Today at eGames 07, we managed to sit down with Haze and spend some time with it. In a crowded Ubisoft booth surrounded by Assassin's Creed and Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, we got comfortable with the game and were quickly thrust into a forest-type environment, surrounded by debris from a plane crash. We were attacked from several directions by enemies shooting at us viciously, and the game instantly managed to draw us in.
In the jungle. Sort of. I think.
The environments look good, as do the overall graphics in the game. There are a few issues graphically, but nothing overly detrimental to the experience, keeping in mind we only played the preview code. They're nothing amazing, mind, but they certainly aren't terrible. Lots of trees and forest shrubbery look effective, and even though there is a set path that you should take, there were several different routes along that path to get to your eventual destination, which was nice to see, as it gives you some options in terms of how you are going to combat your enemies.
One thing that we noticed is that the enemies appeared to be very difficult to see a lot of the time. This is either a positive or a negative thing depending on your perspective. This is presumably to encourage gamers to user nectar though. Sometimes we were getting shot at from what seemed like nowhere, only to realise where the shots were coming from after exploring. Damage is also done quickly to your character, which while realistic, made the difficulty level a little tough to deal with at first. Enemies were plentiful, and because of the gun pulling upwards as you shoot, they weren't always easy to take down. Again, this is either a positive to the games realism, or a negative to it's difficulty and inaccuracy of your shooting.
The sound in the game seemed to be very effective. Of course it's busy here at the expo, so it's not exactly easy to listen carefully, but the shouts from the enemy and your squad along with the bulletfire and music seemed to work well. Grenades in the game also make a great impact, causing lots of damage and flashing a massive explosion which literally knocks you backwards in the aftershock. The AI also seemed good, with enemies being extremely effective at diving out of the way of your bullets, and your squad are helpful when they need to be, keeping out of your way and letting you lead them from area to area.
Just friggin' die already!!
The main issue we had with Haze is that your character seems to move incredibly slow. Maybe not so for those that aren't overly familiar with the FPS genre, but after games like Call of Duty 4 and Resistance which have you sprinting around like a nutter, the slow character chugging along and taking his time to turn around (when you really want to just spin and shoot whatever the hell is behind you). It may not sound like a big deal, but it makes escape in those harder segments just a little bit harder.
After spending some time with the game, we do think that Haze definitely has some potential. The graphics seem to be solid once the glitches are ironed out and the gameplay is entertaining, albeit a little bit obvious in its execution. We look forward to seeing how it pans out when it's released in the near future, but we're still up in the air as to whether it will be a hit or a miss.
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