I'm a bit behind on publishing this because I never got around to making the score card, and by now honestly I just wont bother too much. This will just be a more simple blog exclusive review unless I one day repolish and publish it better. Regardless it gets the job done just as well, it just doesn't come with an image and special bold "overall" label.
wow! I just don't know where to start with this game. I'm genuinely fascinated by its mix of gameplay and story, its release date, the reception, the stain it left, and the development that brought it all into place. The $3 cost may have been worth this fascination alone, though I might have gotten the same thing from a youtube walkthrough. Anyways who cares, right? You read the title as a review, and that's what you're getting.
Haze was the last game made by Free Radical (some of Rare's old FPS talent and team behind Timesplitters) and honestly it wasn't recieved well. Published by ubisoft and worked with to become a big FPS that was supposed to be "The shooter the PS3 is remembered for" it ended up flopping with tech problems and a rushed date even after delays. Its plot is based around a future invasion of South America in which you play as a member of Mantel, a powerful PMC with enhanced field soldiers. You are Shane Carpenter, a Mantel grunt who is pretty basic at first but is destined to uncover a great conspiracy that sets in motion the core plot of the game. You open the game with some strange allies that talk more like hyper frat boys than soldiers. They aren't actually so stupid though, its more of that their minds are just corrupt with a substance called "Nectar". Nectar is hardwired into their suits, distributes large doses on command, and plays out some interesting effects on the battlefield. Faster reflexes, enhances your senses making lifeforms glow, improves durability and healing, and acts as an anti-depressant as well thus shielding you from anything unhappy... even in a warzone. As you'd imagine though, that last thing is what really drives a part of the plot. It turns out this nectar doesn't just make you super soldiers, it makes you super dumb puppets to use as weapons and trick with propaganda. However you had a slight advantage given to your character when someone accidentally tones your nectar dose back leaving you vulnerable to shortages and disruptions that slowly break the illusion and start to show you what's right from wrong. One thing leads to the next, and eventually you find yourself with a broken suit and no drug supply, a kill order placed on your head, and you're now working with your former enemies to right the true wrongs that are going on.
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| Some messed up stuff being hidden with Nectar |
This premise that drives the story is one of the best parts of the game. At first, it seems like a really cheesy story made by some tin foil hat anti-military conspiracy theorist, but its not really pushing the morals down as much as just being an interesting plot that was a bit ahead of its time. This was in 2008, before we got a wave of self-critical "serious" games trying be edgy, and an internet full of stupid accusations about mainstream shooters being propaganda machines. We still had space marine cheesy-ness floating around, and that sticks in with this game. So with Haze, we got a demonstration of a edgy plot without the shoehorned drama and the contradicting player guilt moments. Haze still knows its a game, and the campy dialogue, the science fiction themed drug plot, and the lengthy amounts of gameplay all fit in together in a way that doesn't take itself too seriously. It knows to let you have fun, and I would say even has subtle stuff in it that plays on the video game nature better. For example, at the start when you're on Mantel bodies fade away like early 3D shooters, and combined with the sub-par graphics and lack of blood its as if the engine on this game is just pathetic. However its turns out body fading was a part of the Nectar enhancement, covering up the ugly mess the war is causing. Once you're off Nectar, bodies stick around, emit blood, and you can even exploit this visual issue by faking death and getting back up when they don't suspect it. Differences like this, the even the way you aim your weapon or notice the lack of HUD, makes it that much more interesting. I'd also like to add, this is a game where your character even talks, and responds surprisingly humane towards everything. He asks questions about his objectives, questions or has remarks about orders, and even has a weak voice that hints about how Mantel soldiers don't exactly go through strong training. He's not a big deal of a character by any long shot, but he helps make you appreciate the story a little more, and it presents more fluid story telling. The world isn't just something fed to you by NPCs, your guy actually communicates points to them, argues with them pushing some details, and even mentions why he joined to fight a war. It makes a cheesy traitor story that much more interesting.
However this is also where things begin to look a little sloppy. I could nitpick some moments of the story, or just the general pacing. However the worst part is certainly the switch & bait nectar mechanic and the inconsistency it has with switching sides. This is a good point to bring out how the gameplay isn't always on par. You're told to use this mechanic at first like its the central and best gimmick of the game. There's like 5 or so tutorial prompts pushing you to make the most out of nectar. By the time you're starting to feel good about it and understand all its ins and outs, its removed from you after your 2nd level. Yes, 2 levels to build upon a massive game mechanic and story element, then you've lost it. At least one lengthy filler level in between the two would have done a great service to this, but its rushed, and once that part is rushed so is the thrill of the mystery behind this plot. After you switch teams, and uncover the conspiracy, the story's suspense takes a break as you just turn your focus to a dull corridor shooter that commands you to just walk and kill, it'll throw you a bone for Carpenter's story maybe a couple hours later. For the record as well, I'll add that corridor shooters are my favorite kind so its not because of it being one that makes it "dull". Its just that it doesn't have anything special beyond the premise and cheesy style. You have regenerating health, arcadey light military weapons that aren't interesting at all, two weapon slot with no thought out balance or variety to keep you really using it (about 80% of the game is practically forcing you to stick with an ordinary assault rifle and an ordinary shotgun as your best combo), and there isn't any differences between the faction weapons. There's absolutely no reason to explore, nor room to experiment with tactics, and AI that is either dull or even flat out unresponsive. Once the Nectar mechanic is thrown out the window, its replaced with lamer rebel gimmicks that you just wont be capable of using much and the whole game doesn't do anything to stand out anymore. Even the enemy Mantel soldiers become just grunts you can kill in a couple shots, they don't feel like powerful drugged super soldiers like it was aimed at in the start, instead its actually a weakness. There are a handful of ways to trigger an "overdose" that messes up the enemy, but its not a huge contribution to the way you'll be playing. Its also worth mentioning in addition to the medicore gameplay there isn't a sprint button and the melee is practically broken unless you have a knife which takes up one of your two weapon slots.
On the bright side, multiplayer manages to extend your time with Nectar but also lets you wreak havoc on those with it based on what side you go on. Honestly the multiplayer feels a lot like Killzone 1 if it traded pick-ups for asymmetrical gimmicks. The promise hand rebels play exactly as they do in campaign with fake death abilities, grenade traps, rolling, etc. Meanwhile the Mantel soldiers have most Nectar abilities, though I would say armor got toned back and with the monster health increase on everyone you may not want the blury rebel vision as it throws off your aim for headshots. I actually found myself preferring the rebel side because its so much fun to sneak up on a Mantel guy and slice him with a Nectar coated knife and overloading their systems. Meanwhile actually using the Nectar felt like it screwed with my aim, and the Nectar just didn't feel all that tough up against bots. I also prefer aiming down sights over the weird scope zoom they have to use with their visor. On the bright side the Nectar almost presents its own challenge to keep it boosted with kills to see if you can get by with one dose. Its almost like a natural killstreak reward. There are still pick-ups despite what I implied earlier, but as stated before the weapon variety is so ridiculously dull and boring that there's next to nothing encouraging you to actually memorize the placements and figure it out. While an arena-lite MP (like Killzone, timesplitters, and that Starwars FPS) usually has awesome guns and health kits and maybe even power-ups to keep you going, here its only a couple of dull weapons that just aren't worth wasting your time over. On a similar note I'll add that regenerating health just doesn't make much sense here. It works, but if this were actually online I'd be pissed to sink a dozen bullets into some guy who's just going to run behind a corner and get it all back. I love big health, but in this kind of game where the gunplay is floaty, pick-ups exist, lots of cover bits around, and then you add big regenerating health to all that and its simply a confused mess. The game is kind of an outdated attempt to follow two trends at once, and it doesn't do well on either side. Without the team gimmicks, and that simple joy of throwing a nectar knife, the experience is ridiculously barebones and left down to bots with deathmatch modes and basic score rules. Maps
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| Watch out for the overdoesed |
How about the tech side? Well this is a huge part of what fascinated me, but I think I also got answers. The game looks passable, but very sub-par. Kind of like the gameplay I mentioned. Physics are implemented, but fall short of anything fun. The environments are medium-ish in size and tease bigger things, but never go anywhere except straight into a dead-end or through the objective point like you're supposed to. The visuals themselves are really underwhelming, especially considering Killzone 2 was less than a year away, and Bioshock and Doom 3 did so much more with their atmosphere, and COD4/5 were running with far better performance as well as more extras like particles, emitters (and in W@W's case gibs). Heck even Alpha Prime, a budget indie FPS released before Haze, looked incredible by comparison running on my Intel HD 3000 laptop. I can't figure out how Haze possibly looked as bad as it did while being praised as a massive triple A PlayStation 3 exclusive published under Ubisoft. The mechanics and visuals show something far less triple A. I'd compare this more to a PSN downloadable game. Again its all passable, it kind of looks like Far Cry if it traded details and layered effects for smoother models, but to think this had the same budget tier for its time as Battlefield 3, or an open world game is for ours now just baffles me. It turns out a lot of the funding in this game could have been dumped into a combination of marketing (they even got Korn to write a song for it) and issues attempting to run this on a console they were still having lots of difficulties with programming. On the bright side the level based transitions are absolutely seamless, with every level truly leading into the next even if it uses the excuse of a dropship a lot for this. Sadly when you die you'll be met with a lengthy load, but I still consider the lack of loading an area is a big accomplishment for a game that is so outdated in everything else
Now you're all probably wondering where the redeeming factor is outside the premise, but honestly despite my disappointments its not all that bad. It never crossed my mind that this was a terrible game, especially not as bad as many will try to tell you. Its just not very good either. There's nothing innovative, or well refined within it. Its basically the bottom of the barrel right before things go into "bad" territory. For every unique idea it has, it has a glitch or some poor lack of balance to keep it back from going anywhere, but it has enough ideas and momentum alongside a cool premise that it never felt terrible and I continued to the end and wound up writing this review for it. Its cheesy tone with a cool premise and bright tropical setting also give it that feeling of the perfect type of game I usually play in the summer, and I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself wanting to return in the future (probably next summer).
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