Playstation 3
Written by Skittles

13.05.08

Score: 7.0

I started writing this and then accidentally lost it, because I write all of these in a little application for Firefox called ScribeFire. It's good for writing blogs, because I can just bring it up with F8 and then hide it again when I get bored. However, pressing F8 over and over and over again to bring it up and down and up and down tends to delete everything you've written. A lesson learned.

For those of you who aren't aware, a demo for the much anticipated, then delayed, then delayed again, then not anticipated at all Playstation 3 exclusive Haze was released about a week ago. I had the pleasure of being crazy bored over the weekend, and decided to download it and give it a go. The following are some brief thoughts about what I experienced.

Now for those of you who don't know the game is developed by Free Radical, the guys behind the acclaimed Timesplitters series, which I thoroughly enjoyed back in the day. The game pits two factions against each other. The first is a multi-national corporation MANTEL, which exists as a private army, strengthened by the use of the latest weapons and vehicles, as well as the performance enhancing drug - Nectar. Their enemy is are the rebel faction known as the Promise Hand. These rebels contain ex-MANTEL marines, who have broken free of the influence of Nectar, and now wage war against the corporation.

The demo itself places you in control of a MANTEL soldier fighting through hordes of Promise Hand forces, in an attempt to reach a downed MANTEL ship. You've got your standard two-weapon outfit, with a pistol and machine gun, as well as a healthy supply of grenades and a melee attack to see you through the level. However the most important aspect of combat with a MANTEL soldier, is your use of Nectar, which is basically a dose of killer instinct. By holding down a button (L2 I think) you inject yourself with the drug, and instantly feel the effects. While under the influence of Nectar you can take more damage, heal faster, run faster, and you'll find it infinitely easier to target and kill enemies. While you're jacked up on Nectar, you won't see the faces of your enemies, you'll only see a glowing orange outline of a person, making it very easy to spot your prey through the dense jungle. Enemies will also appear to move slower, giving you more time to lay them to waste.

However there are several downsides to using Nectar. The first and most noticeable problem in the demo is the danger of overdosing. By holding the L2 button too long, you will inject yourself with a critical amount of Nectar, and go into a berserker rage, which basically involves uncontrollably targeting your team mates, and holding down the trigger, then spazzing around for a bit. Another downside is the fact that the enemy are aware of your condition while under the influence of Nectar. When you're drugged, you only see enemies that are a threat, and one the threat is neutralized, they will no longer appear are bright orange shapes. By feigning death, rebels can avoid detection, and sneak around behind you. From there, you can expect to be stabbed in the back with a Nectar coated knife, sending you beserk, or perhaps have your Nectar tank punctured, filling the air with Nectar and again, sending you beserk. Unfortunately I didn't experience any of these things, so either I simply killed everyone before they could do it, the AI is terrible, or only human players can perform the moves.

Nectar aside, the game plays like a traditional shooter. The aiming is smooth and responsive, somewhere between the smooth but slow aiming in Halo, and the sharp, quick aiming in Call of Duty. I found it was relatively easy to pick up a machine gun and hit my targets, but the magnum takes a bit of getting used to. Just like any current generation FPS game, you're also equipped with a melee attack (R2), which you really shouldn't find yourself using too often. On your other shoulder you have a grenades (L1) which are standard frag grenades. I believe the Promise Hand will use Nectar grenades which blow up in a cloud of Nectar to overdose MANTEL soldiers, but again, I didn't experience this.

That's really it for the demo unfortunately. I played through it by myself a few times, and also played online with the 4-Player Co-op, and despite how bland I make it sound, I really did enjoy it. There's a Kane and Lynchesque feature in the Co-op play that lets you revive fallen team-mates by approaching them and pressing Square, but apart from that, there aren't any changes to the gameplay, just more people shooting. I may write a proper review for this after purchasing, but if it's just more of the same thing, I'll at least let you know.


Graphics : 7/10

I noticed relatively low-res textures, and no impressive effects to speak of. The game is still a demo, but with it so close to release (we hope) I wouldn't hold your breath for any last-minute makeovers. Definitely not ugly enough for it to impinge on the gameplay, but definitely not the best looking game around.


Sound : 8/10

The voice acting was actually pretty interesting. I'll wait till I hear more dialog in the full game before I make my judgment, but for the most part the voice-acting was surprisingly human. The main character doesn't sound like your average tough soldier clone, ala Marcus Fenix, and I'm going to enjoy finding out more about him. There really isn't much context to go by in the demo, other than the chatter you hear from your team-mates, and they do a good job of conveying the situation. They eve manage to build the atmosphere of the MANTEL corporation, in a way that doesn't seem deliberate.

Gameplay : 9/10

For a game that seems fairly average, I actually enjoyed it a lot. There's really nothing more I can say than that. It's a solid shooter that could get better depending on the storyline, and if the MANTEL vs Promise Hand combat gets fleshed out a bit more through the campaign and in multiplayer.

Overall : 8/10

It's better than - Turok
It's worse than - Resistance