Enemy AI. Are there bots in the game?

Yes, there are! Nobody's ever asked about this. We are using bots, and they will work too.

How good is the AI?

The thing about AI is that you don't want it to be unpredictable all the time. Only moderately so. If the bots ran around being totally unpredictable it would be kind of... annoying. What we've tried to do is give the sides personalities.

The troopers on Nectar, for example, are going at you constantly, like steam trains. Charging all the time. The rebels are more likely to fall back, take cover, and be more strategic. AI is appropriate.

Its all about our unique game system ultimately. With the Mantel troopers you need to keep an eye on their Nectar status. if they overdose, they go red! You can overdose the troopers, and they'll then attack their squad mates. Its all about 'feel', fighting the rebels is a very different experience to fighting the Mantel troopers.

Where did the idea of Nectar come from and how crucial is it to the experience?

Its at the heart of the experience. The troopers have a great suite of Nectar abilities. But they can also overdose and the rebels can force them to overdose. Their view of the world is sanitised. As you discover you'll find that Nectar is far more than a helping hand in battle, it also changes their view of the world and encourages them to do morally questionable things.

But that again ties back to the gameplay. For example, dead bodies fade-out from a troopers' viewpoint. Rebels can exploit this using the play dead ability. Again, it very much is part of the narrative and the gameplay. Haze is not about drug-use, and Nectar.

People have asked us whether we're saying 'drug use is good' in Haze. For starters the story shows us this is not the case... but really Nectar is just a tool. It also helps us tell the tale, as well as aiding the game experience. The game is certainly not about drug use or Nectar overall...

So, don't endorse drug use.

[Laughs].

Does the story wrap up at the end?

Have gamers been burnt by games with inconclusive endings, where they're told, pretty much, to go and buy the sequel? Yes. Haze is quite complete in itself. While their other other elements of the universe that we could explore, there other threads that aren't finished off... but it is a complete story. It doesn't say 'here's the sequel' at the end.

If the game was a success would you like to make more?

I think there's a lot of potential in the universe we've created. There's definitely space there for other titles, definitely.

Could Haze become the PS3's answer to Halo?

I wouldn't want to speak about it in relation to that other title! We've been burnt by that in the past. I'll leave it to gamers to conclude this.

Will Haze stay with the 'forever'?

This precise quote should come from Ubisoft. The problem is that there has been a small amount of fact, and that's been clear, and a lot of rumours - then people say "you said this and this!", and we're forced to say no - someone else said this for us.

i can appreciate when gamers get frustrated, i think its pretty clear what the status of the game is.

Are the locations based on real world locations?

The game is not based on one location. Its fictional. It does try to be a realistic looking game. All the locations were based on real-life reference.

South America?

Yes, it's based in South America. I think it feels, to me, as diverse as any of the TimeSplitters games. But with seamless travel. There's a great late-on sequence when you start off in a rebel shanty town, and exit the town into a huge valley with a river. You move across the bridge, and from the bridge on a distant mountain there's a little observatory. An enemy base. You then cross the bridge, you ascend the mountain, and you fight your way to the observatory. Its one continual sequence but it takes in this huge range of views and locations.

The feel we want to give is that of a road movie, you're following one character through a sequence of events, emotions, locations. Its about his development.

When's the game out?

The end of May.

Anything else you'd care to add on Free Radical's latest?

As long as they know about the four player co-op and the 16 player - all this stuff, then we're covered.

Right, I'm off to lose at the 16 player multiplayer!

We'll see won't we...

By Luke Guttridge