Sweet Nectar…
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Members of the Mantel force are suited up in full body armor trimmed in bright yellow and wear helmets with shiny yellow face shields that give the appearance of giant bumblebees. No doubt the game's developers saw the irony between the soldiers' appearance and the drug, Nectar. The Nectar used by Mantel is contained in packs worn on the soldiers' backs and is injected intravenously into the back of their necks. In the game, players are given a tutorial on the use of Nectar, instructing how to give your character a shot, or boost, of the drug. While the drug is continuously administered into the blood stream, a boost of it will fill the Nectar bar in the game's HUD.
Boosts of Nectar allow the player to move faster, take less damage, and view enemies much easier as they emit an orange glow. This works like night vision or infrared goggles, but affects enemies only. Each of the six Nectar boosts you can carry at once deplete over the course of a minute or so when used. However, each kill you make before your indictor bar drains completely refills it a little. With that in mind, it's entirely possible to keep a single boost going until the an is cleared of enemies. While these are welcome enhancements, the use of Nectar is not without its negative effects.
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Like most drugs, Nectar comes with a disclaimer. Here's ours.
While using Nectar, do not overfill the capacity of your Nectar bar. Overdoses of Nectar may cause the inability to distinguish your enemies from your own squad. Most common side effects found in those who use Nectar include, but are not limited to, hysteria, dizziness, blurred vision, extreme paranoia, hallucinating, temporary deafness, or spontaneously bursting into flames. Those suffering from the most extreme side effects should consult a physician immediately, or simply run and hide while shaking your Sixaxis controller vigilantly.
Soldiers who have overdosed are recognized by their bright red face shields, erratic behavior, and red clouds of Nectar that leak from the containers on the soldiers' backs. The drug is also used as a brainwashing agent. Unlike Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, Mantel soldiers cannot see dead people. This of course is to protect them from the realities of the war at hand.
While the use of Nectar appears to be the star of this show, disappointment inevitably comes when players no longer have the ability to use it after the first couple of hours into the game. At this point, you learn that Mantel's real agenda is not so desirable, thus causing your character to switch sides and begin fighting alongside the members of The Promised Hand. With this turn of events come a few new abilities, such as swiftly dodging enemy fire and feigning death. While playing dead, Mantel's troopers cannot see you, which is odd since you're not actually dead. It is a welcome feature nonetheless and one that you'll use to your advantage from time to time.
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aeternitas - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
I agree with this.Many months ago I read a digital camera review here. I could see that they were trying really hard to sound like they knew what they were talking about, but there were so many obvious gaping holes and leaps in logic that any semi-pro digital photographer would just scoff at.
Missleading half truths simply due to not understanding the technology!
Honestly, if this site (or any online) doesn't want to dedicate one reviewer to a category, and have that person well versed, then there is little to no reason to do reviews on technology that you guys need not be. I much rather see updates on the video card section. Or maybe a lil expose on modern CPUs and how they work at the deeper level.
You guys REALLY have plunty of stuff to review, rather than an extremely poor and very ugly version of Halo.
Come on.
malkavianjkames - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
I thought it was more of a commentary than a review. I honestly don't care what anandtech has to say about if this good is worth playing or not. Alot of the comments, however, were informative about the game in an honest manner and I welcome them.Actually, I get a big impression that this game sounds like a more open ended "Red Faction 2" haha.
Baked - Monday, May 26, 2008 - link
What the hell, AT does game reviews now?Ensoph42 - Monday, May 26, 2008 - link
Guys, stick to what you know. There are other sites out there that specialize in game reviews and do a much better job. I don't go to gamespot for thier hardware reviews and I don't come to anandtech for game reviews.poohbear - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
yea true dat! unless the game review incorporates some kind of hardware (eg videocard, quad core support) analysis, please dont do console game reviews.soydeedo - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Agreed. I didn't really think it was a bad article, but I don't want these things to take the place of hardware articles. I also don't think I'll ever really rely on this site for game reviews. Make a spin-off or something like DailyTech, but incorporating it into AT isn't that smart.JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Note that the author (Eddie) is not one of our hardware reviewers, so his presence as a game reviewer is not taking time away from other articles. I do have a few game articles I'm working on, but they are PC games and they will certainly discuss the hardware side of things as well. Stay tuned....GoodRevrnd - Monday, May 26, 2008 - link
I have to honestly wonder what the point of this article is. AT isn't a game review website, so is this a test to see how it goes over? Can you even release reviews with the regularity necessary to maintain credibility? Judging from the waning Rock Band DLC reviews, I'm guessing not. So that brings up the other question: Did Sony just pay you all to review an exclusive for the mere purpose of plastering a great big "HEY WE HAVE AN EXCLUSIVE" on the front of the page?JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
We're looking to do more game reviews. And the "Exclusive" was put there by me meaning "this is a PS3 Exclusive" not "this is an exclusive review".anandtech02148 - Monday, May 26, 2008 - link
not too many reviews for this game, and it looks promising for my underuse hardwares. Please review age of conan.