Haze Preview

The eGames Games Expo opened yesterday and there was quite a lot to cover. While many of the games were titles that have already been released, be it in the last couple of days or the last few weeks, there were the few titles, like Super Mario Galaxy, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction and Crysis that are yet to see the light of day in Australia.

Another one of those soon-to-be-released titles is Haze, a FPS shooter that, after many rumors that it was headed to the PC and XBOX 360, is a PS3 exclusive and one that looks set to challenge Bungie's Halo 3.

While we didn't get a lot of time to sit down (or stand up) and play Haze at the expo, we did get enough game time in to give small impressions on a few things that matter in the long run; graphics, gameplay and enemy AI. It has to be noted that the preview we played was a preview code so any problems we encountered we expect (and hope) won't be in the final retail version of the title.

The graphics in this code look good but don't really stand out as anything exceptional. Granted it is a preview code, however for a title that has so much promise and has the FPS-genre (beyond the Halo franchise) on its shoulders, it doesn't seem to deliver as much as it could. I guess we were just expecting to be blown away after the emotional and amazing cut-scenes being shown on the big screen during the media brief.

That's not to say that the game looks bad, because it doesn't. The environment is extremely picturesque and the surrounding trees and shrubs all have great detail. In short, Haze isn't a mind-blowing graphical masterpiece. Instead, it's a title that gets the job done on the presentation front.

A problem that can very easily hamper the gameplay of a FPS and one that effected Clive Barker's Jericho quite a lot is the set path the player must take to achieve or reach an objective. While in the code there was a goal you were striving to reach, you have a few different routes you can take to get there. You won't get lost as you're moving forward the entire time, but be given the option to explore different pathways is encouraging and something that needs to be experimented with more in the genre. It distances the game from a linear-feel and gives the gamer more decision making power which ultimately adds to the challenge of a title.

While realism is something that games strive for in this day and age, developers have to somewhat be careful not too be overly realistic and risk not executing the gameplay in the best possible fashion. Anyone who wants to play a realistic, solid, tactical and tough FPS could play Rainbow Six: Vegas and actually feel as though they are working for a government anti-terroism unit. What was so perfect about that title was that you needed to mix in logical and smart tactical direction with aggressive attacks to progress instead of pushing forward and shooting enemies easily and at will (ala. the COD series). Not only that, but get shot two or three times and you're dead.

Haze has used a similar technique, using a realistic damage system on your character. This preview code had us dying after the first swarm of enemies, probably because we sucked. Either way, this realistic feel doesn't seem to fit in with the feel of the title. That's not too say it's a total negetive, but it probably isn't executed as well as it could be. Furthermore, the last thing anyone wants to do when playing a limited and short preview code is play the same stage over and over again because of quick damage to your character.

Difficulty in games is great, but the realistic strategy used for Haze doesn't seem to do the game much justice in the gameplay department. Whether or not the difficulty will be brought down in the retail version is unknown.

The enemy AI was tough and smart and used their own tactical approach to combat your attack which looked great. Enemies dodge your gun fire and run out of the way of a thrown grenade (which cause an amazing amount of damage) and your own team mates worked well with you and didn't stream ahead, letting you lead like the leader you're supposed to be. They had a strong influence in confrontations and were quite effective throughout.

Overall, Haze looks set to be a good FPS. If the graphics can be improved slightly and the difficulty is panned out to fit in more with the rest of the title then this may be the FPS shooter to own on the PS3.

Tags: 3 first-person FPS Haze playstation Playstation3 ps PS2 shooter

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MrPS3 17/11/2007

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