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After twenty-six years of development, Haze is finally close to release. To celebrate the title’s silver anniversary a demo was put on the PSN that can be played both cooperatively over the PlayStation Network or single player. I’ve been fairly excited for this one, and I’ve been able to log a few plays-through on this PS3-exclusive that keeps seeing its shadow. Did the delays pay off?

Meh.

It’s strange, because the demo isn’t bad. Haze has been one of those games I have watched with a hopeful eye, praying that the developer, Free Radical, hadn’t completely lost its mind. It appears it has. Time Splitters 2 and 3 (their last two games) were both great titles that felt reminiscent of Goldeneye, and put forward new and innovative FPS ideas, while managing to keep the single player plot fun and quirky. Haze gets away from that sense of fun, substituting a grave atmosphere, to a point where it is hard to take seriously.

The first-person-shooter engine the game runs on is good enough, and feels reminiscent, in a way, of the Timesplitters games of consoles past. The only problem I had in that aspect was that the controls really didn’t feel tight, and I wish the game was going to be in development for a little more so they could further refine the button configuration. While most of the information that you need is integrated into your HUD, much of it is unexplained. There are  times you are able to control the flow of nectar (ability enhancing drug) to your bloodstream, other times it seems like you aren’t allowed. After some testing I was able to figure it out, but to say it was unintuitive is to be kind.

Nectar also seems underpowered, with the only real benefit being that the enemies glow while you are drugged. Speed is increased and there are some other benefits, but for the most part there doesn’t seem to be any great incentive to juicing when the negatives can be high. If you take too much (of if someone shoots the bright, yellow circle on your back) the screen goes red and you lose control of your ability to discern friend from foe, and end up shooting wildly. If using nectar also gave some sort of auto-aiming upgrade or let you be more precise with your shots, I would think that the positives would balance out the negatives, but as of now it seems uneven.

Graphically the game has many of the problems delayed games often face. Graphics are inconsistent, with some character models looking awesome and others muddy and dull. This could be demo-syndrome, but I highly doubt it.

I still am going to pick the game up because I am a huge fan of the company’s previous work, but as of now I am not impressed. The cooperative play is good enough, but I can’t say I am overly confident in the title after the demo. The playable level seemed bland and uninspired, and the characters were all clichéd and didn’t seem like anything special. Maybe Haze will be one of those games that must be played all the way through in order to be appreciated.. Maybe Haze will be a disappointment. Who knows? All I know is that I left the demo less enthusiastic than I was going in – and that isn’t a good sign.

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