User Reviews (1 - 11 of 43)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

overhyped garbage

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 13
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

At one point in the game an enemy shot a barrel near me causing me to catch fire. The on screen prompt said to shake Sixaxis to extinguish the flames. No mater how gently or violently I shook, twisted or moved the controller could I put out the fire. To make matters worse, I had just passed a checkpoint, so every time I died and respawned, I was on fire. After ten minutes of this, I restarted the level and learned not to play with fire.
This scenario was very commonplace. Set on fire, die and try over. Just one of the glitches in a horribly buggy game. Terrible A.I., Horrendous voice acting which doesn't even match up in co-op, forgettable story and bland under texturized graphics. In all fairness I did find some fun in the game. Great moments like defending the villiage in the chopper or the assault on the landcruiser had me buzzing momentarily but were too short lived.
I would probably give maybe one more star but the frustrations and the hope I had for the game crushed that.

Haze schmaze

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: June 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After all the hyped announcements (Halo killer for PS3 yadda yadda blah blah) and the year of postponement I am just stumped...
Since I don't want to waste too much time on this junk I will keep this review short.
To put my review in perspective: I won both a PS3 as well as a 360, I play Halo3, COD4, GRAW/2, Gears of War mostly.

Naturally I was hoping for a PS3 alternative to the XBOX's Halo series and that is what Haze touted to be.

The negatives:
- Graphics: these graphics are NOT worthy of the PS3. The characters and maps lack realism, textures are anno 2-years-ago. How dare they sell this as state of the art graphics.

- The controls and gameplay overall is slow paced and with awkward controls. Online games were quickly abandoned because they are lame and without action.

- Storyline: lots of useless, uninspired cinematic sequences with mediocre voice acting.

Pros: NONE I can think of.

Solid waste of 60$ for something that should be sold for 20$ on PS3 online.

Sux

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: June 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ubisoft has lost a lot of points in my book for this. Lame graphics. Horrible dialog. lackluster action. Nothing good to report...

The band involves should've been enough of a hint.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I had pre-ordered Haze on here with the Korn MP3. I was curious to see how Korn was sounding now since I hadn't listened to them since I was in high school. Upon hearing it, I wanted to claw my ears out because it sounded so godawful. That should've been an indication to what the game would be like, but I didn't think much of it.

Haze had a lot of potential: it had a nice little bit of hype around it and it had a promising premise. I finally got the game from the fine folks at Amazon and I tore into the package, popping the game into my PS3. The next day, I took it down to my local Gamestop and sold it for 20 bucks.

The game was far too easy and, while the Nectar addition was an interesting touch, it was merely another incredibly bland FPS. The game was entirely too easy and it didn't do nearly enough to keep my interest for more than a day. You might find a little enjoyment in this game if you like Halo (I personally do not), but other than that, I'd go ahead and skip over this title, or give it a rental if you're really THAT curious about the game.

In a Haze of disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: June 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Haze
For a game that took a long time to finally arrive, was promoted as a Halo-type game, and cost an arm and a leg to buy, Haze totally disappoints.
First off, I love first person shooters, but am not the best at them-they usually take me 4 to 5 times to finish compared to other players. I finished this game in about 6 hours in the single player campaign mode. I'm not a big fan of online play, but reviews of Haze's online modes lets me know I'm not missing anything. The single player campaign if you could call it that included about an hour or so of useless, crappy cutscenes that could easily have been cut out of the game to increase it's value-I kept uselessly trying to click through them(you can't) and ended up doing other things until they were done. Playing as a Mantel soldier with nectar is extremely brief and when the game set me up to play as a rebel, I thought that this all must have been part of the tutorial or something, because the first part lasted only as long as some game's tutorials or demos do. I just thought they wanted you to see how to play as the different characters before getting truly into the game. The stupid storyline is forced, inane, redundant, childlike, unnecessary, and just plain worthless, because the game is short short short-the result is characters(if you can call them that) form ideas too soon to make sense-they like you, they hate you and I just hate them all-there are really only 2 characters you talk to for more than 5 seconds. Some of the graphics were good, but the location is ridiculously stupid and uninspired. There's one cave area that looks like it was taken right from Oblivion-it was that familiar to me. Comparing it to Halo is sooo depressing, since Halo takes place in Space which immerses you in the futuristic feel, has many types of enemies(not just 2) that are truly interesting and creepy, allows you to drive/pilot different vehicles-not just a few of the same type, gives you choices for weapons, gets you involved in a story, and takes time to play out. Anyone who thinks this is just a wonderful game, has yet to play one or is just being protective of the PS3. I love my PS3, don't have an xbox, and I can't tell you the depth of my disappointment. Compare it to a game like Resident Evil 4 or God of War, games created for previous game systems and it doesn't even hold up. Drake's Fortune, which was somewhat short in and of itself, did the jungle better, did the graphics better, did the storyline better, did the cutscenes better. Did I say the game is short? Shame on you UBIsoft-how about a refund? I can't give this more than 1 star, because I wouldn't even suggest renting it. Such promise, such garbage.

Halo killer? More like on par with Turok. (disappointing)

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

All show and no go. Hype, hype and more hype. The story is too short, the games message too clumsy and shallow, driving vehicles is kludgy and annoying. Oh yeah and you can finish the game in a strong evening of play. Maybe its supposed to be another generic multi- player game instead of actually having a decent story, maybe my expectations were too high. Anyway dont waste your money, wait until it starts showing up in the cheap bins. If you want multi-player get Unreal 3.

Very disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 21 / 26
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Haze has had a good bit of hype surrounding it, especially considering its a PS3 exclusive FPS that seemed to be loaded with potential. Playing as a futuristic soldier with the ability to supe themselves up to almost superhuman capability thanks to a drug called Nectar. While this little feature does manage to add a bit of spice to the overall gameplay aspects of Haze, as a whole the game doesn't offer up anything that hasn't been seen a million times before in a million other first person shooter's, or for that matter, do much of anything particularly well either. There are some moments of spectacular action that show off the kind of potential that Haze had to be a great game, but these moments are few and far between. Where Haze really falters is with the game's presentation: the storyline, dialogue, and voice acting are all deliriously bad, and the game's AI doesn't fare much better either. Four-player co-op and multiplayer are bland but decent enough, and the game looks good and offers a decent selection of weapons. However, the overall core of Haze is disappointingly shallow despite the game's interesting premise, and PS3 owning FPS fans are better off giving this a rental and holding out for Resistance 2.

Good Idea - Not Great Execution

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: July 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The first-person shooter - and especially the "futuristic" first-person shooter - has been done, over and over, with little to no changes in gameplay, since almost the beginning of gaming itself. With that said, games like Haze occasionally try to mix things up a little, and while the idea is good, the execution ends up dragging it down a lot.

The underlying plot of the game, both single-player and multiplayer, is that, in the future, a company/organization called Mantel uses a drug called Nectar to produce a generation of drugged-up super soldiers to fight for them in the third world. Multiplayer battles consist of skirmishes between Mantel troopers and rebels, while in singleplayer you start as a trooper and switch sides later on.

The two sides have the same basic first-person gameplay, with some key abilities that are different. Mantel troopers inject themselves with Nectar, which enhances their perception (scopes can zoom in farther, enemies are rendered as glowing objects) and strength (soldiers move faster, hit harder, and regenerate health) as well as providing a hallucinogenic "high". There is a limited supply of Nectar that each soldier has, but it regenerates over time; the supply is counted in "shots" or "injections". Holding the L2 button down injects Nectar into your bloodstream, represented by a gauge. Release the button too soon, and you won't feel the effects of it for long. If you hold it down for too long, though, you can overdose, which renders you unable to tell between friend and foe. In many cases, when you are overdosed, you are unable to control yourself even to the point of randomly firing weapons or arming grenades (which you must shake the controller to throw away before it detonates). If you run out of Nectar, you are highly vulnerable; for this reason, you can usually siphon Nectar off of one of your teammates, if they have enough.

On the other side, the rebels are as weak in combat as a Mantel trooper without his nectar. They make up for this with various ingenious techniques. Some rebel weapons are coated with Nectar, specifically knives and grenades that are made from Nectar-packs taken from dead troopers. Both of these weapons can cause Nectar overloads in enemies, causing the aforementioned self-damaging effects. Playing off of Nectar's effect of making dead bodies "invisible" (bodies fade almost instantly when playing as a trooper, but remain for a long time when playing as a rebel), rebel soldiers can "play dead" when hit, and then "revive" after the troopers have left. Rebels can also do various mechanical improvisations, such as taking ammo from dropped weapons and converting it to ammo for the weapon they are currently using, as well as turning grenades into proximity mines. Finally, they're generally faster and more agile than their trooper counterparts, capable of dodging and in some cases stealing an enemy's weapon.

The single-player storyline is laughable, for the most part, with some interesting parts. You play as Shane Carpenter, wide-eyed idealist youth, who joins Mantel to make a difference and stop the unspecified mass murders and ethnic cleansings that the rebels are carrying out. The story starts on a carrier, where Carpenter meets his teammates - gung-ho, drug-fueled murderers in the finest traditions of sci-fi and war movies everywhere. Only, the difference here is that it makes sense - it's plain to see that Nectar screws with your mind just by the effects that show up when you use it in-game; the blurring, the sudden shifts of motion, and so on. Carpenter's injection system malfunctions several times, which (a) leaves the player unable to use Nectar's beneficial effects, and (b) causes Carpenter to see things that his fellow troopers don't see; a dying comrade, screams of pain, massive piles of bodies, and so on. Carpenter questions his mission more and more, eventually leading to his switch to the rebel side midway through the game. Most of the story is ham-handed dialogue, though there are some good atmospheric moments; walking through one burnt-down village, or trying to find your way through a swamp, for example. These moments tend to only use dialogue as background noise - the heavy-handed boasting of the Mantel troopers contrasts against the quiet of the jungle's ambient noises. The use of camera in cutscenes is interesting, but not really new; the view is always from Carpenter's first-person perspective, though in some scenes his visor will slide away so that the HUD doesn't block your view. In most cutscenes, you can look around but not move, lending at least some feeling of interactivity to the scenes.

As a whole, the gameplay - as mentioned - tries some interesting things, but ultimately falls short. A lot of it makes sense as a Mantel trooper - the poor control, for example, or the lack of solid feeling to movement and aiming - but when you're a rebel and you're supposed to be free of the hallucinatory drug, it's just bad. The guns are the most generic first-person guns ever - a pistol, an assault rifle, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a chaingun, a flamethrower, and a rocket launcher. None of them handle well, and none of them are particularly fun or interesting, either. Grenades are pretty much worthless, and even in single player I've never managed to kill a person with one even when it exploded right underneath him. The vehicles handle incredibly poorly, often flipping with little to no provocation. On that note, your AI buddies all have roughly the same abilities as yourself, but if they die they are gone forever, and finding new allies is incredibly rare. With that said, most of the times I had allies die (counting times I reloaded afterwards) was in vehicle crashes, when I'd take too much of an angle, my buggy would flip, and my gunner would die. Other than that, the AI soldiers are reasonably helpful, though the troopers and their Nectar injections are much tougher and more helpful than the rebel allies, who lack both the strength of the troopers and the ingenuity of the player and are left with pretty much nothing.

The graphics are nice in some ways and terrible in others. For example, they load slowly, leading to that awkward phase where you watch a person's resolution increase in front of you. In other places, animation is jerky, or edges are jagged, or some other flaw exists that prevents the on-the-surface good graphics from actually being good. Furthermore, the designs are both silly and generic, especially the Mantel vehicles and their bright yellow glass. The voice acting is generic, too; not bad, but by no means actually good, and the ridiculousness of the lines makes up for whatever points good voice acting might have gained.

This game has some good ideas, but the underlying genre of futuristic first-person shooter and the incredibly poor execution of graphics and gameplay render this game unbearable. For PS3 shooters, Resistance was better; for shooters in general, pretty much anything is better. This game doesn't deserve anything higher than a 4/10.

Haze needs another year...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: May 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After all the delays and the hype I must say Haze is a bit of a disappointment. This game feels incomplete and buggy almost like it was still in beta stages. I found that it takes a few minutes for a cut scenes to take place and by that time your so confused as of whats going on that you've lost all interest. The AI is dumb and incoherent they get in your way and don't provide any support when attacking enemies. The dialogue and story aren't something to brag about either. The dialogue sounds like it was written by a drunk frat boy and you'll find some notorious lines will be repeated at least a hundred times throughout the game which gets annoying "YEAAA BOOYYYY!!!". Gun varieties are lacking and graphics are mid ps2 and ps3 generation. This game has not broken any new grounds for FPS's and fails to impress.

Terribly Average

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Man I had high hopes for this game (and I know I'm not the only one). What a disappointment...don't let the awesome screenshots fool you; this game is basically a very poor Halo imitation. In fact, to compare it to Halo isn't even fair. I played through the campaign mode (which won't take you very long) hoping the game would eventually get better. It didn't. Awful AI plagues the game with brainless enemies and worthless squadmates. Bland, repetitive gameplay throughtout makes the game get old very quickly. The vehicles seem like an aferthought and don't add much to the game at all. There are a couple of cool action sequences but these are few and far between. The game does have some ok graphics (except for the lame explosions) but really doesn't use the PS3's potential. In the end it's just a below average game with nothing unique about it. Rent it maybe, but definitely don't waste your money buying it. Besides, it'll probably be in the bargain bin in a few months anyway.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 Next 

Actions