I commend Free Radical with their controller decisions. They’ve listened to gamers and have implemented the most basic function of all: customizable controls. Every button and function could be remapped! It’s sad to see that such a function is not available for all games. I remapped my buttons to mimic COD4’s control scheme and it works just fine. Overall, I would have to say Haze’s controls are excellent.
I don’t want to get into the Nectar gameplay details too much since it’s been talked about to death. It works, it’s addictive and it makes feel like “a million dollars”. It also makes playing as Mantel incredibly easy. The Nectar side effects suck, but it hasn’t resulted in death yet. Maybe it’ll become more problematic in closed quarters.
The co-op mechanic is reminiscent of Gears of War where downed players are magically revived with a friend’s comforting pat. It’s a good trait to snatch. A not-so-good trait to snatch was the warping. I’m not a fan of the warping. I wanted to pick off some rebels from the distance, but as soon as my brother wandered into the fray I was warped in along with him. I don’t see why this function needs to be in here. It’s not like Halo 3 where maps are ridiculous in size. The rest of the game holds up well enough. Guns feel rather meaty, but the enemies could have used a few injections of intelligence. For guys who have guns, they sure like to move in close.
‘Generic’ and ‘Meh’. Two words I’ve seen associated with Haze which I cannot completely disagree with. Haze is nothing special, but it’s not terrible either. Every piece of its foundation is sturdy, but what sits on top of it isn’t something you’ll miss if you pass on it. It looks like it’ll serve as a solid rental for those long weekends with nothing to do, but other than that: save your money. You can do better.
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