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Haze (PS3) | 
| From: Ubisoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: £49.99
Buy New: £39.99
You Save: £10.00 (20%)
New (23) Used (23) from £22.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 114
Platform: Playstation 3
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Age: 11 - 18 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 3307210266620
ASIN: B000SKEXNW
Release Date: May 23, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
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.
Harrison Dent
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
Haze - Average but fun June 30, 2008
It seems after months of waiting and delays free radical (the guys behnd timespltters) finally release one of the most hyped games of 2008 Haze.
Haze in my opinion after seeing how much hype was around it suffers from Halo Syndrome in which so much is said about it that you think someone was announcing the 2nd coming on Jesus but then when you get round to playing it the wow factor slowly fades away.
The plot althogh very dim and uninspired does exist despite all the people that say Haze has no plot, Perhaps one of the biggest plot twists would have been the fact that you do change sides and join the rebels good plot twist but we all saw it coming wth all the hype and the fact its on the back of the box.
The story has you assume the role of Shane Carpentor a new recruit for Mantel Corp. who are using narcotic fuled armies to sell around the world and making money off Nectar a performance enhancer, but after a few twists and turns shane finds out Mantle are up to no good and swicthes sides. An interesting thing I noticed is now that your on the rebel side its really not that good its more like they just switched uniform as your rebel people now have the same healing abilities as the mantle soldiers did and the mantle soldiers who supposidly have armor that cant be damaged can be floored within 3 bullets only this time its the rebels turn to constantly repeat the same one liners OVER n OVER.
The dialouge in this game makes Resident Evil 1 sound proffessional lets see we have the Mantel leader who watches far too much (canaian special) south park constantly saying "Buddy" then you have the typical stereotype hill billy type and the mocho cave man Jock type plus all the soldiers sound the same and the rebels sound like somone trying to fake a mexican accent after 1 too many taquelas.
Ok so your going to complete the game within 15 hours or less easily, The gameplay and the graphics arent really PS3 material but youll know from my other reviews that i dont care for graphics. The 4 player co op campaign is fun but gets boring as youll have to sit through the terribly acted non skippable cutscenes over and over again.
The multiplayer is perhaps the best thing Haze has going for it with all kinds of game modes including DM, TDM, CTF and some exclusive to Haze, I found it to be alot of fun and with both sides having their own advantages and disadvantages it really heightned the experience however Mantle soldiers dont really stand a chance so really the rebels are the best to be the features advertised in the hype really dont work that well in the final product.
Gameplay wise this game really suffers the A.I is really bad so 4 player co op is reccomended aswell as playing on Hard to at least get a little bit of a challenge. Mantle and Rebel soldiers have their own abilties including:
Mantle:
Nectar
See enemies easily
no recoil
stronger melee
sheild
However nectar does reduce quickly.
Rebel
Play dead
Bury Grenades
scavange
overdoes a trooper
roll
Overall Haze is probably best avoided unless its really cheap
there isnt really enough in this game to make it a top seller fun with friends once in a while, but.
its one of them games that will probably just be forgotton,
The controls arent really that bad but they arent as good as other FPS games.
Hope this helped please comment if you have any questions
 2008's Biggest Disappointment June 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Early previews of Haze, (the once promising but heavily delayed PS3 exclusive) seemed to give away all its secrets.
Sadly there are no twists or surprises for anyone that has paid attention to Hazes excessive previews. The much publicised defection to the rebels; Promise Hand would have been far more enjoyable without prior knowledge. The twists following are non-existent, with only a discovery in a cargo container providing any highlight for lead Shane Carpenter.
From the opening moment, Hazes visuals are disappointingly shoddy; the jungles look weak, especially when compared to Uncharted: Drakes Fortune. Its laughable this is the best Free Radical could manage. There is nothing here, apart from a few fancy, pointless graphical effects that couldn't have been done on the previous generation.
The animation is also a joke, especially when reviving a fallen comrade. Bodies also levitate in mid air. Vehicle sections are just awful, so broken they should have been left out entirely.
In fact only the shooting is solid throughout; and in parts above average. But surely this is to be expected from the makers of TimeSplitters. Strangely, Haze doesent have a very large weapon selection.
The whole game would be seamless if it wasn't for split second blackouts that occur after every "cut scene". This is one of Hazes most frustrating elements and clearly used to hide loading times. Rather than use cut scenes to set up the story, Haze insists on telling every scrap of narrative from Shane Carpenters eyes. This can work, as Half Life 2 proved. But the plot is clunky and amateurish at best, the half second blackouts completely ruining any immersion this approach so desperately tries to create.
There are too many moments where a cut scene would have worked better. And they can't be skipped, much like Assassins Creed. In the days of Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, where so much is experienced by the player, these forced "cut scenes" feel prehistoric.
The voice acting and sound is also a major failing. Carpenter has a different accent in-game to the demo video shown. The same, quotes are used every couple of seconds. "This way", and "No surrender" are heavily overused. By far the most cringe worthy however:
"Is there a medal for being the most bad ass gangster, cause that me".
Even worse is the fact many quotes are used by both Mantel and Promise Hand. It's only a small point, but when both sides are spouting the same macho cliché, it's difficult to believe they are fighting for anything different. Music is average at best.
In the early levels whilst fighting for Mantel, it's even obvious when there are no enemies, as the gun disappears from screen. For me this ruined any tension or suspense.
Early previews also suggested that overusing Nectar can lead to hallucinations and side effects, with Carpenter struggling to separate friend from foe. This does sound exciting, yet my first overdose happened without having used Nectar?? This section was even played twice, with it happening at EXACTLY the same point. So nowhere near as subtle or refined as Free Radical have suggested. Nectar is even too scripted to be considered a game-play mechanic. Its also a massive disappointment. The yellow glow caused by this drug is essential to even see the enemy. There are some nice touches, like when on Nectar; the sniper aim is much steadier.
Landmines are very well designed. The levels, most notably the cargo ship have flashes of brilliance. But sadly this is too little, far too late for such a high profile game.
Switching sides thankfully provide new gameplay options, but Haze remains a mediocre experience. New options include the ability to play dead. Nectar grenades can also be removed from Mantel soldiers and used as a chemical weapon.
The games climax (aboard the Mantel Land Carrier) had the potential, in spite of everything to give Haze a memorable climax. Yet, much like the rest of the game, it disappoints in a big way. Once aboard, the level involves lots of backtracking, with atrocious signposting and design. Example; wandering back to the start of the level, and finding (purely by chance) that a door has now opened. The ending is also abrupt and unsatisfying for such a narrative driven game. In fact, many levels end abruptly, leaving the impression large chunks have been removed to finally get Haze on the shelves.
Haze would have been a terrible game if it had arrived suddenly and without hype. It just hurts when such a big game fails to deliver, once again.
PS3 Exclusive? What?!?!? June 16, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
For a PS3 exclusive, this is a game which is supposed to win the war between Xbox360 and PS3. I can tell you now that if you speak to any Xbox360er they will probably name one game series that is their favourite. Halo. So what happened? They copied it, and pretty much every bit of it. Dissapointing.
Graphics are great and the cut scenes are good. Good fun to have a quick bash at online multiplayer but too much has been copied from halo.
 just felt really stupid June 16, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
there was no fun and really bad voice overs the game felt stupid if you know what i mean. i wouldn't bother! you'll force yourself to like it.......then you'll give up and sell it on amazon!!! its not good
 i really like it! June 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
haze is one of those games which has been hyped up so much that its almost impossible to meet the expectations, much like assasins creed and most other games out there right now. however, i have to say that this game is very good IMO and not as bad as others say it is. this is not to say that its doesnt hav its really bad moments:
bad things:
1) campare this game to COD4 and there are many basic things which haze should have, but didnt include. AN example is the ability to run faster and most importantly the range of weapons. there are only about 3 or 4 types of weapons in all.
2)the graphics are really good i think BUT they could be MUCH better and are not in line with other ps3 titles such as uncharted or COD4
3) bugs - i have so far only encountered 1 which froze my ps3, however nothing was damaged so its wasnt as bad as it could have been.
thats all i could think of for the bad points.
good points:
1) very good storyline - i really enjoyed the story and found it to be very engaging, tho it could have been fleshed out a little bit more and possibly explained a few more things in the beginning. but other than that the story is what will most drag in.
2) gameplay is very good IMO, its simple yet hard enough for more experienced players to enjoy. tho the A.I does slack sometimes but this doesnt take away from the fun!
3)the level in the game could be seen as dull and umimaginative but look past the basic structure and there are some really interesting levels in this game and some really fun objectives!
in all i think this game is unfairly judged based on first impression and even i thought it was bad at first but i stuck with it and now i really like it. so i say if u arent a very picky gamer, like me, then buy it and enjoy but if u are more experienced and a much more hardcore gamer then maybe u should skip this one.
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