Frayhua Reviews: Haze

Haze Review

Does This PS3 Halo-killer live up to the hype?

Style: First Person Shooter/Action
System: Playstation 3
Developer: Free Radical
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: May 20, 2008
ESRB Rating: T

Story- You are Sergeant Shane Carpenter, a member of Mantel, a group that fights for what's right. Mantel is sent to in the Boa region of South America to battle a group rebels known as "The Promise Hand" which is led by Gabriel "Skin Coat" Merino.

Presentation
Graphics- They are pretty disappointing because the detail doesn't feel Next-Gen instead it feels Last-Gen as if this game could've been done on the PS2. Their is no facial animation when characters talk, the foilage is passable, and the worse part is that the flame effects are some of the worst effects that tell you "Oh my God why did I buy it and why did I installed 4 GB of useless space onto the Hard drive".

Sound- The voice acting is passable, but the music and sound effects are good though. One scene in the beginning of the game has the fire sound effect is gone when you check on the pilot and after he dies mysteriously the fire sound effect comes right back magically.

Gameplay
Campaign- The gameplay is your standard First Person Shooter which you go from Point A to Point B killing a bunch of enemies. The problem with Haze is when you play on Mantel's side "The Promise Hand" rebels are hard to find. So the only way to find the enemies is to use a performance enhancing drug called Nectar. Nectar finds the enemies which are highlighted in yellow, gives a speed boost, power boost, and to be able to take more damage. Later on you play as "The Promise Hand" rebels and you don't have Nectar because it was a lousy gimmick and you can take ammo from dead bodies. As stated earlier the enemies were hard to find while playing as Mantel, but playing as "The Promise Hand" rebels the enemies are easier to make out. The A.I. is a total joke and sometimes they make stupid mistakes such as going right by an NPC ally and getting killed. The load time are 25 sec. long when you die. Wow this game is "worth" the 4 GB install. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots had a 4.5 GB install and it has faster load times.

Multiplayer- The multiplayer is even more boring than the campaign because it is generic and has three standard modes of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Team Assault and for people who don't have access to the Playstation Network you can not play Team Assault. You have player called bots while not being abled to access PSN and the bot A.I. is just as bad as the Artifical Intellegance in the campaign.

Entertainment
Their is nothing I enjoyed about Haze and if you want a good FPS on Playstation 3 go get Killzone 2 because it lived up to tremendous hype starting from E3 2005.

Overview
- So-So voice acting
- Disappointing graphics, especially flame effects
- Lame A.I.
- Generic Multiplayer
- Bad Script

After Haze failed, Free Radical went bankrupt and made poor excuses of not making this game great saying "We tried our best". Free Radical is now known as Crytek UK.