This is my first review I ever wrote at the site, so cut me some slack. The size is over-the-top and overall the written $tyle is pretty basic. Comments, critiques and scoring on how well I reviewed the game is veyr much appreciated. In fact I very much welcome strict criticism from my reviews, please I want to make them better. :)
Haze Review 6.5/10
Haze was a game which was overhyped all too much for its own good. What gave it the hype? Was it the craze that the creators were Ubisoft? Or maybe the jealousy that Playstation hadn't had any half decent first person shooters since Resistance: Fall of Man? Calling Haze mediocre or even a piece of garbage is harsh because while Haze doesn't justify the hype it received, it still offers something original and satisfying.
Haze purposely or accidentally made the missions like a Haze. Missions are very unclear, in transition from mission to mission it's pretty clear but from a game play or objective point of view, it's not very clear at all. Objectives don't give any directions or Heads up Display at any point after completing an objective and you'll often have to explore the often large environments to trigger of the next objective.
The environments are varied often and the environments you'll often trespass upon will be in the multi player, the environments are varied and to a good degree, while the graphics aren't fantastic with neither the presentation or textures showing off. It's the point that the environments don't feel all too generic and to a point, varied.
The missions are also varied, not many missions will repeat at all within the game and while the game does at times get stale, you'll certainly appreciate that the missions have had some effort put into. One mission you could be disabling mortars and using them for your own personal gain or by murdering hundreds in a chopper with a huge Gatling Gun.
Haze reminded me alot of Halo: Combat Evolved because missions dragged on for far too long. Having said that, there is an array of environment and objective variety but the missions would start to get stale and wear thin because of the often huge environments with not much reasoning or scope behind them and the combat would never actually evolve at any point. Yes, some fights were exhillarating but the combat would start to get montonuous because set-piece battles would just get recycled and repeated. In fact it was hard to find many fights actually "fun" because they didn't implement any innovation or strategic variety and even when the plot twist diverted the game play, the stale mission formula still remained intact.
Haze promised a compelling storyline on the box art, interviews and previews yet they also told the story in those interviews and previews. I don't see how you can be compelled to a novel twisting plot which has already been identified before being played through adverts, billboards and magazines.
Haze puts you in the shoes of Shane Carpenter. None of your relatives are alive and Mantel a global corporation takes you in at a young age. As you grew up, you were trained to fight as a Mantel Soldier not knowing the true colours of Mantel until slowly as you progress through the story you see the true horror of Mantel. The bloodshed and the trust you'd placed in Mantel all those years. This gives you the opportunity to play and see through the eyes of both factions which is a great introduction into what guns or perks suit you best for the multi player portion of the game.
The twist in the middle of the single player would've have been a great shocking twist if it weren't for the spoilers. On top of that, when you kill the main characters on your Mantel side that you thought to be your friends, you don't feel much sympathy for them because while they did have some personality to them, there wasn't enough depth and insight on them to make you feel sympathetic towards them.
Haze features pretty bad AI. It's atrocious and you can even sometimes even get close enough to them stand there for a few seconds and they still won't notice you. This makes the difficulty alot easier than it should be despite still providng a reasonable challenge. The AI won't hide behind any objects or try to flush you out. Meaning that the AI isn't just below basic, it's the level of unfinished work with no care.
The core game play mechanics of Haze are clearly uninspired but at the same time they still point in the right direction. The aiming reticule is good for most weapons the movement is sub-standard and pretty much all folds together to form a relatively sparse yet entertaining game play sentiment. There are some problems with the control scheme though like most other shooters, circle is used to crouch and triangle is used to change weapon. In Haze it's vice versa, furthermore the right analogue stick is used to aim instead of melee. This is fine in a tactical game, but it doesn't seem particularly suitable in a run and gun shooter which Haze seems to define. However it's not all mish-mash, the controls themselves are quite responsive which work well with some fluid controls despite the awkward button mapping.
One fantastic part about Haze is indeed the guns. The guns achieve in both categories; balanced and satisfying. Each and every gun is incredibly well tuned. The factions different assault rifles are very well balanced coming mainly down to preference. The Mantel's Assault Rifle is more powerful but contains fewer clips in a round while the Rebel's Assault Rifle is less powerful but contains more clips in a round. The Flamethrower is a pain where even if its range isn't the best, the flames will stay on the player until they shake the controller to get rid of the flames where as the Gatling Gun is one of the most powerful guns in Haze but on the other hand it takes time to start up. The reloading schematics however, are fantastic. It's weird how something so small can form a big part. As you place the magazine into your gun, it will make a nice "cha-ching" noise forming a realistic sentiment despite the crazy diverse setting compared to Earth. Chaning fuel cap's from a flamethrower also looks and feels fantastic aswell as realistic.
Haze's core game play is definitely deriative but the touches that go along with it are nice and original. Haze features perks which are balanced, fun to use and unique. The Mantel side have Nectar which provides all there fuel and resources. Nectar when used can stop the reduction in health as fast as it does but it's very subtle. Nectar can also increase the speed of your character but it depends on how much you use. Nectar additionly has thermal vision where all enemies are seen thermally and can be seen through walls at some points. Lastly all Mantel troopers when aiming down the sight get a altitude scoping sight like a mini sniper which is great for long range encounters with all guns they pick up or start with.
The Rebels however take the more gun-point route. The best and most used part of the Rebels is the ability to play dead. That's right unlike other shooters or games for that matter, you can play dead! You can flick the L2 Trigger when you're punched or shot. Then you just have to tap X and you can quickly and hopefully silently take down the surprised foe that thought to have killed you. There are also two other advantages, the Rebels have traps like Bouncing Betties or Claymores seen on Call of Duty which have a bigger exploding range. Furthermore Rebels can also convert any ammo from a weapon and convert it into their own different weapon. The Rebel side in my opinion is better but all it really comes down to is personal preference. This can be suggested as there's a balanced number of players on each faction, usually without auto balancing on the multi player component.
Haze unlike some other shooters out there, features playable vehicles. Each faction has their different vehicles, all balanced on the battlefield and to each other. They're playable at times in the campaign and on most multi player maps. The vehicles aren't used to their direct advantage on some multi player maps because of their sometimes stricted mobility because of too many obstacles. Mantel has a clear Halo Warhog rip off. The design has clearly yet elegantly mimicked it. The Rebels feature trucks with some splats of paint on. Really, there's no difference between the two at all! All it comes down to is when you see one, get in it! This is a shame as some differences would have been nice. There's also the Quad Bike which has a slower start but when it gets moving it's faster. The vehicles are well balanced online as while there easy to handle and get one or two run-over kill streaks, their damage is limited and two magazines at the most can even destroy a Rebel Truck.
Haze does well with the graphics but nothing special which could have easily broken that extra mile. The graphics are very clean, especially character models. No presentation or texture environment is remarkable because it's sparse but while that means there are no rough edges, some character models or environments lose that clean furbish to them and rather look like PS2 graphics. Plants mainly, but on the whole the graphics are cleanly presented with nothing bad to say about them but nothing great to say at the same time. The environments are varied which also helps repetition go at ease and are easy on the eyes too. However, taking everything into consideration, I still liked the presentation in spite of the games clean furbish. Maybe I'm such a sucker for that $tyle of graphics but I have to say even some of the environments had some well done textures to them.
The lighting and shadowing surprisingly did a fairly decent job despite the rather straight lining in prefernce over having glints of sun shine instead. There were also some physics which while rather faint, were still there with bullets capable of leaving marks on walls yet unable to penetrate. There were also some shoddy animations coming from the Mantel main character's as a soldier may speak with his mouth closed or in another situation, a soldier has complete lack of secondary animations or gestures when they stand still. In fact the only bit of animation I saw from a main character were eyes moving from side to side which made the doll like faces seem even more creepy. Note that the doll like faces and shoddy animations really only came apparent to the Mantel cast rather than ordinary soldiers which assist in battle.
The sound is definitely a mixed bag. The dialogue is awful where as the sound effects are just plain brilliant. The dialogue is scripted awfully, in being at one point in the game, you'll achieve an objective in finding a crashed plane with a dieing trooper inside. He then says how he used to be a boxer. So here he is at deaths daw and he starts rambling on about being a boxer? Some sayings are funny like "go and suck some bull****" in a serious yet funny tone. The voice acting takes a turn from "gruff marine" voices to some varied voice actors with charisma. I personally preferred the cheesy and staged yet emotional array of voice acting rather than "gruff marine" but I know some had opposite feelings to mine. The brilliant part, is once more the guns. They sound fantastic! The assault rifles have differences and varied sounds where as the flamers and machine guns sound heavy and realistic to what real one's should.
Haze is listed as a four player game. So all the reviews say right? But then why is that I cannot play more than two player split screen off and online. I guess I'll just take the game packaging and reviews word for it. However, despite my experience of not being able to reach a four player option, I was viable to play only up to two players. You can play two player locally in the single player (my experience, box art states four) or four player co-op online in the single player. Haze allows up to 16 players in online matches, unranked and ranked yet I was still not viable for four player split screen but again, only two players.
Haze's best part would probably be the multi player because it's so damn fun despite all the flaws surrounding it. Haze has an unranked or ranked option. Unranked enables you to insert bots in your match and give you alot more customisable options than if you were to do ranked matches. As ranked suggests, ranked games give you points on the leader boards. You'll probably want to start off in unranked matches as you'll be more likely to face beginners and will help you to get to grips with the game. Haze does pretty well in keeping track with the leader boards, only once or twice maybe will it take tens of minutes to successfully transfer your score data. Score tracking can go from bullets fired to time spent crouching. There's a whole list of ridiculous things to sit through and see, which is a small neat touch.
There's also an auto balancing feature which can be really annoying as if you love the Rebels and are used to pressing L2 to play dead, you may overdose yourself on Nectar too much if your forced to switch sides. Auto balancing isn't a possible take off/on feature but permanent which may lead to frustration. Another annoying feature with the multi player that captivated my overall playing time was the dead online community. There were two ranked games and four or five unranked games. The only reason behind a few unranked games was that you can put bots in to supply your appetite for any occassional passers that may pop in to your game.
Haze features three game modes which are just too mundane. There is the standard free for all and team death match along with an all too complex Assault Mode. Which while it's original, it's also just too complex that you'll probably stick to the first two modes. Assault has two different objectives depending on which kind of map you choose. They aren't explained very well and even after playing several games on them, I still don't know how to play them.
Haze contains six multi player maps. There isn't alot but some are very well designed apart from the fact they need to be fleshed out a little more, the maps are still raw fun though. There's also a free DLC Pack (Previously £3.49) which provides four extra maps rather than the Playstation Store stating seven not to mention an extra "Capture and Hold" mode which is only available on selected maps. There's even another DLC Pack (still £3.49) stating seven maps but like the other maps, may contain fewer maps than told.
Haze's value is rather stale, there is literally no reason to come back to Haze because of its poor production values and rather shallow feel to it. The campaign offers some replay value through a good variety of missions and off/online co-op in the single player yet the campaign has nothing fresh, innovative or surprsing that other shooters out there have. The missions will drag on despite the shooters decent length and the game play will wear thin just before the single players end. The multi player is the most redeeming feature but again, I couldn't find myself playing it for continuous weeks or months. More or so, the poor production values and shallow feel makes everything you come to see and play here, a rental.
Pros
+ Balanced and satisfying guns.
+ Co-op play locally up to four players off/online.
+ Enjoyable and fun multiplayer.
+ Faction perks are balanced, fun to use and unique.
+ Good mission variety.
Cons
- Awful dialogue.
- Controls are misplaced.
- Core gameplay can feel flaccid and unoriginal.
- Disappointing production values.
- Graphics can feel sparse.
- Hazy and unclear mission objectives.
- Poor artificial intelligence.
Haze is a highly underappreciated shooter but it's also far from perfect and doesn't justify all the hype it received either. Haze also suffers from atrocious AI and awful dialogue along with poor production values because of it's spoiled plot twists and dead online community. Despite all of these annoyances and flaws, Haze, in spite of being a lightweighted shooter is also an original and satisfying one which if you're bored of your typical shooters and want a rentable diversion, look no further!
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