Haze - destroyed by IGN and Gamespot

Well I was curious about this game at one point. Free Radical, the nectar effect... but not anymore... not anymore.

I'm just gonna quote bits of the reviews, cause they say it best.

IGN - 4.6/10

While Free Radical's previous work was quite excellent, Haze is anything but, coming across as a middling, generic first-person shooter with bland visuals, a weak plot and laughable characters.
For one thing, the Mantel soldiers are presented as your stereotypical jarhead grunts that have no morality or sense of responsibility, killing people because they have always had a genuine bloodlust for death and destruction. This alpha male broad stroke is painted with comments such as "It's like taking candy from a crippled baby," and "Is there an award for most badass gangsta? Because that's me!"
Supposedly, this explains the behavior of the troops, because they are living in a drug-induced fantasy world that is perpetually extended by their battle armor. In fact, the only time that you do see soldiers crash from their Nectar high is laughable. Not laughable because of what the soldiers do, but laughable in the manner in which it's carried out, which is extremely forced and horribly acted.
You'll even find that your allies will shoot you at times, making it a bit harder to avoid taking damage.
The worst example of this has to be the visuals for the flamethrower, the Dragon de la Gente, which vomits a horrid cone of supposed flame that looks visually on par with what you'd find from the 386 PC days 15 years ago.
The sound isn't much better off, with many of the problems traceable to the repetitive dialogue that both sides constantly utter.

http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/875/875229p1.html

Gamespot - 6/10

Eventually, the game acknowledges the missing shades of gray in a few bits of contrived and hackneyed dialogue, but by then it's too late: The story has long been exposed as a shallow mess that simply can't deliver on its intriguing foundation.
Foes will run directly past you as if you aren't there, stand motionless as you fire, and completely ignore grenades tossed toward them. On the occasions when they do notice that a grenade has been thrown, they will wait a few seconds and then leap forward as if stealing second base--sometimes choosing to dive toward the grenade, rather than away from it.
Then there's the awful rap tune that plays while you wait for competitors to join some online matches--and then continues to play throughout the match. Its presence is absolutely embarrassing.

http://au.gamespot.com/ps3/action/haze/review.html

The current Gamerankings score is: 56%
and Metacitic: 55/100

It's a real shame, but I quite like how the industry, in terms of the media, isn't glossing over now. 4.6 is just devastating...

PS3 owners just gotta keep waiting until SOCOM for a good new PS3 shooter!

I'm not really sure why Free Radical would be an indicator of success here. All they've done is the Timesplitters series and Second Sight games, right? Timesplitter would by my definition of average shooter.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

I'm not really sure why Free Radical would be an indicator of success here.

I mean, come on, look at the ads! Look at the ads!

Rat Boy wrote:
Danjo Olivaw wrote:

I'm not really sure why Free Radical would be an indicator of success here.

I mean, come on, look at the ads! Look at the ads!

This game brought to you by the color yellow? Those ads?

While Free Radical's previous work was quite excellent, Haze is anything but, coming across as a middling, generic first-person shooter with bland visuals, a weak plot and laughable characters.

Sounds like Halo to me.

Nevermind.

I pre-ordered this thing ages ago. The premise sounded interesting, and I loved Second Sight. But this game is pretty bad, with the "anti-machismo" scenario being more hackneyed than I had hoped, the gameplay being flat-out boring. The glitches and repetitive dialogue are all over the place, I can't believed this thing was delayed for six months. This'll be going back next week in time for me to get that EBGames "full credit back" deal.

TimeSplitters 2 and 3 were awesome! Like Goldeneye for a new generation, which is now an old generation, but shut up! And in the third one you could play as a psychic whale or 87 billion different kinds of zombies. Much better than your stupid Halo garbage.

MechaSlinky wrote:

TimeSplitters 2 and 3 were awesome! Like Goldeneye for a new generation, which is now an old generation, but shut up! And in the third one you could play as a psychic whale or 87 billion different kinds of zombies. Much better than your stupid Halo garbage.

I loved the Timesplitters series so I had high hopes. However, it looks like I will be removing Haze from my Amazon wishlist. Not that I have a PS3 yet but this was one of my few reasons to bother.

*sigh*

At least they are doing another Timesplitters.

I see Haze is advertising on Gamespot pretty heavily. I wonder where Kevin VanOrd will be writing for next?

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

I'm not really sure why Free Radical would be an indicator of success here. All they've done is the Timesplitters series and Second Sight games, right? Timesplitter would by my definition of average shooter.

Before that, though, the Free Radical founders (including David Doak) worked at Rare on GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark.

Didn't I call it? polished turd. This isn't rocket science

I do think 4.6 is a bit harsh though, at least for a polished turd the gunplay is somewhat fun. More like a 6.0 from me. A lot of these polished turd games arent even fun in the slightest, however they do meet the "HD standard" to pass certification and validation from Sony and MS and I suppose that's all that really counts these days.

Im glad I wasn't the only one miffed by the fake bromance/game developers wishing they were in the army sh*te.

fathamburger wrote:

Didn't I call it? polished turd. This isn't rocket science

I do think 4.6 is a bit harsh though, at least for a polished turd the gunplay is somewhat fun. More like a 6.0 from me. A lot of these polished turd games arent even fun in the slightest, however they do meet the "HD standard" to pass certification and validation from Sony and MS and I suppose that's all that really counts these days.

Im glad I wasn't the only one miffed by the fake bromance/game developers wishing they were in the army sh*te.

Well word on the street is that it isn't HD but PAL SD...

I'll have a scurry around and see if I can dig up a quote.

When I mentioned our story, Derek told me that the final game does indeed render at 1024by576,

http://www.ripten.com/2008/05/18/free-radical-confirms-final-haze-resolution/
and there is no AA from what I hear...

Also, it requires a 4gb HDD install...

WHAT WERE THEY DOING FOR 4 YEARS??

Ridiculous!

A

So are there absolutely NO load times in this game? I can't imagine why else an "PAL SD" (if that is the case and it is indeed not in HD) would need such a large install. Even then there doesn't seem to be much of an excuse. I kinda thought consoles were nice because you didn't have to download crap from your disc, I mean I'm prepared to download stuff onto a HD when it is extra DLC, but not when it is out of the gem box new!

BTW I loved the first Perfect dark too.....in seventh grade!!! Just because you made a good FPS over a decade ago doesn't mean you are up to snuff now. I know they also made time splitters (and I have only played the demo) but at least the last one kinda seemed like the old perfect dark with a tacked on reverse button.

MechaSlinky wrote:

TimeSplitters 2 and 3 were awesome! Like Goldeneye for a new generation, which is now an old generation, but shut up! And in the third one you could play as a psychic whale or 87 billion different kinds of zombies. Much better than your stupid Halo garbage.

I'm going to file that as pure flippance presented for entertainment, for the sake of our relationship. I only had Timesplitters 2, so maybe the other two are significantly better, but 2 was definitely struggling to hold on to the title of adequate in 2002.

Timesplitters made me a sad panda when it was released, the sequels did nothing for me either. Needless to say, I'm not really a fan of anything Free Radical has done to date. Playing the Haze demo is no exception, there just honestly isn't anything interesting in the slightest. I can't comment on the full game, perhaps there is a fantastic story loaded with near-future socio-commentary, but the gameplay is antiquated and bland.

Sony has to be disappointed with this as an 'Exclusive'. It just isn't the kind of experience you want people to associate with "only on PS3"!

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

I'm going to file that as pure flippance presented for entertainment, for the sake of our relationship. I only had Timesplitters 2, so maybe the other two are significantly better, but 2 was definitely struggling to hold on to the title of adequate in 2002.

Timesplitters never really did it for me either. I hated how they stuck with the Goldeneye control scheme which was good for its time but quickly outdated. Having a waggly hand made precise shooting in multi-player almost impossible.

It's too bad about Haze. I was looking forward to this one as being a more gritty Halo, instead it seems like it fails in almost every area. Solid mechanics and AI should always be first on the task list when building a shooter.

AP Erebus wrote:

WHAT WERE THEY DOING FOR 4 YEARS??

I guess they were trying to figure out what platform to code for! The game originally was announced for XBox 360, PS3 and PC.

LULZ

Now I hate to be the guy that steps in the shoe prints that says “Another Halo Killer”, but I’m darn sure that Haze could be it, especially after you watch the following footage.

Fail.

4/10 says Eurogamer.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

I'm not really sure why Free Radical would be an indicator of success here. All they've done is the Timesplitters series and Second Sight games, right? Timesplitter would by my definition of average shooter.

Because they also made Goldeneye(N64) and Perfect Dark. They left Rare after PD.

Anyone want some Haze caffeinated breath mints? They were giving them out at PAX07 in swag bags. No? Damn. If the game had done well, I could have eBay'ed them for some mad cash.

If you are going to release a game as bobbins as this, why on Earth put a demo on the PSN that allows it to be identified as such ?

Go back and play Goldeneye and Perfect Dark again, folks. They aren't really that great. They were amazing accomplishments at the time (and believe me, I loved them and played the hell out of them at the time) but only because they came closer to presenting a working control model for FPS games on a console than any other game in that generation had done, and had a competent and fun multiplayer mode. However, they weren't exactly pillars of excellent game design in other respects, and as such they don't even begin to hold up when you go back to them now.

What's more, the team's later games (as Free Radical) showed a disheartening lack of interest in keeping up with improvements that had been made in the FPS-on-console genre after they released Perfect Dark. While other FPS developers were wisely learning lessons from Halo (which was truly the first console FPS to really get it right, even though Bungie definitely learned a few key lessons from the likes of Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and Turok), Free Radical seemed to have decided that since they had (sort of) done it first, they must have done it right. They mimicked the design and feel of their N64 games, and as a result the produced games that were mediocre at best, since the watermark for excellence in the field had been raised drastically in the meantime.

So yes, I must agree with Danjo's assessment that Haze's pedigree should have had very little value as an indicator of what we should have expected from the game. Sad to hear that it hasn't turned out better, though, since I also must agree with Kuddles that the premise was very interesting.

zeroKFE wrote:

Go back and play Goldeneye.... & stuff

I had friends clamoring all over Goldeneye on N64, but I thought it was total suckage. Needless to say, none of them were PC gamers... hmmm... I wonder if that makes a difference? PC FPS were far and away superior to anything on console up to about the beginning of the Halo era, and even then Halo was supposed to be a PC title before Bungie sold out.

davet010 wrote:

...bobbins...

Thread over. Davet wins.

Link

Haze writer Rob Yescombe wrote:

"My thoughts are 'Owch'. No, wait - 'MEGAowch'. Haze has had mixed reviews, but even GoldenEye got a 4/10 when it first came out. With a 9/10 in the Italian PSM, and an extremely positive review in Famitsu, we're looking forward to people playing Haze and making a judgement for themselves."

Maybe he's right. Maybe it's just misunderstood and in a few years we'll look back on it fondly. Or maybe they should've hired a writer that knows how to spell "ouch."

Getting a positive review in Famitsu is kind of like getting a participation trophy at summer camp.

EvilDead wrote:

Having a waggly hand made precise shooting in multi-player almost impossible.
...
Solid mechanics and AI should always be first on the task list when building a shooter.

That's one of the few things that I liked about Timesplitters, the movable reticule. Sometimes a lack of precision can be a good thing.

It makes it a slightly different kind of shooter in the way that Gears' cover system or Rainbow Six's expanding accuracy reticule does. I don't want all shooters to work like that, or even the majority of them; just like how I don't want the majority of shooters to have cover systems or accuracy reticules. It's variety and innovation that keep the genre from getting stale. So the old school, Goldeneye cursor wasn't bad for me, the game just didn't step up in any other department. Level design and enemy AI can't be lacking.