An interesting idea that was simply lost during development…
Like far to many games that seem to be in development for a while, the concept and the story of the game seemed rather interesting, and as we were fed more and more details I became more and more impressed with what I may potentially see from screens or short play video.
Haze is the poster child for all sizzle and no steak.
The gameplay mechanics would have been interesting, the concept of nectar, nectar infused weapons, and the abilities that you are given are quickly overwhelmed by the simply mind-blowingly stupid AI that makes the guys running around in Killzone look like Rhode Scholars.
Some of the aspects such as "faking dead" are really interesting save for the fact unless some of your friendly allies are firing at them the enemy will simply stand around you and plaster you with ammo the moment you spring to life.
The level design is also awkward, thank goodness for the "objective indicator" otherwise I would be clueless as to where I was going and what I was to do next in an environment where one area seems just like the last. Trying to find your way through the jungle on the first mission without the use of the indicator would be nearly an impossible task. Silly me felt that a jungle environment would allow me to go between all trees that are equally spaced apart, but because of the odd level design you can only walk between the "right" trees to move forward.
Which brings me to the simply dated looking graphics, goodness knows that I can live with average to below average graphics in games, but in a genre such as shooters I expect more. When you are competing with the Gears of War's, Halo's, and Resistance's of the world I think its reasonable to expect something not necessarily on par but certainly something approaching that sort of quality. When I look at the quality of the characters and the environments I think of some of the higher end Xbox games from last generation. This game really does come off as having The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay-esk graphics in terms of the level of quality.
They are not terrible, but consider what we have seen other developers do with the power of the PS3 I did expect at least launch quality PS3 graphics. Needless to say that is not what I got.
The sound is passable, but really the tale of two games.
The effects and the combat, basically everything short of the voice acting may very well be Haze's strongest quality. The fire fights come from all around you and this game does take full advantage of a surround sound system. The battles sound epic.
Then we get to the voice acting…
My first reaction when I heard my crew chatting amongst themselves was "you have to be kidding…" I understand the reasoning behind making soldiers on nectar seeming laid back and relaxed and not taking the battle or fighting seriously, although the voice acting takes it from what is intending on being and takes it entirely too far.
It comes off worse then a poorly acted Van Damme movies, because at least in those you can see that an effort is being made, here it comes off as a giant joke and had there been an option to play the game with a Japanese voice over I may have just opted for that instead as the voice acting lends very little to a story that is not all that deep in the first place.
Perhaps another saving grace is the multiplayer which is actually pretty functional. The environments seem to lend themselves for a brawl for all style shoot em up online game, but tragically when you have options like Resistance, Orange Box and Call of Duty 4 with the same price point, and Warhawk in a lower price point it's hard to justify a new game price for it.
The most tragic part of Haze is that it could have been so much more, it may be worth a rent to determine if its your type of game of not although once this generation is finished Haze will be a title lost in a sea of superior games within its genre.