Okay, so now everyone knows about Haze’s big twist. You start off as a Mantel trooper, but halfway through the game you discover some terrible truth about Mantel and opt to switch sides, resulting in a very different style of gameplay. We know each side is very unique, and we know they’re both pretty cool, but which is going to be best? Obviously, with multiplayer in mind Free Radical will be endeavouring to ensure that each type of soldier is just as powerful as the other, and hopefully each will be equally fun to play with in both single-player and multiplayer. But ultimately, everyone’s going to end up with a favourite, right? So, let’s look at what we know, and figure out which side we most like the sound of.

Obviously Mantel has the most advanced, most powerful tech around – strong, light body armour, fast, tough vehicles, the latest hi-tech weaponry and, most importantly, Nectar packs. But is most advanced really best? The whole point of playing as a Mantel trooper is that you’re playing as someone whose reality is just like a videogame. Could all this tech make fighting for Mantel a bit too userfriendly? A bit too plain sailing? Maybe, but then being an uber-powerful supersoldier can be a lot of fun, too. Fun, but perhaps not as satisfying as playing the underdog and having to rely on cunning and improvisation. If you reckon a more piecemeal approach to technology might be more satisfying, then the Promise Hand rebels might be more your style.

Every piece of kit the Promise Hand uses has been salvaged, mostly from dead or captured Mantel units so, for example, they don’t have full suits of armour, but they do have some armour. Also, they have mostly the same weapons as Mantel, but fewer of them with a less plentiful supply of ammo. To compensate for this, to some extent at least, Promise Hand fighters have figured out a way to adapt any ammo they find to whatever weapon they’re carrying at the time. So if you use a mini-gun to kill a load of Mantel troopers armed with pistols, you can use their pistol ammo in your mini-gun. Something Mantel troops can’t do.

One of the most important weapons in any rebel’s arsenal is a roll of sturdy adhesive tape. Why? Because without tape you can’t make Nectar grenades by fixing a Nectar pack (ripped off the back of a dead enemy) to an ordinary frag grenade. A well-placed Nectar grenade can cause a whole group of Mantel fighters to overdose simultaneously, which normally results in them freaking out and shooting each other. A great way to save ammo. Rebels also carry knives which, during the process of making a Nectar grenade, do tend to get covered in Nectar. Nectar that Promise Hand cannot afford to waste. Stick that knife in a Mantel soldier and he’ll freak out, too.

The Promise Hand have also developed several other tactics to give themselves a fighting chance against the superior might of Mantel, including laying traps, playing dead, dodging and evading techniques, and healing. With all this in mind, we can’t help leaning towards their camp on the grounds that it sounds more varied and interesting. In contrast, fighting for Mantel seems a bit like playing, well, Halo or something. Of course, Promise Hand will presumably prove to be the good guys in the end, so it’s perhaps fitting that their gameplay is more complex and satisfying. We just hope that not everyone sees it the way we do, otherwise no one will want to play as Mantel online.