User Review : Haze

It took an extra six months to roll, but this joint isn't a bad trip...just average.

Haze is to the PS3 what Perfect Dark: Zero was to the XBOX360 and Killzone was to the PS2: a bold, underrated shooter that gets the fundamentals right but brings nothing new to the table. It's average to good in every sense, but in no way does it present anything spectacular in its experience.

STORY

You are Shane Carpenter, born in 2023. You are born into a world where if you want things to be right, you have to make them right. Interestingly enough, Shane's back story in the game is actually different than the one given in pre-hype trailers. Rather then speaking of his parents dying in the "Games of Terror" or Mantel taking him in when he should have been dead, all we're told is that Shane joined up during college. It may be inconsistent, but atleast the character has a bit of story and certainly has a personality. Shane goes through many episodes of questioning and moral decisions. Though these situations may be a bit too convinient for the story's progression, they do give good enough reason to buy into Shane's cause.

As for the other charaters, they're cliche but still fun parts of the story. The progression of the narative is clever and the writting is solid, though at times over-dramatic and repetitive. The biggest problem with Haze's story is the scope. Unlike Halo, Haze throws you into a world of emotions and drama with little to no backstory. You're never told who's in charge at Mantel. You're never given a clear history of the rebels. The world is small and the locations seem too obvious for characters to just out of no where understand where they must go to end the conflict thanks to one participant's information. When you take a step back and analyze what Haze has to offer for story, it's easy to see what Free Radical wanted to do, but the execution just isn't what it needed to be.

GRAPHICS

Haze's visuals are a mixed bag. Animations, character models and environment designs are great. Special effects are solid and the colors of the game are vibrant and bring the world of Haze to life. The framerate is silky smooth, even in splitscreen. However, the game has its fair share of clipping issues. Textures look solid from afar, but up close they're some of the worst seen on the PS3. There are some instances of blur effect glitches and textures sometimes take a while to load much like what happens with the Unreal 3 engine. The presentation of the game certainly looks more solid in single player than splitscreen multiplayer, with extra text and blur effects, but the graphics really aren't dumbed down at all. The same goes for online play, which still looks good. If there's one final nick on Haze's surface it's that the game runs in 576p rather than 720p HD, reducing the product's visual attration some.

SOUND

The audio of the game is actually quite fantastic. Though repetitive, ally and enemy taunts are well written and acted. Voice-acting is good, though a little off-que with some of the animations during cutscenes. Music, when apparent, is fantastic and the sound effects of the guns, explosions and vehicles help to create a solid cinematic presentation for the game.

CONTROLS

Haze controls fantastically. It's very easy to master the handling of the game. The controller layout is intelligent and easy to manage. The responsiveness of commands is pin-point and vehicle control, outside of the hard to handle ATV, is loose and fun. Power-sliding has never been so easy in an FPS, even if the cars don't play to their weight. I personally have never been able to handle an FPS experience as well as Haze before.

GAMEPLAY

Haze's gameplay consists of two factions: private military corporation Mantel and the South American rebels known as the Promise Hand. Both factions have their own unique abilities. As a Mantel trooper, you'll rely on injecting yourself with Nectar, a performance enhancing drug that will make enemies more apparent due to glow effects, increase your melee attack effectiveness, turn all your weapons into sniper-scoping monsters and give you better healing ability. As a rebel, you'll rely on playing dead, scavaging for ammo, and manipulating mantel troopers through overdoses. You can do this by shooting the Nectar pack on the trooper's back, setting of nectar grenade near them or hitting them with a well placed knife shot covered in nectar. The easiest of the three ways is the nectar grenade and that's probably the only way you'll find yourself doing it. As a trooper you too can go into an overdoes which brings up a cool "I can't control what's happening effect" where you can't tell friend from foe. It only lasts for a bit and truly seems chaotic. This can actually happen to you online and offline, adding depth to the otherwise gimmick like gameplay mechanic.

There are vehicle segments in Haze's campaign that while fun are far more linear than anything found in Halo. There are also some nice turret based sections that are fun, but seem fairly staged in their progression. Basically, just shoot semi-accurately and the game will go on. The campaign lasts about 6 hours and can be played both alone, splitscreen or 4-player online co-op. One concern I have with Haze after playing it the three ways multiple times is that it's funnest alone. Not good for a game made for co-op play. When a teammate dies, whether it be a buddy or AI, you can pat them on the back with square or they die till the next check point. It's an okay way to work things, but places more of a burden on you as a gamer to revive your friend. I'd rather have the "clear area spawn" of Halo instead.

The AI of the game is a mixed bag. Aggressive by nature, the enemies can either provide easy kills by running right into your line of fire or provide difficulty by running at you and flushing you out of cover for easy target practice for oppossing grunts. Ally AI is more useful than most games, but they seem to enjoy running right in your line of fire rather than taking up positions behind or out of your way.

The biggest issue with Haze's campaign is the inability to skip cutscenes. When playing online co-op, listening to speeches can seem like you're playing MGS4 one month early sometimes. I would have taken level loading screens over the same tired cutscenes over and over again to speed up the process and leave the tar out of the online experience. It's inexcusable and faulty co-op execution. This is part of the reason why playing this game alone is almost funner than with friends.

Online features boring deathmatch and team deathmatch modes, but Team Assualt is awesome! Playable either alone in ranked or splitscreen in unranked, Team Assualt is a blast giving you different objectives depending which map you're on. Most maps and play types are very fun but the cargo-based "nectar mines" map is just way to unbalanced in favor of the Mantel troopers. Other than that, the online is balanced and runs perfectly smooth.

The problem with the online is the lack of a community. Haze brings no level up system, no customization and no meaningful objective or stat tracking. Though stat tracking is there, it means nothing. There are leader boards, but that's a pathetic excuse for an online community in light of the standards set by R6V, Halo3 and COD4.

FINAL WORD

Haze is the poorman's Halo, getting the fundamentals right and bringing the multiplayer value both online and offline. But it suffers from far too many technical flaws and doesn't live up to the standards for community or co-op presentation set by the genre's heavy hitters. It's still a good shooter, but not the killer-app, AAA experience Free Radical was hyping it up to be. Try it out and you may enjoy. But if you're still playing COD4, stick with it until Resistance 2 this fall.

7/10