HAZE

It felt like something was crawling in his skin while every hair on his body began to tingle as if tiny electrical pulses were coursing through every inch of him. He was faster, stronger and he could see the souls of his enemies through the haze of gunfire. Then there was the voice that stabbed into his brain so intensely that his vision blurred for a few seconds. It was called Nectar but there was nothing really sweet about it. To Shane Carpenter, it was more like hell in a bottle and in Haze, a PlayStation 3 exclusive, we follow him as he attempts to kick Nectar out of his system and do the right thing.

They call it 'Mellow Yellow'

You assume the role of Sergeant Shane Carpenter, a newbie soldier fighting along side the Mantel army sent to protect and serve people all over the world. When problems arise in the Boa region in South America, Mantel forces are sent to aid the people of the region and to rid the world of a guerilla force calling itself The Promise Hand. Worst yet, this faction of rebels are led by a sadistic maniac named Gabriel Merino who the media now calls “Skin Coat” thanks to the fact that Merino is known to peel the skin off his victims and wear it like a coat. In order to combat evil, though, Mantel Global Industries has its soldiers take a “nutritional supplement” called Nectar that was designed to protect soldiers by enhancing their abilities. Midway through the story, though, an even occurs that changes Carpenter forever.

The interesting aspect of Haze is Nectar but the game uses it more as a sort of gimmick and not a worthwhile tool that benefits the story. It isn’t until Carpenter realizes that Mantel isn’t for him and joins The Promise Hand that he comes to fight against his Nectar addiction. With the L2 button you are able to administer a dose of Nectar that will allow you cause more melee damage, enhance your aiming so sniper shots are more precise, take more bullet damage and reveal the position of any hiding enemy thanks to enhanced vision that makes your enemies glow. These sound like cool abilities but other Ubisoft shooters such as Far Cry have handled similar abilities far more effectively and a lot more fun than this game. The only interesting slant is that you can overdose on Nectar which will cause your character to become disoriented for a limited time.

Yellow Haze

Haze is the type of game that shows all its cards way too early in the game. Aside from the assortment of weapons you can pick up and use, Carpenter can also drive vehicles in the game. This is all fine and well but there’s very little else about the game that will feel fresh later in the game and the action quickly becomes repetitive and the story less interesting. Going up against the Mantel soldiers is somewhat challenging since there are times when they’ll be in Nectar-fueled rage that sometimes makes them mindless drones that spasm violently … then again the spasms could be a game glitch because I seen a member of The Promise Hand twitching wildly on his own.

Fortunately, there are a few short burst of fun that manages to shine through the rest of the uninspiring levels in the game. Your Mantel training gives you an advantage and, in some levels, you really put them to good use. The game also offers the option to play through the game’s campaign mode with a friend in co-op mode. Having a friend join you in battle allows you to reach checkpoints faster and take on hordes of enemies at a time. You can play online but the game modes are the usual Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch variety that I don’t see gamers playing this one for very long online. The only original multiplayer mode happens to be Team Assault where one side plays as the Mantel side and the other The Promise Hand. Your goal is to complete a list of objectives so the team who completes their objectives wins the match.

Addiction never looked good

Haze is not a very good-looking game with some horribly muddy textures, weak character animations and graphical glitches that pop up often. Sure, there are times when the graphics do look decent (such as the swamp level) but nothing here is worthy of the PlayStation 3’s graphical capabilities. The game’s visual effects are not bad at all, especially when it comes to the Nectar abilities that light up the enemies in a soft orange-yellow glow. Yet these things are spoiled by pop-up environmental objects and when your teammates get stuck they twitch like crazy. Smoke and explosions don’t look as good as they should either.

The game’s sound effects are the only good thing about the sound and gunfire and explosions really echo nicely throughout the game. The voice acting in the game is not bad but the lines are just downright horrendous and you’ll hear the same lines over and over again no matter what side you play. Really, there are times when you’ll want to turn down the volume. The music is decent, at least.

Haze for PlayStation 3 was a great idea and would have made a brilliant console exclusive but its various shortcomings make this a truly bland and uninteresting shooter with very little to offer. This is very unfortunate considering the fact that there are some fun moments scattered throughout the game and co-op actually works well. Sadly, there’s more bad than good in this shooter that totally misses the mark. I highly recommend skipping this game and waiting for a better first-person shooter to come along.

Gameplay: 5.5
Sadly, the story is a lackluster tale that could have been interesting thanks to Nectar and the fact that Carpenter defects to the enemy’s side but it isn’t. The action flows at a steady pace but it’s also way too repetitive to be much fun. Co-op is a better way to experience the campaign mode.

Graphics: 5.0
Muddy textures and a lot of pop-in environmental details is what you can expect from this game that mixes some decent visuals with a lot of bad visuals as well. The game looks rather sloppy throughout the game and sometimes the character animations are stiff and awkward. In short, the graphics and visual effects are awful.

Sound: 5.5
There’s a somewhat respectable soundtrack that plays well with the action and the cut scenes and the sound effects are loud. Sadly, there are no detailed background noises and the voice acting is passable yet way too repetitive.

Difficulty: Medium
In the first half of the game, the guerilla forces put up quite a fight but are no match for your and your Mantel buddies. When you switch teams, however, you’ll find yourself really pushing your skills to the limit against your former comrades that are juiced and effective as fighters.

Concept: 5.0
Nectar is more of a gimmick in the game that rarely offers a unique perspective during combat. The game’s level design is just so-so and so are the multiplayer modes so the real good stuff comes from the co-op mode and the fact that the vehicles in the game work.

Multiplayer: 5.5
Up to 16 players can take each another on in a ranked or unranked match that includes the usual multiplayer game modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and the objective-based Team Assault. You can even play the entire campaign mode with a friend.

Overall: 5.5
On paper, Haze had all the makings of a PS3-exclusive classic but, thanks to poor execution, it just doesn’t have what it takes to be a fun first-person shooter or a good game in general. I really wanted to like this game but there are so many elements that work against it. Do yourself a favor and skip this one or consider it a weekend rental.