Haze (PS3)

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

One of the reasons Rare are such a controversial developer nowadays (apart from the whole Nintendo selling them to Microsoft thing) is the fact that a lot of people associated with GoldenEye and Perfect Dark left the company a long time ago. Many of them ended up at Free Radical Design, where they created the love-it-or-loathe-it TimeSpliters series and the underappreciated Second Sight. Haze ditches the stylised look of their older games though, with a game set in a future world dominated by mega global corporation Mantel - where you’re cast as one of their soldiers fighting rebels in South America.

Like all fictional global corporations Mantel is up to no good and it turns out their drug NECTAR is doing more than just making you a super soldier with increased speed, strength and accuracy. Highlighting enemies under cover from you, as well as grenades and bobby traps is all very good but the downside is it also turns you (and your teammates) psychotic if you use it too much. Worse it seems to sanitise the world around you, making corpses invisible and even obscuring the true nature of the landscape around you…

Rebel soldiers are able to take advantage of the reality bending powers of NECTAR, such as playing dead to regain their health or using a special "weapons steal" move to make up for their lack of hardware (both of which moves work great in multiplayer). With arguably the most interesting storyline in any current first person shooter and a custom made graphics engine Haze’s future looks crystal clear.

Harrison Dent

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Customer reviews

review by: nez150 date: 2008-11-13 rating:
OH DEAR! ANOTHER WASTE OF MONEY!!!!
If you are thinking of buying this game, there are a few things to know:
1) DONT BUY IT!!!!
2) PLEASE DONT BUY IT
3) IF YOU BUY IT, IT WILL DRIVE YOU MAD!

I completed this game within 2 days, its too short (as are most PS3 games),the graphics are poor, there are too many glitches in the game & the vehicle sections are laughable!!!

Once or twice I have been driving thru mid air cos the background has comletely vanished!! there are occassionaly soldiers floating in mid air & the cut scenes.............well, they rival MGS4 for length but not for how interesting they are!

Dont buy it, if you get given it ask for the receipt and change it for something else!

Cheers

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review by: P. Greenaway date: 2008-11-06 rating:
haze
this game overall is brilliant! yes, some of the graphics are a bit dull but the story is quite good.
It is quite short but good.
Graphics 7/10
storyline 9/10
weapons 6/10
online 8/10

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review by: monkey date: 2008-11-03 rating:
Really poor!
This game was a real let down. The graphics are average & gameplay average at most. THe storyline was rubbish and very annoying cut-scenes which you can't skip. The vechiles all handle very badly.

Its a shame as this game did show some promise but it felt rushed.

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review by: twistedthoughts date: 2008-10-11 rating:
Average..Reviewed upon completion..
Okay so hugely disappointing for so many reasons. The game starts off reasonably well but the first thing that stands out for me is that the three typical visual effects (cinematics, cutscenes and in game play) are massivley different in quality. The cinematics are exceptional and much like in Army of Two they are so far beyond the in game play graphics - photo film quality. Then there is the middle ground of cutscences, which look basic and blocky. Why oh why do developers do this?

The game itself is based on you starting life as a Mantel Trooper but unlike the other members of your army, you have broken the hold of the nectar drug and have started thinking for yourself. You then defect to fight for the rebels. thats the plot in a nut shell and it should have been far more interesting as you apparently gain all these different skills as you defect to being a a rebel.

The problem with the game is it just doesnt do itself justice in anyway shape or form. As a Mantel Trooper, you can use a pistol, assault rifle, sniper rifle, flame thrower, shot gun etc which have yellow bits on them so you know which army they belong to. As a rebel you get all of the above with red bits on. Given that the rebels are rag tag and were formed only to fight Mantel, you wonder how and why they have the same kind of fire power and why there arent variations on the theme. hand made weapons etc. A Mantel trooper uses nectare to highten senses and this literally highlights the rebels for easier kills. (should be cool but it isnt) Rebels can use nectare bombs to OD the troopers so they kill each other (should be cool but guess what - it isnt).

As opponents, Mantel Troopers have big yellow helmets (deerrrr look at the cover) and may as well have a target painted on them as well or a big sign saying ''shoot me''. if that wasnt bad enough, troopers take a hit of nectar just before any bit of action, so whether you have engaged the troopers or not, you hear a distinct ''hit'' of nectare being taken so you know the troopers are there before you enter a room. Is this cutting edge AI? Next hitch is the constant use of vocals which are repetitive and boring. Then there are the vehicle levels which are hugely crap. You wreck your quad bike or buggy - dont worry - there is another fresh one just around the corner which appears from no-where. This means you doint value the vehicle you have at all as you know another is coming if you trash it.

I wont go into all the glitches and stalling problems I had with the game.

The game generally feels like elements of other similar games but doing none of them well or better, and with this nectar factor thrown in. In terms of rating amongst other FPS on PS3, I'd put it above FEAR for entertainment but below Turok as that at least had a bit of a challenge to it.

One thing we can all agree on is that the bar has been set by COD4. That means anything that isnt quite as defining needs to be different, but still very good. HAZE is neither - but it is yellow.


review by: date: 2008-09-29 rating:
Just like a movie blockbuster over hyped!
This game is pants! and not the skimpy things jodie marsh wears! Its just got nothing too it the cut scenes are too long, un-skippable and once youve seen it more boring than a train spotters convention! The game play is ok and the graphics arent bad!

The most fun i had was the multi player with my brother when he found the weakspot on the neck of my man and precedded a battering from the melee attack just to annoy me when ever he got chance! but even that wore thin!

It definatly wasnt nearly as good as the massive amounts of previews made out, the story is predictable and the game play is slow, jumpy and boring!

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