Guardian Game review: Haze - 'Haze is undoubtedly the best full-blown FPS for PS3 so far'

Guardian writes: "PS3 owners have been licking their lips in anticipation of Haze, the first next-gen effort (and a rare PS3 exclusive first-person shooter) from Free Radical, the developer behind the TimeSplitters games. But while it's very enjoyable to play, it also disappoints somewhat. Its strongest point is a sumptuous control system that combines accuracy and responsiveness to stunning effect. Its story is good, too: set in a world dominated by the Mantell corporation, you begin as a Mantell trooper, hyped up on a drug called Nectar, but end up as one of the Promised Hand rebels, a duality that introduces subtle changes in gameplay.

But that gameplay - combining shooting, Halo-like driving and a few cursory puzzles - never feels innovative, and the graphics are, frankly, awful. An innovative story-based multi-player mode should prove popular, though, and Haze is still undoubtedly the best full-blown FPS for the PS3 so far. But it does leave you feeling it could have been even better."

[ice_prophecy]

To be honest, I am very confused now...

I guess i'll pick up the game tomorrow and find out for myself.

[Breakfast]

These reviews are all over the place...im with you though...im gonna rent it before.

[sonarus]

I'm just going to shut my eyes and say no to this one. I have made up my mind. I was hoping haze would be the game to get after exams but right now its looking like singstar :D

My first singstar people i hope i like it as much as i did GH2. I remember i hated on GH for the longest time. One day i went into gamestop and played the 360 display thing and my friend was like haha you are dancing. At that moment i knew i had to have it. Music games FTW.

Back on point: The graphics are frankly awful. Let this be a lesson to developers who are all like "oh we don't care how our game looks as long as it has great gameplay"

[EZCheez]

That's a joke for anyone else that watches American Idol. Mike Myers FTW.

[Dannagar]

It's a sad day for Playstation 3 owners if Haze is undoubtedly the best full-blown FPS for the PS3 so far because it's generic. Try the demo before you buy.

[specialguest]

'Haze is undoubtedly the best full-blown FPS for PS3 SO FAR'

I'm not sure on whether to take this as a compliment or an insult to the PS3.

[Seraphim]

Same here, I'll just rent it. Then again I'm not big on buying FPSs anymore. I don't get online, and very few are worthy of actually keeping for years to come. Even 5 years from now the few I do end up buying over the course of the next 2 years will probably end up getting sold anyway...

I do think these really low scores a bit harsh though. I've only played the demo and wile unimpressed overall it certainly wasn't as bad as these low scores, and bashings are saying it is. It seemed like a pretty decent, average at best FPS. I think the categorize it and score it so lowly is just POOR Judgment on these review sites part. I honestly find it hard to believe that Haze is that pathetically awful...

[pharmd]

can someone tell me what the deuce is going on with these reviews.......

pickin it up asap!

[gogators]

and make your own decision. Reviewers are people and their collective opinions can be all over the place. Just look at movie reviews.

[jadenkorri]

if you look back at the demo of Resistant fall of man, everyone said it sucked and said it was another FPS and gave it bad reviews, but once it came out it turned out to be awesome, a hidden gem, and i think Haze still has that potential... I could be wrong but the games not out until tomorrow, well for me anyways...

[Scrooge]

Isn't renting a game and judging for ourselves what we should've been doing in the first place? Some reviewers like it, some don't. Perhaps I'll be one of the people that does like it.

[pwnsause]

whats going on with these reviews?

[Amanosenpai]

Just Drugs... ¬_¬

[Presentist]

So the best FPS is a generic piece of crap?

Are people forgetting that the best FPS of all time: COD4, is on PS3?!

What's wrong with these reviewers!?!?!!

[THC CELL]

wow some good news

i dont no what day it is

i am still picking this game up
getting sick of mixed reviews its making the game industry go down hill

[Shaka2K6]

Cant not wait for this masterpiece im buying this next week
from Free Radical i already know its going to be miles better then halo 2.1 and gears of war 1.5.

Free Radical destroys epic and bungie combined.

[LenHart]

since Guardian is a very reliable source

[WIIIS1]

Easy. Sony paid Guardian.

[LenHart]

Guardian doesnt even gives a rat ass to MS/SONY

Guardian is MOST RELIABLE AND POWERFUL media source in the world.

they can nail any US/BRITISH /JAPANESE companies with their articles. Most of their their editors are graduates from WORLD"S no1 University --University of OXFORD

[Tmac]

He was joking you retard. LenHart just get out seriously.

[Closing]

The metric is a low 6, and a few are rating it around an 8. Same thing happens with all reviews, where a few opinions differ.

In the end you should take this into consideration, but ultimately make up your own mind. It's my opinion that this game is just flat out bad, and the majority of reviews just reinforced my opinion. Also IGN is a source I trust in most instances.

[Rikitatsu]

From the demo most people including me agrees that Haze suck

but c'mon , IGN had destroyed their own Credavilty when They Gave God Hand a 3/10 .... a Freakin 3/10 !!! that game was the best 3d Beat em up every , and i am sure legions of people will agree with me

They also gave that Erotic hentai Game Called Dead or alive beach extreme or whatever a 9/10 .. what a joke!

[Closing]

The only recent IGN review I disagreed with was the one for GTA4, and not because of graphics, but every other score they gave it. Most cases I agree, sometimes I partially agree, and very rarely I disagree. I'd say thats a pretty solid record imo.

[joydestroy]

yeah man, i dunno about agreeing with IGN on their 4.5 for this game. i think that was way too low and i haven't even played Haze yet. FR would not release something that is well deserving of a 4.5, seriously. i can see it scoring a 6.5-7, but a 4.5!?!?

[Presentist]

God Hand was generic crap. Compare it to greats like DMC4 or Ninja Gaiden and you'd agree.

If you don't, you have pretty bad taste man, no offense.

[THC CELL]

maybe there just happy the ps3 has now got a good shooter
Haze is the best for ps3 only so far

i mean all the rest have been multi platform till now
Edit resistance ( under rated game ) i forgot yes one of the best shooters on ps3 i have played as well

[Lord_Ash]

I don't know, Resistance was a very solid (exclusive) shooter, I don't know if Haze can beat it, doubt it though.

[hanson520]

IT'S PRETTY GOOD GAME
BEST STORYLINE
BEST DTS 5.1 SOUND

EVERYBODY GET HAZE NOW...

[Closing]

Your reliability just went out the window.

[LenHart]

you cant say that. Guardian is more reliable than IGN

If Guardian has praised HAZE then definitely something is wrong with all the reviews

[WIIIS1]

Listen to the Nasim logic. And laugh.

[LenHart]

another fake account?

if i see u bsing anymore then i will post your 1P address here

[poopsack]

doesnt make sense that you put down down this game and every single positive comment about it when you cant even judge it for yourself. Have you even played the real thing? Why do you insist on making the game look so bad? and why is 'the' gone from your name?!

[thekingofMA]

do you just accuse everyone of being the same person when they say anything bad about the ps3? (i find it extremely ironic for you to do so seeing as how you have an unprecedented number of separate accounts but i guess thats off topic)

nothing is wrong with the other reviews-the game sucks. and yes, i have played it, which i seriously doubt you have, even though you defend it as though it is your handicapped child.

and closing was talking about hanson520's credibility, not your precious guardian's-

oh, and @WIIIS1-i did laugh at his incredibly dumb logic...

btw nasim-do u think im poG too? haha

[LenHart]

Mart has the same meaning as KING

SUXBOT you cant even name your FAKE accounts properly --MATT LEYDONE at SUXBOXKINGS

Your writing style exact matches MART's .

There is only one person who talks like that at n4g--it is you MART aka MATT aka KING

atleast choose different sorts of names cuz even MART and KING have same meanings

you TARD you are using 3 accounts to bash me. I will post your IP address caught at PSLEGIOn

[Closing]

I have judged for myself I didn't like it long before the reviews, but I gave it a shot with the demo, and thought it was horrible. Then I even watched all the videos of the completed game, and nothing has changed. But worst of all is the Dialogue is still the same, which is enough to make me not like the game. Its fine for those who genuinely like the game, but "best story ever?" With the cliche story archetype, and cheesy dialogue that seems like quite a stretch of the imagination. I've said this game would be bad since day one, and got tons of disagrees, and guess what, It obviously didn't turn out quite so good, and people are still on my case. So I guess there's really nothing left for me to say on this matter that doesn't already speak for itself.

Now let me ask you a question, why exactly do you feel the need to stick up for this game in every post you make?

[poopsack]

WTF?

[Scerick]

I think not my friends...

What the hell are they smoking?

Resistance, COD4, UT3 are ALL better than Haze.

[aaquib]

My personal list for those are:

1. Call of Duty 4
2. Resistance
3. UT3

[Scerick]

My list was in no particular order.

If I were to order them it would mirror your list :).

[joydestroy]

no way, UT3 is better than resistance. have you tried any of the user mods? i freakin love UT3.

[Timesplitter14]

lol how much do you bet they'll put that quote at the back of the case?

[Fallen_Angel]

never heard of the site it probably some fanboy trying to do some serious damage control. every legit site as slammed the game so far and said ho god awfull it is. IGN not even the lowest score. Gamespy game it 2 out of 5 meaning a 4 out of 10 thats lower the IGN's 4.5 gamespot gave it a 6.0 guess next time they need to give gamespot a bigger check if they want a better score.

yes there are a number of better fps on the ps3. personally i think the darkness is the best fps I know most people wont agree but its still the one I like.

[Presentist]

Bubbles for truth!

COD4 beats Haze with the ugly stick.

[steck67]

So is it good or bad lol?

[INehalemEXI]

The demo showed me that it was an average shooter with poor artistic/graphic direction.

The environments where blah , character design's where blah though they did have good textures and a healthy poly count. I just thought the honeycomb suit was ridiculous personaly. The Helm/Hud was a nice touch though and the rebels look aight.

Honestly I would rent it and see. It might still hold some good gameplay. Not the best fps on ps3 though IMO just something with a twist that could be a fun co op/mp experience.

Its not UT3 and its not Cod4 , its not as bad as Turok. Its SP is probably better then UT3's and its MP is different from both of those games so it may be entertaining if you are bored with those games I guess.

[WIIIS1]

If Haze is the best FPS, that means Resistance was...?

[juuken]

...Best...what?

Um...k. o-o

[Whoooop]

.

[donator]

I was going to buy the game when it comes out in local stores despite the bad reviews, but this just makes me even more excited to get it.

Someone disagrees that I am more excited to get it because of the review? Someone knows me better than I do?

[bootsielon]

Resistance is awesome, darkness is ok, jericho is so-so, haze might be down there with jericho.

Edit:

Alright then, so what the hell is the fuzz? I will hear your advice and rent it.

[sonarus]

I doubt it. Just play it first. From the little i have played of haze, even with the A.I. issues, its not going to be as bad as jericho

No No NO. I'm not saying you should rent it. Do with it as you wish. But if you have been really looking forward to this game and you played the demo and you can live with the graphics then by all means give it a shot. The only problem i had with the demo was the A.I. but from what i hear if you play on hard it fixes that.

My point is its not as bad as Jericho and even though IGN gave it a 4.5, that score was probably too emotional. It was a game with potential but it disappointed. At the end of the day, it is still better than a bunch of games out there with better scores

[QQcrybaby]

lol?

[Jack Bauer]

ummm is it me or is that "review" only a paragraph long? and from some place i never heard of...

those rethinking should rethink the rethink...

[OSIRUSSS]

I'm sorry but Warhawk is the best shooter on the PS3. Haze is no Warhawk.

[Jack Bauer]

warhawk is not a FPS....definetly the best shooter, heck, game on the PS3

[CumQuats]

.

[s8anicslayer]

i'm playing haze right now and to be honest any site that rated this game below a 7/10 i will seriously doubt their credibility from hence forward, the graphics are great the story is not astounding as well as the voice acting but gameplay wise it is pretty solid! i love first person shooters and ive played games that have scored higher and played them and haze is no doubt better then most! dont't trust the reviews play it for yourself trust me i've been gaming for at least 20 years and wouldn't steer you wrong. i don't get paid to review games...

[will11]

Have you seen metacritic, the highest score is 7/10... so are you calling them stupid or what?

link>>> http://www.metacritic.com/g...

[clintos59]

A real gamer would not go by reviews of game sites. U wanna know why? Because u are the one that has the best judgement of a game. I mean u will never no or the game is good or bad unless u try it out for yourself. Heck thers been low reviews of some titles that I ended up buying and enjoyed them. For example, Crackdown, Heavenly Sword, Assasins Creed, and believe it or not even Lair. Even with all the bad reviews for these games, I have all these games and I can easilly tell u that they are games that are very good games. Yes some of them had flaws but every damn game has flaws, its just if your a nit picking type gamer, u will be missing out on alot of great games being passed under the radar because u spend too much time listening to reviews from other people who might not even enjoy that genre of games. The best choice to find a great game is always your choice, which is why I respect the nintendo community, because they are gamers that will buy a game, despite how crappy the ratings are. Does this mean they like crappy games? No its just that they go with what they think will be fun and they just buy it. Stupid reviews like IGN's to alot of people who go on game sites daily if this game was a big game alot of people were waiting on, most likely those reviews will kill it for u.
I just say go with what u think, maybe even rent the game and try it out for yourself, thats what im going to do. Most likely ill buy it though, I was kind of impressed at the multiplayer map where there was a team deathmatch going on but there was this huge vehicle that was big like a Navy Ship with building on it where while u were playing team death match the vehicle was moving so u can see the houses and trees and stuff on that huge vehicle while it was moving while u were playing team death match, that was kind of awesome. Anyways im going to try this game out tonight. :)

[joydestroy]

Crackdown was the sh!t!!!
if they make a second one it's going to be wayyy better. things they could improve on would be to make it have a longer and better story and add more weapons. i'm actually hoping they're going to announce a Crackdown 2 but probably not :/

[HelloBabe69]

I agree I loved Crackdown.

[Demifiend]

The amount of idiocy coming from PS3 owners is just mind-blowing.

Poor souls, you guys must be tired of gettind punched in the face with every game release in your beloved console.

[Xheratuul]

and then you my poor friend will die on MGS4's release

[juuken]

And you're not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

[Swiftfox]

If you are going to condemn a game, then condemn the game after you play the full version. A 2 minute long demonstration is only good to make a first impression and can hardly enlighten you to what a game offers.

Once you play the full game, then yeah sure hate it to your hearts content. At least it will be your own opinion rather than someone elses.

[Scerick]

The only problem is I'm short $64.07 after I decide to condemn the game.

[JoelR]

or 4-5$ if you rent it... skip coffee for a day

hmm:
Bloomblox 3/5, http://www.guardian.co.uk/t...

Iron Man 3/5,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/t...

World Ends with you 4/5
http://www.guardian.co.uk/t...

so it ranks better then Bloomblox and equal with "world ends with you"...

[Timesplitter14]

I think this is a PS3 hate article, people. A disguised way to say PS3 games don't get better than the biggest disappointment of the year.

[Clinton514]

Seems exaggerated.

Just like most of the hate reviews.

I don't think people want to accept that the game is average, which isn't a terrible thing.

[Don]

This game is just bad, plain and simple. Don't try to find something good about Haze because it doesn't have it!

[callahan09]

I, for one, enjoyed the demo, and I'm not a graphics whore. I watched a video review and the graphics weren't very good, but they hardly rendered it unplayable, either. Still looks decent enough. The story is interesting to me, and I don't understand why so many reviews cite the story, saying "it's awful" or whatever. I like the ideas it brings up, based upon summaries I've read and interviews with the writer, etc. I think a lot of the reviews are being overly harsh for some reason, and quite frankly they haven't done anything to deter me from wanting to play the full game.

[OOG]

Im personally not sure what everyone is confused about.....the only sites I have seen that have a given it a half decent score have been small sites....which nobody really pays attention to....but this site seems to try n post everything n anything from any site......

but it will all come down to personal judgement.....but as we can see the bigger review companies are not really fans of the game at all......

[cmrbe]

Jeepers. Seeing some of you hang on people's opinion of games is just staggering.None of us have any idea what these reviewers like in games or weather they see things the way any of us see things. Buy what you feel like buying. Use the reviews as pointers but don't let them decide for you. Don't buy into hype or bad reviews about game that you are interested in. Trust your own instincts and live with the decision you make.

[n00bPwner]

lol, that's DEFINITELY not saying much.

[JoelR]

if it is right then hope you love UT3 when it hits the xbox.
I tend to think that they over topped themselves with that statement because it is a fair 1st person shooter - not great but fair

1st person shooters R:FOM, UT3 are better Ao2, Blacksite, Turok are worse so it depends on what you compare against.

best shooter bar none on any platform is Warhawk

[n00bPwner]

lol, no.

And I already have UT3 on PC. It's crap. I only use it for the UE3 editor for my game dev portfolio. Gears destroys UT3 in every way possible.

[JoelR]

What the hell are you smoking???? This isn't about Gears vs UT3 at all... The article is about HAZE.

The only thing I can think of is that you somehow confused UT3 with Warhawk when I said Warhawk is best shooter bar now... and yes it kills Gears

[aaron5829]

Anyway, i only trust real gamer reviews.. so, any of you bought and played Haze ??

[DJ]

WTF?

I'm gonna pick this up at blockbuster and just give it a shot.

[PoSTedUP]

well i got it and they are right
i suggest you buy it and see for your self, i gaurentee you will laugh at all these reviews after seeing what it is really about. its soo intence, the gunfights the story the graphics- all fantastic, please stop being a review robot, understand that microsofts getting desperate and its likely of them to do somthing like this...they have the money to do so....they just dont understand that Fing with a couplpe of reviews isnt going to stop sony from being the best. they always were and always will be......well,i gotta go play some haze on line, o yea the online is really good too, honestly, if you dont want to take my word on it thats fine.......well, off i go, peace haters.....(thank you for being honest, Guardaingames)

[PoSTedUP]

turok is the sh*t, and so is HAZE. peace

[Xbox is the BEST]

game sucks. So much for Haze being the Killer game XD

[Bellic Jr]

They said HAZE is the best FPS on PS3???? How in the Hell is HAZE better than Resistance? ITS NOT!

[Mr Marbles]

is clearly a turd, too manyu reviewers have rated it poorly. It is crap seriously, the PS3 continues to hype us up then deliver only crap. Time to stop giving sony chances you fail phony, the gigs up; No one is falling for your sh*t any more.

[Bladestar]

"'Haze is undoubtedly the best full-blown FPS for PS3 so far'" well.. agree with that... but the game still sucks...

Hey... they said it.. not me... do you Sony fans agree that this game is better than Resistance, COD4, Unreal Tournament? lol...

[paul_war]

It might be, I havent played it yet so I don't know...

[PSWe60]

NO no no no, Resistance is much more interesting that HAZE.

[felidae]

rent it!

[achira]

ppl should play the game istead calling it crap, only because ign game it a 4. the game is really good! comes from a gamer. ign did a bs job. and the most sites did follow them.

[wow4u]

No. Not "ign gave it a 4"

It has a 5.8 / 10 AVERAGE based on 18 reviews @ METACRITIC.

Haze == total failure.

[SL1M DADDY]

I still put them in the same boat as the bad ones. They are only opinions. I have rented games that recieved great reviews only to hate them and have bought games that were rated poorly and loved them. I have a feeling this will be another Lair. I saw Lair getting such poor reviews and yet bought the game and hav eplayed it through twice now. I will be renting this one and if it is a good romp with buddies, I see no reason why not to buy it.

[UziSuicide]

I think this is one of those over hyped games that naturally set itself up for failure, I don't think there was/is a shortage of people who had already made their minds up prior.

Half the review comments are fairly universal re FPS games, not sure why Haze is wearing the full brunt of it but seems to be the door in for disgruntled reviewers. I played the demo and enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to, graphically even though some objects are a bit rude are a damn site better than what I've played of Halo 3 and I didn't hear anyone complain there. Looking at BF:BC, CoD4 and I'm wondering what peoples problems are visually with Haze, it's bewildering.

Game mechanics were nice, gameplay was fast, dialogue did make me cringe but the overall them I quite like.

I think Haze is a good game but being crucified because it isn't the second coming. I'll soon see for sure but it's a bit like all the 100's for GTA, sure it's good but scores seem to be driven more by popular belief than the actual game itself. Before the internet game reviews used to be a lot more individual, these days they seem to be heavily influenced by what the majority is thinking/posting prior to releases.

[prunchess]

Plenty of sheep out there and vested interests. I'm buying this tomorrow based on Free Radicals reputation alone.

[poopface1]

he must mean console exclusive cause theres cod4 obviously.... what about resistance. I dont have a ps3 but even Im sure resisance is better than haze.

If this is the best fps on ps3 it wont last long cause bioshock and res2 are coming soon.

[DFresh]

I don't consider this the best game so far.
Haze is in it's own category but COD4 to me seems a lot better than this game.
Don't get me wrong as a Sony fan it's nice to have some newer style games but they shouldn't call this the best.

[wow4u]

After 18 reviews Haze has a Metacritic score of 5.8 / 10.

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

HAZE == TOTAL FAILURE.

71 PSM3 Magazine UK
70 GamePro
70 GameDaily
65 IGN UK
65 Gamer's Hell
63 Game Informer
62 IGN AU
62 Cheat Code Central
60 VideoGamer
60 GameTap
60 GameSpot
58 The Onion (A.V. Club)
55 GameZone
45 IGN
40 Giant Bomb
40 G4 TV
40 GameSpy
40 EuroGamer

[LFC1EE]

And that's resistance and to be really honest the SP is rubbish, but the multiplayer is excelent, tell me what?.............what good sony exclusives are there out there, i mean like gow or halo or mass effect i could go on, because the ps3 is a good console but very bad sony exclusives.

A couple of months ago you were all going on about haze and kz2 and lbp, but i suppose it's one down three to go, i forgot mgs, a marmite game love it or hate it.