Don't Haze me, bro.
Haze's strongest asset is actually its premise. You are Shane Carpenter, a soldier for Mantel, the largest PMC in the world, travelling to the Boa region of South America to battle a rebel faction known as "The Promise Hand" and their leader named Skin Coat. After witnessing the extent of Mantel's inhumanity, Carpenter chooses to side with the Promise Hand and help defeat his former employer. It's a great setup, one that has potential to be something of a character study while balancing militarism and social themes. As it turns out, though, the story is woefully executed. It's bland, uninteresting and clichéd and never explores such themes, falling way short of its concept. The main reason for this is characterization. Shane is a character who lacks the emotion and determination that this story should bring. He's also one of the most annoying protagonists ever in a game. He's wimpy, constantly complaining about the mission and is just unlikeable. Speaking of unlikeable, the actual Mantel soldiers are some of the most tepid, one-dimensional characters in any form of entertainment media. Completely devoid of personality, they are your typical egotistic, stereotypical jarheads who are horridly written. During the game, they say things like this, and I swear its true: "Is there a medal for Most Badass Gangster? 'Cos that's me", as well as, "The baddest Motherf***er on Planet Earth". This gives you an idea of their vapid personality. I have no idea as to why Free Radical chose to write these characters in the way that they did. The story is poorly told and leads to an ending that is as abrupt as anything I've seen in a shooter. It lacks closure and goes hand-in-hand with the low quality of the overall plot. As a side note, the cover art of Haze is cool. This is undoubtedly the reason why so many people were suckered into a purchase, despite the age-old adage of never judging a book by its cover.
The presentation aspects are also underwhelming. Haze looks behind the times, with poor animations, bad textures, muddy environments and vast technical issues. You'll see lots of pop-in, framerate drops and glitches. The cut-scenes also look poor and animate poorly. The sound doesn't exactly fare much better, unfortunately. The voice acting is really poorly done. Shane sounds just like his character, befitting of his puny personality, and the rest of the cast sound cliché and generic. The sound effects lack umph in weapons and explosions and fail to impress, and the music is highly forgettable.
Gameplay in Haze sounds initially good on paper. At the start of the game, you are introduced to an interesting feature known as Nectar. This is a performance-enhancing substance that increases awareness on the battlefield and paints an idyllic picture of the environment. Shane's agility is increased, weapons deal more damage and you can also take more damage. Though it can be short bursts of fun when under the influences of Nectar, it makes the game way too easy. The challenge is lacking and it never really increases in difficulty. One of the most disappointing things is that Haze never makes the most of this substance in terms of the story. It could have been an awesome situation where Mantel soldiers slowly deteriorate mentally and start to lose themselves, but it never happens.
The gameplay mechanics are average from start to finish. Weapons lack impact and there is a distinct lack of options here. There are two types of pistol, assault rifle and shotgun, one sniper rifle, rocket launcher and throwing knife... and that's it. There are no LMGs, special weapons or other variants of the guns presented. It makes the gunplay very limited and boring because of the lacking weapon variety. When Shane changes sides, the game becomes even more uninteresting. There are no abilities, the weapons are dull and the levels are poorly designed. Another thing that let me down was fighting Mantel soldiers. This could, and should, have been tense, challenging and exciting – instead, it's the exact opposite. Fighting them isn't any different from fighting the Promise Hand, and they don't even use their Nectar. The AI is poor overall. Enemies are weak and can be taken down in a few hits, there are only three enemy types and enemies lack intelligence. They prefer to charge at you and never behave like you'd expect. When you shoot an enemy from behind, you can sever the stream linking the Nectar to their brain, which can overload into a burst of impairment. Here, they will lose all control and shoot at friend and foe. You can use this as a tactic, but it doesn't make a difference. Even using Nectar grenades and planting them in the ground (which takes forever) is meaningless. When with the Promise Hand, and when you take enough damage, you can play dead and fool the enemy. You can then recover, get up and take out the enemies. After a few times doing this, you'll likely realize that this is just a pretentious gimmick that does little to enhance the gameplay.
There are some vehicle sections too, where you and two or three squadmates utilize either a Mantel buggy or a truck. Using either is flimsy because of the poor controls. Driving feels clunky and slow and vehicles can't take much damage, likely leaving you stranded on foot in a large battlefield where death is all but guaranteed. Aiming with weapons is also iffy and loose, and you'll be missing your target while they take shots at you, which can be frustrating.
Once Haze's 7-8 hour campaign is complete, there is a multiplayer component that is actually decent. There are three modes – Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Team Assault – with the latter being the most fun. It's fun and the map designs allow for some enjoyable firefights. Multiplayer is good because you can add bots if the player slots aren't filled. Vehicles can be used in multiplayer as well, which adds some variety. However, you'll still be dealing with the aforementioned mechanical issues, but here there is much less linearity and frustration. The campaign can also be played in co-op, but its not all that great.
Haze could have been a great showcase for the PlayStation 3. It's driven by a strong premise and a pretty fun multiplayer component, but the shooting, story, AI and level design all disappoint. If one aspect doesn't disappoint, another one will and that's a shame. It completely misses the mark on its potential to deliver a great story, but instead, Haze is a poor shooter with little delivery on that hype and is not recommended.
SUMMARY
Presentation 4.0 – Despite the potential of its premise and themes to explore, Haze is filled with bad story decisions, awful characters and no personality, and the cut-scenes are poorly produced.
Graphics 4.5 – A last-gen title by its many issues, including bad textures, poor animations and muddy environments.
Audio 4.5 – Poor voice acting, underwhelming sound effects and forgettable music.
Gameplay 4.0 – The gameplay mechanics are way below par, the controls leave a lot to be desired, bad AI and lots of gimmicky, useless features.
Replayability 6.0 – The 7-8 campaign is a one-playthrough game, and the multiplayer is a highlight. The above issues will remain, though.
Overall – 4.5/10