Ubisoft's PlayStation 3 first person shooter, Haze, revolves around a soldier named Shane Carpenter. He's an experienced soldier that joins up with Mantel Global Industries, a bio-medical corporation that puts private funding into military services. As a result, members of the Mantel team have access to an overpowering drug called Nectar, which enables them to work stronger and faster.
At first, Shame falls in line with the military and helps his buddies slaughter countless enemies. They're sent to take down a group of rebels known as "The Promise Hand", led by a shady character known as "Skincoat." Over time, however, he comes to realize that Nectar has turned his comrades into bloodthirsty monsters. Eventually, he joins up with the rebels, allowing you to see both sides of the conflict.
This plot twist makes the single player campaign worth going through, despite its hiccups. For instance, the members of your Mantel team are annoying. Your co-captain spends too much time explaining things as your fellow soldiers are so hyped up on Nectar that they're chest bumping like crazy and chattering constantly in military jibber-jabber. Their reactions make Shane's decision to leave that much easier to accept. The writing is also weak, particularly when the game tries to reach out to your emotional chords. A scene involving a dying soldier, for instance, attempts to invoke sorrow, but instead leaves you feeling indifferent.
The good news is you don't have to go through these missions alone. Haze offers both single-screen and online co-op for two to four players, meaning that friends can travel alongside you to help clean up the opposition. It doesn't strengthen the story, but it's a lot more fun playing with buddies.
Shooting up with Nectar gives you the ability to see enemies more clearly while also improving your skills. We especially like what Nectar does to our melee attacks, letting us smack an enemy with the force of a Mack truck. However, like any drug, you can overdose. Take too much and you'll lose control, such as your vision or your ability to control your weapon. Sometimes you'll even shoot your own soldiers, which is cooler than expected.
It's a shame that the artificial intelligence isn't up to par. Most soldiers run at you, gung-ho style, which allows for easy kills. Your own teammates are idiots, too. You'll line up a shot on an enemy and they'll inexplicably jump in the way.
As for the rest of the gameplay, it holds up for the most part. While it lacks the sophistication that other first-person shooter games possess (such as Call of Duty 4's real-time trigger zoom), it's still a fun time. The ability to zoom in with a detailed scope is nice, and you're able to keep a close eye on both your health meter and Nectar meter on each side of the screen to avoid a life-ending situation. There are several great weapons here, including a variety of power-packing assault rifles and grenades. Our personal favorite, however, is the Nectar grenade. Launch one of these at a group of enemies and watch them freak out and shoot everything in sight.
With that said, the vehicle sequences aren't so hot. At several points in the game, you're given the opportunity to travel in a Warthog-like Jeep, avoiding land mines and ramming into enemy vehicles. It's not a completely worthless, since you can drive, ride shotgun or man the turret, but you won't have as much fun as in the Halo video games, which feature a larger selection of rides. Fortunately, the game focuses more on first person shooting than third person driving, so what's here is acceptable. In addition, it's worth juicing up with Nectar when you're behind the wheel, since it makes identifying landmines easier.
Along with online co-op mode, Haze also provides competitive and well-balanced multiplayer between teams of Mantel soldiers and rebels. If you're a Mantel soldier, you can see enemy soldiers with a boost of Nectar. However, Promise Hand members can spot the opponents' yellow uniforms incredibly well. As a result, you'll want to try both sides, just to see how you perform with each one. There are options for ranked and unranked match types (including typical entries such as Team Assault), and it holds up alright from the sessions we played.
Visually, the game looks decent. Although some of the up-close facial expressions and in-game effects need polish (hopefully something that'll be fixed with a patch), the animations are above-average and the game moves at thirty frames per second. Many of the environments look good, even on a high-definition television. Yes, it's true, the game runs at a dwindled 576p resolution instead of 720p, but we still find it attractive. One word of caution, though – you'll need some extra room on your hard drive. Haze requires a mandatory 4 GB install.
The in-game music isn't bad and the sound effects really hit the mark, but the dialogue is cheesy. When your soldiers aren't feeding you military garble, they're saying something completely out of whack. At one point, one of your teammates even makes up a rap, right there on the spot. As for Korn's "exclusive" in-game track, it's not their best. In fact, it sounds like they phoned it in.
Despite these issues - the ridiculous space needed for install, the lame characterizations and the utterly laughable dialogue - Haze is a good first person shooter. It doesn't do anything vastly different from its competitors, but it doesn't need to. Just pop it into your PS3, relax and start shooting. Just take it easy on the Nectar.
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