Haze (PS3) Review

With games like Killzone and Resistance being Playstation exclusives for First-Person shooters, back in 2008 just last year a lot of people were looking forward to a game called HAZE which is a First-Person shooter. Most gamers would know that this game was made by Free Radical anyone a fan of the Timesplitters series? (I know I am), most fans thought that there was going to be a Timesplitters 4 on the PS3. But Free Radical decided to create another franchise for the Playstation 3.



Main plot for HAZE is taken place in the distance future of Latin America, Shane Carpenter, a young Mantel soldier that's dispatched: along with the rest of his squad, to the Boa Region of South America. The largest PMC in the world, Mantel has an army of enhanced warriors boosted with their specialized "supplement" known as Nectar. With a large force at its disposal, Mantel has been asked to go in and pacify the region from the dangerous "Promise Hand", a militant group of rebels headed up by the villainous Skin Coat (so named because he enjoys skinning his victims and wearing them).



However, Carpenter finds that his mission to "liberate the hearts and minds" of the indigenous people is not what it appears to be and after one objective takes an unexpected turn, he finds himself defecting to the rebel cause and fighting against his former. At first glance, this appears to be an interesting premise for a title, giving players a sense of both sides of conflict. But unfortunately the story for HAZE isn't that great and starts losing its plot through the game.



Gameplay: Like other First-Person shooters controls are easy to get used to if you've played other shooting games. Most weapons in HAZE are much the same as other weapons in other games like you've a rifle gun, shot gun, sniper rifle, pistol gun and a few other type of guns too. Also during gameplay in HAZE during the first half of the game you can use Nectar to restore health which it can also heightens your senses and causes all enemies to glow. While you are high on the stuff, you are also more resistant to damage, can detect mines more easily, and have better aiming skills.



Most vehicles in HAZE are mostly ripped of from the Halo series on Xbox they look the same as what you would have seen on Halo but a different look on them, you can drive a Macho which is a warthog look a like car which has a gun on the back of it. There is also a Mula which is a like a like quad bike some drives and the other shoots. You can also play up to 4 player co-op on campaign mode or play online which is good for some gamers who like playing shooting games either on hard or insane mode depending how much you want to get out of it.



There is Multiplayer for online up to 16 players but it's addictive to what you would have seen in Timesplitters 2 and 3. You've got your basic Death match and Team Death match and Team Assault.



Graphics and Sound: Ok let's talk about the graphics for HAZE which is probably the worst thing for a Playstation 3 game. It has a lot of visual issues with in the game making it a problem to see or what you are aiming at when your shooting normal or when you are using Nectar the visuals can get a little fuzzy. Textures and non-descript environments to pop-in out of no where and odd animation problems during cutscenes and gameplay where sometimes some charcters in the game can just freeze and not move at all making it feel bad as a PC game with the usually problems and you have to wait for an update for it from the official site or from a fan site.



Most gamers who have played through the Timesplitters series you would think that the next gen graphics for HAZE would be great as what were on the Playstation 2 or on Xbox but it turns out that everyone was wrong.



Another bad thing about the game is the awful voicing and the dialogue is weak were most of the charcters in HAZE try being bad-asses but there just being dumb and acting tough. Sound effects are good, but that's not enough to make you turn up the volume up once you've hit the mute on your TV because you'll probably get sock of the voicing. Music however isn't that great to listen to you can play own music that you would store on your PS3, but you can always turn up the volume if you own an MP3 or an Ipod or your PC maybe.



Overall: A big disappointment to most fans and gamers who enjoyed games from Free Radical. The good news is that there won't be a sequel which is good, the bad news is that Free Radical was burst just before Christmas at the end of 2008 meaning that there won't be a Timesplitters 4 or Star Wars Battlefront 3 which is a shame but I can see why that HAZE didn't sell well because like other people said the game is poor on mostly everything on HAZE.



If you want to play it, I would recommend renting this game or you see it for under £5 or less because campaign mode is short pretty similar to would have seen in Call of Duty and also nobody plays Multiplayer on HAZE anymore. If Free Radical had more time before they were bust and out of business they could have least hold the game back and fix the problems for it and it would have been a success for the Playstation and for gamers too.