It seems the legendary developers Free Radical, the makers of 007: Goldeneye and the Timesplitters series, are now making another shooter that they are expecting to be a great hit with the involvement of the band Korn, but the question is; can Free Radical succeed again?
In Haze, you begin as a young and new Mantel Trooper by the name of Shane Carpenter. Shane joins Mantel shortly after finishing college, he’s very ambitious and looks to change everything bad in the world into good. Your squad leader will be Sgt. Morgan Duvall (you are also a sergeant, but he’s a squad leader, so he tells you what to do). Your other two squad members, Adrian Teare and Francis Peshy, seem to be complete roid monkeys and share a striking resemblance to Brucie from GTAIV. After playing about three levels of the game,
you are rescued from a helicopter crash and are on the bounty list for Mantel. A rebel guide guides you to safety and you meet up with Gabriel “Skin Coat” Merino, who has a sweet mustache like the squad leader from CoD4. Gabriel tells you the truth about war and tells you the surprising facts of the Mantel Corporation. After which, you go on an adventure to take down Mantel and find out what they are after, but you’ll have to play it yourself to find out about the ending.
Storyline: 7/10, pretty simple storyline added with some cool characters and strange twists.
The graphics are not as bad as everyone makes them out to be (you might know who I’m talking about when I say “everyone”), they seem to be the graphics of an earlier PS3 game, actually quite similar to the F.E.A.R. graphics are a little dumbed-down Rainbow Six Vegas 1.
Graphics: 7/10, Early PS3 games would’ve been rated an 8.5/10, but this isn’t an early game
The sound isn’t bad at all, but it isn’t absolutely great. The only annoying thing is that your squad leader and comrades on the Mantel seem to run out of things to say at certain points and just grunt a couple times, or yell BOOSH!!!. However, the rebel leader, Gabriel “Skin Coat” Merino, is a really cool character and has a nice voice actor.
Sound: 8/10, Roid monkeys sound bad, Gabriel’s cool, and in-game sound is average.
The multiplayer consists of 4-player co-op, 16 player deathmatch, team deathmatch, and team assault online, or LAN. There are a good number of multiplayer maps, 6, all of which have very good level design, it’s kind of what Free Radical is good at, hence 007: Goldeneye. The deathmatch is basically a free-for-all game mode. The team deathmatch is basic, two teams killing each other at will, and you choose between the Mantel troopers, or the Rebels as a team. The team assault game mode gives the Mantel, or Rebel team an objective while the opposing team tries to stop the opposite team from completing their set objective. There is 16 different awards, which are called merits, that you can earn in the online mode by completing certain objectives and there is a nice stats system. You can also play 2 player split-screen with a guest on the normal campaign and online, you also have the ability to set bots down when playing a game online. In the online mode you also have the ability to drive on a small variety of vehicles. For information on the differences between the Mantel and Rebel teams abilities and weaponry, look under the Entertainment/ Replay Value.
Multiplayer: 8.5/10, The special abilities of both sides make this multiplayer fun, other than that, the variety of game modes makes it not too great.
Haze consists of 14 different weapons, 6 for the Mantel team and 8 for the Rebel team, but you can steal each others weapons. The Mantel team has 1 pistol, 1 assault rifle, 1 shotgun, 1 grenade, 1 sniper, and 1 rocket launcher. The Rebel team has 1 shotgun, 1 light machine gun, 1 flamethrower, 1 sniper rifle, a knife, and 2 types of grenades. The Rebel teams abilities online consist of the ability to play dead, overdose your enemies on nectar, making them basically paralyzed, and you also have the ability to set down grenade booby-traps. The only problem is that you have to wait for your health to regenerate a little bit before you can get back up from playing dead. The Mantel side obviously has nectar, which makes them less damaged by bullets, have stronger melee attacks, and make their enemies glow bright yellow. The feature of 2 player split-screen online multiplayer and campaign mode adds greatly to the replay value, so if you have a friend who’s sick of coming over and watching you play GTA4, now you have something fun for them to do (or also for you to do if you’ve been addicted and need a break from another game). The game also supports your pretty Dual Shock 3 controller, but it barely ever rumbles, so not much use.
Entertainment/ Replay Value: 6.5/10, It’ll last you over the summer, until the massive Fall season comes knocking at your door.
Storyline: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Multiplayer: 8.5/10
Entertainment/ Replay Value: 6.5/10
Overall: 7.25/10
Tags: Haze, PlayStation 3, Ubisoft