 | |||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Haze Review June 17, 2008 Brett Todd |
|
 |
|
| |
Summary: Set in the not to distant future, Haze comes from the makers of Timesplitters. But does Free Radical's shooter deliver? Brett doesn't think so...
 Haze Review | Page:: ( 1 / 4 ) |
Killing Those Brain Cells
I could just about feel my brain cells dying with each level I played. On the surface, however, the story is actually somewhat appealing. The year is 2048, and you're in the combat boots of Sergeant Shane Carpenter, a super-soldier in the employ of the Mantel Global Industries. This multinational corporation has taken over for national armies and the UN, so its army is the sole military power on the globe. One of Mantel's biggest assets is Nectar, a substance that enhances senses and makes troops stronger, better soldiers in just about every way…if you don't take too much of it, that is, and totally lose your marbles.
[image]
| <% print_image("01"); %> | <% print_image("02"); %> |
Not everything is rosy in this futuristic world, though. Uber-baddie Gabriel "Skin Coat" Marino (so nicknamed because he supposedly wears the skins of murdered enemies) has kicked up a fuss with a faction of noble guerillas called The Promise Hand in South America. Since Mantel is the only army left on the planet, it has no choice but to send in a squad of troops to deal with this apparently maniacal killer and his gangs of jungle goons.
[image]
| <% print_image("03"); %> | <% print_image("04"); %> |
Sound good? I actually thought that the basic plot synopsis made Haze sound at least reasonably promising. Developers have made good shooters out of far dumber stories than this one (I'm looking at you, SiN). But nothing is done to build on the basic storyline. The moral issue of drugging up soldiers is addressed in the most simple-minded fashion through a plot twist that even the most dope-addled loser would see coming a mile away. Gee, a multinational conglomerate with a chemically altered private army isn't the good guy?
[image]
| <% print_image("05"); %> | <% print_image("06"); %> |
Given that, it would probably have been a lot better if the soldiers-on-dope angle had been played for laughs. Although even then I'm not sure that Free Radical would be up to making with the funny, as the ostensibly amusing battle boasts from your frat-boy buddies are actually spectacularly annoying. Nearly every line seems to end with either "Beeyotch!" or "Boosh!" No, I don't know what a boosh is. Other than damned annoying after I've heard it a couple of dozen times in a couple of hours.
| Page 2 | Page:: ( 2 / 4 ) |
Boosh-Braying Morons
[image]
| <% print_image("07"); %> | <% print_image("08"); %> |
Nectar's lone drawback is the occasional overdose. Every now and then you'll go bananas and lose control of Carpenter after leaning on the L2 a little too much, or from the Nectar Administrator on your back being shot in a firefight causing lots of that sweet, sweet junk to be spewed into your system, or from getting nailed by one of the Hand's Nectar grenades. This doesn't bother you a whole lot, though. You generally come down too quickly for enemies to take serious advantage of your wigged-out state, and it's hilarious to watch Carpenter go berserk and start shooting all the boosh-braying morons in your squad. If only you could do that without chemical enhancement.
[image]
| <% print_image("09"); %> | <% print_image("10"); %> |
At any rate, you don't have to worry about Nectar for the entire game. You soon throw off the shackles of Mantel Corp. oppression and switch sides to fight with the Promise Hand. (Yes, I've revealed the plot twist. Boo-hoo.) At this point, the game switches from being a lame, dumb shooter with one sort of vaguely half-decent mediocre kinda not-bad feature to being a lame, dumb shooter with no forgivable aspects whatsoever, unless you really like the Promise Hand's ability to play dead and steal weapons (you won't). As soon as you become a turncoat, the boredom goes through the roof. You trudge through one run-and-gun firefight after another, with only the odd bit of key hunting and gun-turret jaunting in vehicles livening things up (especially the carrier sequence, which is thrilling despite the déjà vu you'll get from playing this same sort of thing a hundreds of earlier games), and these sequences run on rails.
Speaking of rails, you might want to throw yourself across some and wait for the next train to come by if you bought a PS 3 to experience the visuals of Haze. I don't know if Free Radical started to develop the game on another console and then had to adapt it at the last minute for the Sony console, or whether the programmers all suffered strokes before getting down to crunch time, but this game looks awful. Textures are grainy. Animations are choppy. Clipping is constant when character models meet the jungle scenery. All that I liked about the look of the game were the yellow-accented battle suits worn by the Mantel soldiers. Those superhero-style togs at least gave the game a colorful, Marvel Comics vibe that you don't see in the typical black-and-brown shooter.
[image]
| <% print_image("11"); %> | <% print_image("12"); %> |
Multiplayer
Now we come to the point of the review where I'm supposed to write something like "Yes, the multiplayer sucks, too." But I'm not going to do that here, because the MP in Haze actually isn't all that bad. Sure, you'll have a tough time finding someone to take on in the deathmatch and team assault matches supported over the Playstation Network. But four-player co-op (over the net, via a LAN, or split-screen on the same console) play through the campaign is a blast. Teaming up with real buddies--preferably ones who don't pepper their battle cries with "Beeyotch!" or "Boosh!"--is almost enough to paper over the campaign's many design flaws. Almost.
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 3 / 4 ) |
Pro
Conceptual Quality:
Some of the basic underpinnings of the story are promising, especially the drug-overdose stuff with Nectar.
[image]
| <% print_image("13"); %> | <% print_image("14"); %> |
Cons
Short Bus AI: Enemy AI hits all the standard shooter lowlights, with baddies that run right past you, ignore you blowing the heads off their pals a few feet away, and never, ever take cover sensibly.
No, It's Not Exactly David Mamet: Most of the dialogue here makes mid-60s DC Comics look like Hamlet.
Graphics, The Previous Generation: Yes, the PS 3 is a bit of a bear to program. No, that doesn't excuse textures and clipping straight out of a 2001 PS 2 game.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 4 / 4 ) |