I say unbiased because some people seemed to have an unexplainable grudge against the game way before the demo was even released. It looks like they approached the game with negativity pre-installed into their heads. This will be an impartial review...
Introduction
Lets get this out of the way. As a demo, which is supposed to demonstrate the game's various elements and functions and give the end-user a reasonable amount of information to form a solid expectation, it completely sucks. The demo has less than 5 minutes of actual gameplay, with nearly a minute's worth of cut-scenes (even Hard mode isn't much of a challenge) and during this amazingly short experience, you only get a 'taste' of what Mantel have to offer without so much of a glimpse of what the Rebel sides have to say. As a demo, it sucks.
Graphics
As we've all heard before, the graphics are not that great at all. Some people would say that Halo:CE on the original Xbox has better graphics, others would probably go as far as to say Goldeneye on the N64 looks better, but those people either have 15'' Black and White TV's, no eyes or they're just idiots. The demo we're playing as far as I know is from the December '07 build, where IGN gave their preview and gave it a more or less average review, and from the pictures we've seen in recent builds its looking a hell of a lot better.
So why would Free Radical present us with a dated build? Truth is, not much has or will be changed to what we've seen in the demo, aside from the looks. Due to time constraints it seems FR had no choice but to use the older build due to its more robust state, but it seems FR are confident with this older build, otherwise it would never have seen the light of day.
Gameplay
Generic shooter that's crap. The most popular choice of words I've read today. Truth is, it's quite a fun game with the Nectar system proving to be quite unique and a blast to use. Nectar should be used almost ALL the time, and pressing R3 is a must (to aim), if you're good enough you'll replenish your nectar gauge by killing rebels quick enough so that you'll rarely have to use more than one dose per battle. With nectar on, diving away from grenades, which can be clearly seen due to the nectar effect, is a lot of fun. That being said, the demo really is just a 1 minute showcase of the nectar effect and what you can do with it, with the rest of the demo simply being a case of doing the same thing over and over (runnin' and gunnin') - it's a bit like if you played a demo of Uncharted: Drakes Fortune where all you do is battle with a bunch of the same guys 3 times and then it ends, it'd be boring and wouldn't give the game any justice.
What this demo does prove, however is the potential the nectar system has. Generic this is not, and its only when you get a taste of the overdose effect where you realise how much impact it could have in the full game, or online against real players. Although Mantel is more run and gun, the beauty of this game lies with the sneaky and stealthy Rebel side, where clearly this game will be shown to have its differences, unfortunately they've decided not to show us any of that in this demo.
Co-op
Personally I found it a lot of fun. The menu system may not be very slick, but its a demo - how many demo's have you played where 4 player online co-op exists? I'm guessing zero. The full game is surely going to have a revised lobby system (this demo is 6 months old), which should make it much easier to jump in to your friends game any time. A great little game I played with my friends was to get each other in overdose (only achievable by shooting directly at the nectar packs on the back) the last survivor who's health was firmly in check would be the victor. Just going around with 3 other friends on a co-op campaign is something a PS3 owner will really appreciate.
Conclusion
As a demo, it kinda sucks. Doesn't showcase much, ends early and has a few pointless cut-scenes that I'm sure we could only appreciate in the full game. Even though it's so short, I do like the nectar system and had a blast with co-op, though the demo is so short I don't think I could play it again (already completed it 4 times). The graphics aren't that special, but they're comparable to Halo 3 and to be honest, groundbreaking graphics really aren't too important to me. Of course I don't want a game to look like **** especially on my £425 PS3, but this game doesn't look like **** unlike what a few people may want you to believe.
Is this game groundbreaking or innovative? Well the demo does a poor job demonstrating this game, so at this moment of time I'd say, "not so much," but I do find the nectar system to be quite unique and it does play a big role to the gameplay. Put it this way, if I played a demo of COD4 where you play the first level ('crew expendable') and only go through around 4 rooms, I'd have thought COD4 was as generic and boring as they came. But as we all know, COD4 is a masterpiece and multiplayer is even better. Right now, I feel the same way with Haze, it could turn out to be just as awesome as COD4 but right now, from this demo alone I wouldn't be amazingly fussed about it. The Rebel side of Haze appear to have some unique gameplay elements where its essential to make your enemies turn on each other and to play dead under certain circumstances, but this demo doesn't show even an ounce of what the Rebels have to offer. The game is fun, and could easily be even better, we'll just have to wait for the full release.
