Played on:
PS3
The fiercely competitive first-person-shooter genre welcomes its latest competitor, Free Radical Design’s Haze. The folks behind the TimeSplitters series certainly have their work cut out for them as Haze is not only an FPS following in the bar-raising footsteps of last year’s BioShock, Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3, but it’s also the designers' first next-gen title. If all that pressure wasn’t enough, Haze also faces the usual questions and comparisons: Is it a system seller? Is it the PS3’s answer to Halo? Was it worth the wait? Unfortunately, as a very average offering, Haze won’t fare well under such brutal scrutiny, and will likely land in the pile alongside other serviceable, but already-forgotten FPS efforts like Blacksite: Area 51 and Turok. It’s not bad, mind you, but to truly shine in the cramped shooter market, you’d better be charting at least an 85 on the industry’s success barometer Metacritic. A 60 or 70 won’t cut it, and Haze will be lucky to crack the former with its last-gen graphics, generic design and familiar feel.
On the plus side, it does have an interesting concept driving its story, and its shooting mechanics are top notch. Players begin in the battle boots of Shane Carpenter, a super-soldier enlisted in an army funded by Mantel, a bio-medical company specializing in performance-enhancing drugs. Their latest creation, Nectar, fuels its soldiers with powerful yellow goo, bestowing them with incredible abilities. As a Nectar injector you can take more damage, better identify enemies (they look bright orange to those juiced-up), and can send bad guys flying through the air with a quick melee attack. Of course, power comes with a price, and using too much of the stuff will yield adverse affects like blurred vision and the uncontrollable urge to shoot your friends. Even worse, everyone on Nectar acts like an annoying jackass, frequently spewing lines like “Who wants my foot up their ass, next?”
Intentionally or not, Free Radical has made these juiced jerks so unbearable to be around that you wish you could switch sides and kill them. Thankfully, that’s exactly what you do a couple of hours into Haze; realizing you’re on the wrong side, fighting for the wrong reasons, you turn traitor and join a group of rebel fighters determined to take down Mantel. This offers an interesting twist and a bit of a ballsy move considering many players, at this point, might have become accustomed to the extra boost provided by the Nectar. Despite the potential withdrawals, players learn a few new tricks from their freedom fighting friends; players receive a quick evasion move (executed by two quick taps of the X button) and the ability to play dead. While this second skill holds potential, it’s not integrated well into the game. For one, you’ll be prompted to play dead when taking damage from inanimate objects like land mines, even though the trick only works on soldiers. And worse, you’ll often rise from your faux fatality only to be immediately taken out by a nearby soldier. In most instances, it’s just easier to grab some cover and let your health rejuvenate. Your coolest ability against Mantel’s ‘roid-ragers is to overdose them by chucking Nectar grenades, tossing Nectar-dipped knives or shooting the drug's applicator located on their armor. All actions result in the soldiers going berserk and killing each other. It’s a fun mechanic that yields a nice visual (Nectar spurts from their backs as they flail about, guns blasting), however, the novelty quickly wears off once you realize it’s just as easy to take on bad guys the old fashioned way.
Thankfully, doing exactly that is pretty satisfying in Haze as all the guns feel good and pack a nice aural pop—an important trait that many shooters fail to deliver. There’s a surprisingly limited selection of guns, and all are pretty familiar—machine gun, shotgun, pistol, rocket launcher, sniper rifle—but they’re all useful at specific points, and none disappoint in their ability to make you feel like a firepower-packin’ badass. The solid-feeling weapons definitely help Haze in terms of delivering strong shooting mechanics, but they also hurt it by far outshining the things that are supposed to differentiate the game; it’s bittersweet that players will likely stick to popping baddies with the reliable shotgun rather than take them down with the gimmicky Nectar traps. We appreciate the tight guns, but would’ve loved to see a proper payoff with some of the more potentially innovative mechanics. If things like playing dead and overdosing enemies were better implemented, Haze really could’ve carved itself a spot outside of the been-there-done-that pack.
Similar to the overall gameplay experience, Haze’s visuals offer a mixed bag. The characters look good and a few level designs are pretty impressive—both graphically and in their layouts—but other areas of the game are just a mess. We loved the abandoned resort hotel; taking cover behind the pool bar while enemies surrounded us on all sides was a brief stroke of brilliance. However, every time we were in a jungle setting—and there are many—we couldn’t help but be reminded that last gen titles like Far Cry pulled off lush foliage and realistic water far more convincingly. With few exceptions Haze often looks bland, blocky and starved for detail. Put one of its jungles screen-to-screen with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and it’s night and day.
Haze delivers a bit more quality on the multiplayer front. With only three modes—deathmatch, team deathmatch and assault—and a handful of maps, the experience is short-lived, however, we did have more fun when we were blasting buddies. In fact, even the Nectar tricks are more satisfying to pull off in these up-to-16 player competitive modes; where they seem more work than worth it in the solo campaign, it's pretty damn satisfying to send a friend into an uncontrollable Nectar-infused rage. Similarly, successfully playing dead on a battlefield populated with real players is far more rewarding than pulling the wool over the eyes of the campaign’s inconsistent AI. Haze also supports 4-player co-op through the entire campaign, with difficulty ramped appropriately depending on how many players join. If you’re going to conquer the campaign, we recommend bringing at least one friend.
The PS3 has little to offer in the way of exclusive first-person-shooters, so it would’ve been nice if Haze provided a killer app for the genre. As is, it’s an average entry that had potential, but due to poorly implemented mechanics and sub-par visuals, will likely be forgotten soon after Metal Gear Solid 4 arrives. If you’re sick of Resistance and can’t wait for Killzone 2, then this one will keep your itchy trigger finger busy for a while. Just don’t expect to become addicted to this drug-themed game.
