"Haze Fails"
Almost everyone knows Haze. It was that nectar induced drug addict game that was heavily pushed back in 2006-07. Prior to the release of this game, everyone wanted it. I mean they really wanted it. We were fed tiny little snippets of the game, all of which kept us salivating for more.
This drip-fed, high expectancy led to the game bombing more than most other games of this generation. It’s a shame because Haze really was a good game. It just wasn’t the absolute masterpiece we were made to believe. Unfortunately Free Radical became a victim of their own successful hype campaign.
The single player was better than most other FPS campaigns at the time, especially for the PlayStation 3. It introduced interesting emotions without going over the top. They tried to make a story that was compelling, but just lacked the required connection with any of the characters.
The multiplayer was great, I’m not going to sugar coat it though, it was graphically inferior to most games, but all the timesplitters have always had shoddy graphics and had the best multiplayer. The timing and hype just meant people were expecting something with Killzone 2 graphics a little too early.
The MP features some unique game modes such as driving and launching a SCUD missile at the enemy base and escaping/preventing escape from a prison compound. Even the standard deathmatch kill frenzy was more fun because eitehr team had special abilities, the rebels can feign death and plant grenades like land mines, while the soldiers can utilise nectar to improve health regeneration, accuracy and strength.
Did I also mention the fact it had split-screen co-op both online and offline? A feature that was still relatively underused in games at the time. I played through everything with and without a friend, I battled online both with and against my friend.
I’m not saying Haze is the best game, far from it. I’m simply saying, if it had settled for the normal marketing and people had lowered their hype levels it probably would have been a much more successful game.
I agree 100%
Agreed I bought this game and it wasn’t a grpahically masterpiece but it was an OK game. The co-op was great, the multiplayer was alright but it did let a friend play on the same system which was great and the SP was pretty boring but I’ve played worse. This game overall deserved a 7/10 some of the ratings it got were riduculous even from sites that you would expect better from like IGN, Gamespot, etc.
I enjoyed this game too. I thought the final battle was pretty intense. I didn’t have a problem with the graphics. My only gripe was that the main campaign didn’t offer any good variety of guns. I pretty much used the lobo and the standard issue AR most of the game.
Thanks for the comments guys.
Tobi, I’d probably give the game 7/10 too, the only flaws being the low diversity and slightly unpolished feel to the game overall. Reviews of 4/10 or less were completely unjustified/affected by hype.
Cisco, the lack of variety really was a problem. They could have made so much more of the difference between the two factions.