life, and yes, there were deliberate parallels, but we've deliberately tried to be not too overt in drawing particular parallels to a specific event or sequence of events. There is a message in there that goes beyond the gameplay, but we wanted people to draw their own conclusions so it's not just one specific thing.
IGN: Finally, is this a standalone title, or the start of a series?
Littlewood:
Haze is a complete game in itself, it's not like you reach the end and we're like – 'and now you're expecting an ending, but a-ha, it's in a different game' – you get to the end and the major questions about the game have been answered, but that's not to say that there aren't threads which we've started that couldn't be continued in some fashion. In the process of making the game we've done a lot of development of the back story of Mantel, of Shane, of The Promise Hand and their leader Gabriel Merino – we've done a lot of development of those things beyond what you see in the game, and there's a lot of stuff that there that is ripe for being developed in another game, definitely.
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