Haze

It's awesome! Wait, no it's not.

	Version PS3	Developer Free Radical	Publisher Ubisoft	Genre FPS

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On an altogether shallow level, it doesn't even look that good. Some areas can be quite beautiful, but most of the time it's hampered by the fact it looks like an original Xbox game, with a bit of the Tupperware People of PD0 thrown in for good measure. I mean for god's sake, this is just tripe really. It's useless and unimportant on the gaming map, and will only sell well because of heavy advertising and the fact that there's nothing else on the PS3. And coming from Free Radical, well, that just hurts. I love Timesplitters - all three games - and still await the fourth with bated breath. But this... well... this has just made me sit up and take notice for all the wrong reasons.

Right, stop ranting Ian. Except just to point out that the whole single player campaign lasts about seven hours. That's SEVEN hours. It can be done in a day, easily. Harder difficulties take longer, but only because enemies are more frustrating, not because it's any more challenging. Arsebiscuits.

Are there positives? Yes. Some. Not many. But enough to save Haze from being The Worst Thing Ever. For starters, the writing is decent. It's not great, but it's clearly done with some care and attention. The story won't make you take a step back to take another look (I'm quoting the band Bigwig, go with it), but it does have some very nice touches - people are all people is one of the main things that at least raised a smile.

As mentioned, the nectar sanitisation of war is handled very well, and the sudden realisation (when deprived of the drug) that you can hear people screaming for mercy, see the blood on your hands, watch as someone dies slowly in agony and generally take in all the carnage around you, well, it does have a rather jarring effect. An intentional one at that. So that's at least one aspect that isn't so shonky.

Hmm. Well, the lack of loading times is welcome. Obviously there's the initial loading and it does take about 20 seconds to reload a checkpoint, but in game everything is masked well with cutscenes and travel. Though sometimes the cutscenes are boring, and as they're actually loading screens you can't skip them. Which then makes it annoying. But that's nitpicking - generally speaking it's a very nice touch and a good way of obliterating the usual load screen boredtitude.

Grasping at straws now... hmm... if you rent or borrow it, it'll only take you a bit to complete so you can feel like you've done something positive with your life. In a way.

Ah, but online. Now we're talking. The one saviour of any dodgy game is the online mode, and fortunately for Haze it works here too. The co-operative campaign mode certainly adds another dimension to the experience - not only does it eliminate the problem of AI squadmates being absolute tossers, but it means you can muck about with mates and, as we all know, that makes any game ten thousand times better. Even if it is as shonky as Haze clearly is, the four-player co-op can make things an acceptable amount of fun to throw a few hours into. Though it will just descend into people shooting each other, clearly. Everything always does. Generally things run fine with little slowdown and non-existent lag, so long as there are stable connections about, and it does give Haze something over the competition. One thing, nothing else.

The standard online modes come in three flavours - deathmatch, team deathmatch and team assault. They're pretty self explanatory for anyone who has ever played an online game in their life and perform admirably. The rebel/Mantel aspects come into their own when battling online, and it's here that some of the untapped potential from the main game can come into good use. Those fighting on Mantel's side are capable of smacking themselves up on nectar and being able to see any enemy around the map - this meant that for once I could kill some people in an online shooter, which is a good thing. Conversely, those choosing the rebel side have to rely on stealth and nectar-based attacks to get one up on their high tech adversaries - as a Mantel trooper I found myself on the receiving end of one too many sneak knife attacks. Far from being a bad thing, it made me smile quite a lot - when applied to Real People, the nectar/anti-nectar dichotomy works really well.

The online mode certainly isn't going to take the crown from CoD4 or GTAIV on the PS3's online service, but it's sure to provide a decent enough distraction for a while at least. Three game modes won't be able to hold anyone's attention for that long though, it has to be said. But otherwise it's a well-implemented and generally lag and problem free addition to an otherwise lacklustre experience.

So that's about all I can think of - over 2,500 words of spewing crap, mostly about how disappointed and annoyed I am with Haze. It's got heart and there's an underlying passionate feel to the thing, but when it comes down to it, it just feels poorly made. It doesn't feel unfinished, nor does it feel rushed - it just feels like it's been made wrong. So many base elements have been messed up or ignored and it detracts from the experience an incredible amount.

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