Promises undelivered: "Haze" fails in its execution
Haze is, in fact, a great example of how a fine concept got completely left at the gate. The drug-induced nirvana concept isn't new to shooters, but at least there seemed to be an idea, at one point, of how to flesh out a fine little shooter with a storyline that wasn't imminently laughable. Instead, the plot is non-existent, the voice acting is campy at best and low-budget at worst, and the action is generally tepid. The FPS genre has been overwhelmed with bilge like this lately, and it's pretty maddening that developers keep churning them out with such little regard to things like innovation and replay value.
Haze does have its moments where all that promise seems to break through and be on display. There are some good visuals that almost make you forget about the garish ones. Vehicle sequences are pretty well done. The audio, except for the voice work, is commendable and does give some depth to some otherwise generic environments. You can't fault the frame rate, either, which doesn't stutter and seems to move briskly (though there's some noticeable clipping and aliasing that is distracting).
Haze is just another game. There's nothing here to get excited about, and given the fact that this game had considerable publicity in advance of its oft-delayed release, you can't help but feel disappointed by what you're playing, seeing, and hearing. It's far from a terrible game, but in this era of heightened expectations for console exclusives, it's definitely a failure for Free Radical and Ubisoft.