Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #792 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Released on: 2008-05-23
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3

Amazon.co.uk Review

One of the reasons Rare are such a controversial developer nowadays (apart from the whole Nintendo selling them to Microsoft thing) is the fact that a lot of people associated with GoldenEye and Perfect Dark left the company a long time ago. Many of them ended up at Free Radical Design, where they created the love-it-or-loathe-it TimeSpliters series and the underappreciated Second Sight. Haze ditches the stylised look of their older games though, with a game set in a future world dominated by mega global corporation Mantel - where you’re cast as one of their soldiers fighting rebels in South America.

Like all fictional global corporations Mantel is up to no good and it turns out their drug NECTAR is doing more than just making you a super soldier with increased speed, strength and accuracy. Highlighting enemies under cover from you, as well as grenades and bobby traps is all very good but the downside is it also turns you (and your teammates) psychotic if you use it too much. Worse it seems to sanitise the world around you, making corpses invisible and even obscuring the true nature of the landscape around you…

Rebel soldiers are able to take advantage of the reality bending powers of NECTAR, such as playing dead to regain their health or using a special "weapons steal" move to make up for their lack of hardware (both of which moves work great in multiplayer). With arguably the most interesting storyline in any current first person shooter and a custom made graphics engine Haze’s future looks crystal clear.

Manufacturer's Description

Play both sides of the same war and experience two unique game systems, exclusively for the PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system this holiday season.

Set in the year 2048 in a world where governments have outsourced military operations to private military corporations (PMCs), you play as Shane Carpenter, a newly enlisted soldier seeking fulfillment and thrills by fighting for a good cause. As the leading PMC, Mantel Global Industries offers an array of cutting-edge military equipment, including a high-tech arsenal of vehicles, deadly weaponry, and the performance-enhancing drug Nectar.

Your conflict begins in a war-torn country where you have been sent to fight a vicious rebel faction, the Promise Hand. At first all is well, but things quickly begin to look a little strangeâEuro¦

Uncover the truth, switch sides, and break away from MantelâEuro(TM)s manipulative grip when you join your former enemies, the Promise Hand.

Customer Reviews

Under-rated.
I don't care what review sites say, this is a solid FPS. It can't compare to Resistance 2 or Killzone 2 but there's nothing wrong with it that I could mark it down on. Though I will say the last cut-scene was a real kick in the face after hours of playing, and because they made it public that you defect from Mantle before release it did spoil the Mantle part of the game, when you know that they're the bad guys.

Blame the media...
This game is quite broken in places, the delays to "refine" it didn't seem to help, the guns feel very powerful but at the same time aren't very powerful, the levels look dense and rich, but they aren't really, it's as if the games drug NECTAR is working on the player, making them think the game is better than it really is.

Haze was first annouced about a year ago but countless delays meant that spoilers have done exactly that, spoilt the twist, the idea was that you played as a super soldier in a PMC(private military company) and then that same characer swaps to the rebels side, but the game tells you this with many trailers before its final release.

The gameplay is generally mediocre, set pieces can offer a slither of excitement but it soon fades as you shoot more genero-baddies.

Haze wanted to be good, but as it is also over shadowed by the mighty Call Of Duty 4 it had alot to beat, and anybody (like me) who played CoD to death, will feel that this game is that little bit more disappointing.

So to be completely honest...I would steer clear of Haze, even if you were tempted before release (as i was).

How the mighty have fallen
"Timesplitters 2" is great fun. "Timesplitters Future Perfect" is sublime (anyone who has played it must surely have enjoyed the more comic moments, but the gameplay in my opinion is excellent). And "Haze"?...well, the trailer was brilliant. I expected something that would rival "Halo 2" (or 3) and was sorely disappointed. It isn't appalling, but it has an extremely brief campaign, is too linear, the vehicles are based on some sort of "treacle-physics" engine, and there was a serious risk that I would break my screen every time I heard the shout "Remember your promise to Merino"...arrrgh...STFU!

(I have played through "God of War" again - which, for a PS2 title is awesome - to rinse the memory of "Haze".)