Haze Review - The Halo Killer 

It's gonna be a fun day!

More people use the character in the thumbnail as a psn profile picture than the actual amount of people who've bought the game

Any fps that came out after Halo was called a “Halo killer” by magazines and critics. Shit was annoying

"What's the color scheme of our new shooter?" "Piss." "Jerry..." *"...ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A RAISE? CAUSE THAT'S HOW YOU GET A RAISE!"*

Honestly the consept behind Haze is really cool. Playing as a grunt as part of a megacorp's private army being constantly doped to the gills with a drug that make you think your the heroes in your own war movie only for the vail to slowly be lifted as your supply is cut off and the drug begins to work its way of if your system. Its a neat idea that deserved better.

This looks like a fake video game you’d see a character in a movie playing or something.

"Gaming for me is a religion and Haze is the shit." - Jonathan Davis, frontman of Korn (No, seriously)

"The only thing that killed Halo, was Halo" The truth of this burns in my soul with agony.

Conceptually it reminds of a Black Mirror episode where the soldiers are convinced they're fighting hyper zombies but once the veil is lifted they've just been killing civilians all this time

Can we just have a moment of appreciation for the thumbnail? The Brendan Fraser eye is gold.

That yellow camouflage must be helpful if you’re trying to hide in bananas.

The twist that Mantle just shoves corpses of their ODed soldiers into the metal cargos actually fucking slayed me

I had this game growing up, and I think the differences in the factions played more of a role in the multiplayer than the campaign. Like the Mantel soldiers having just the hud to give them a 100% clear readout on their health situation vs the typical "uh oh, your screen is red now" that the rebels are stuck with, the soldiers get a scope with any weapon where the rebels are stuck with iron sights unless its a sniper, and soldiers have the whole nectar thing to temporarily gain an edge in combat, although at the same time the rebels can sometimes send them into an overdose to render the benefits null and void, and create a chance for a team kill situation because it makes them autofire at any silhouette they see. Playing dead is a classic "probably not going to work but once" move, and there is a way to get up a lot faster than he talked about. Still not a very good game, just throwing this out into the void there.

Ah yes, the PSN icon everyone used back in the day

Remember your promise to merino

Free Radical Design: "What art-direction, story and gameplay-loop you want?" Haze: "Just fuck my shit up."

"You look so good I wish I was you" If I hear this irl at least once, I'll die a happy man Those first 4 seconds motivate me to get out of bed I come to this video from time to time to get some motivation

“Finishing haze is like shitting your pants and telling people about it.” I finished haze.

Shame Free Radical went out like this. A pretty miserable game, but it did deliver some hilarious final words from a dying character; "do you know what I used to do before I joined up? I was a boxer... semi pro..." *DIES*

The profile picture of many PSN accounts that have gone dormant.

"Haze is one of the most disappointing things ever made by another human being" Not according to my parents.

I feel like this game was supposed to be bigger but then they just rushed it.

This game was so stupid, but it had a dumb charm to it. I remember playing it to completion with my friends and laughing at it the whole way through. Good times.

"The only thing that killed Halo is Halo itself." is one of the most frighteningly true quotes I have ever heard. Hell, you can pretty much apply that to any long-lasting game series, TV show, etc.

I remember seeing that cracked helmet cover for this game everywhere. It looked so cool and made you think it was the next big shooter.

The 2000's when any game with a gun was dubbed a Halo killer.

Forgot the this is an actual game now and then. Since the cover of the games Mantel Trooper is usually used for PlayStation Avatars now.

The freaking Brendan Fraser face in the thumbnail got me in stitches

"You looked psyched, hell, you look so good I wish I was you!" Sonichu level writing

Man, I remember as a kid being cringe-obsessed with this game, fanboying over all the trailers and developer diaries. Ah the good old days. Shame about Free Radical going bust though...

For a while "Halo Killer" was its own sub genre.

1:27 The "East" on the compass looks like Patrick

This strikes me as a classic example of a game's development being pulled in too many directions. It's clear Free Radical wanted to do their own thing and had good ideas, but presumably changing requirements meant they couldn't patch together a coherent project. Developers really should be in control, since no one knows better than them what the best game they can make is.

Black Mirror had an episode where the plot was very similar to Haze and it was actually pretty good. Haze however...

I'll never not laugh when I see a Brendan Fraiser's crying eyes photoshopped on random stuff

Your reviews are honestly fantastic. The detail and delivery is top shelve. You’ve made them very entertaining, even for games I’ve never heard of before.

"Halo killer" Gives the game a color scheme of yellow and gray.

KillZone was supposed to be the Halo Killer.

"Gaming for me is a religion, and Haze is the shit! I had to come up with a track that can hit up that kind of rush I get from the game and I think we really rocked it!!" -Jonathan Davis (Korn), 2008

I liked Haze. I love the ending where the rebel leader is exposed as being just as evil as the corporation he was fighting against.

I remember multiplayer had a pretty cool Prison breakout mode, where the Mantel troops had to guard half the rebels who were prisoners from breaking out and getting to helicopters to escape, while another half of the rebels would start free in the woods and be armed, and if a rebel got downed and captured, they would respawn as a prisoner. Free Radical were always good at making their multiplayer feel unique.

“It’s funny that the only Halo killer was Halo itself” -Some 4 random calling themselves “decent friends”

"The only thing that killed Halo is Halo" Why must you hurt me in this method?

It's like that Black Mirror episode. Huh, whatiya know.

When you switch sides instead of removing nectar it would've been cool if you could farm it from corpses so you can roleplay as a junkie, maybe add a system where depending on where you shoot enemies you can harvest them or not. Maybe add a double ending depending on whether you're an adict or not.

"... Turrets that are smarter and harder to kill than the trained soldiers" *REJECT THE FRAGILITY OF FLESH*

I only recognize this game through the profile picture on Playstation. I always thought that it was an alternate Deathstroke costume profile picture.

"They gave you a drug called The Ladder"

This game used to be stupidly hilarious to me in the multiplayer. My friend would come to my house and play splitscreen and we would laugh for hours, good times.

The whole "Nectar changing your perception of reality" thing reminds me specifically of Spec Ops: The Line for some reason.

"Gaming for me is a religion and Haze is the shit!" says Korn's lead singer Jonathan Davis. "I had to come up with a track that can hit up that kind of rush I get from the game, and I think we really rocked it!!"

Producer: "So what should we call this game to make it compete with Halo?" Marketing Intern: "Wut about... HAAAAZE-LO?"

“That doesn’t make any sense, THAT DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE”

Hi Gman! Back in the day I used to be a very young features writer at EGM (Electronic Gaming Magazine) between 2004 - late 2007. The Term "Halo Killer" was made several different times by us in Preview write ups - something we very much regretted later. Before I was there, we had also said something similar about the first Killzone. I am not certain, but the term most likely originated from Sony when pitching it to press. They certainly where not the only ones - even within Microsoft itself, Perfect Dark Zero was touted in house as Rares Halo. I think the term was thrown around anytime a new franchise came along to take on Halos massive popularity at the time: in the case of HAZE though, it somehow made it to the marketing!

You're basically setting up your game for disappointment when people claim a game is a "Halo killer"

The idea of soldiers being fed an alternate reality so it make it easier for them to identify the enemy was explored in the episode of Black Mirror called "Men Against Fire". In that episode soldiers are given a neural implant that makes them think they're killing "roaches" (mutant humans) but when it malfunctions they realize they're just killing innocent unarmed civilians. The implant basically allows the soldiers the perform ethnic cleansing without even realizing it. It's pretty fucked up and this game's story definitely reminded me of it with the whole nectar thing.

I think you may be becoming one of my favourite youtubers, my guy. Just love the overall goofy vibe you have on top of being serious about the game.

That playing dead mechanic was really only useful in multiplayer, I remember feeling very satisfied to play dead and then sneak up on the player who tried to kill me

I thought this was great in my childhood and it hurt a little for you to point out its flaws, however there were some so thanks for checking out out and making a video on it, been a while and I will say that there were definitely some nice unique elements explored so credit where its due

when npcs are on their knees waiting for you they are praying that they were halo or a better game

I remember being so hyped for this game in 2007 when it was supposed to be released. It then got delayed till 2008 and I thought that it could give them more time on making the game perfect. Boy how wrong I was.

This game made me remember my promise to Merino.

0:40 When she left you on double blue check but the Taliban ain't gonna kill themselves.

The magazine you're looking for was GameInformer. It was my first magazine, got it from GameCrazy. I can't remember if it was a complimentary issue or a regular issue. It explored Haze in depth. I was excited for it. I remember "Halo-Killer" being spun and promised. Shit died with a whimper, like vaporware.

that jumpscare was absolutely terrifying when i played the game first time

It’s a shame we got this instead of Star Wars battlefront 3...

The most impressive thing about Haze for me was it let you see you friends list in-game before the PS3 would let you access it.

I worked on this game, good times, there was alot of pressure from the publishers to get the game out and it just was not ready, there was a time where we were kind of forced to implement 6 axis controls and as a result made a crappy 3D Tetris game, not sure if that was in the full release. Anyway the story was good just executed poorly.

It's hard to believe that Free Radical made this, and it's sad they finished with this game.

We missed out on more timesplitters... for this. Scandalous.

The most this game was known for was the PlayStation avatar, and even then, most people thought it was Deathstroke.

I remember when this game was coming out, and I remember it being called a Halo killer. Luckily, I was old enough to know any time a game is called a Halo killer, you were in for a bad time. It also didn't help that this came out about right after Halo 3 and Cod4 came out which everyone was still jacked up on. No FPS game near that time could compete at all.

I find the dialogue in this game quite amusing, like, almost Rogue Warrior-levels of hilarious.

*"Just remember your promise to Marino!"* was the only thing i could remember from this video

The only thing I remember about this game is headshotting with a throwing knife so it'd turn yellow

I was a hardcore PC gamer for years and when I finally decided to get a console in 2008, it was the PS3 and I got a pretty good deal on a bundle with Haze. So, this game was my first impression of how first person shooters on a console look and play. Took me 45 minutes to realize that I don't really like it and put me off FPS games on console for YEARS! Thank you for this video, as I would probably never have neither the patience nor the stomach to get through it myself. It does look like something that had a lot of potential, but got many things very wrong somewhere down the line. Great as always, stay safe! :)

It's a shame, I feel like there's a lot of potential here, I could imagine a company buying the rights to this and coming out with an amazing sequel.

Random request but I'd love to see you review Binary Domain.

When the ps3 was coming out and HAZE was being hyped i remember people at my school saying it was a halo killer

Uploaded a day ago and already at nearly 140,000 views. Your subscriber game is strong, Gman!

"The only thing that killed halo was halo " That shit hurts

Honestly, I would love for the concept behind Haze to be put in a more Spec Ops: The Line-like situation. Instead of switching sides half-way through, have the effects of the drug start to wear off as your actions become more and more dubious. Turn the game into a psychological horror by the end where you're the only one left, and you're as weak as a tree branch.

In a weird way I almost respect Haze for how almost every aspect of it was just about 75% of the way towards being something good. The costume designs which would have looked cool had the game been capable of rendering their material correctly. The game play mechanics are actually pretty unique, with the "withdrawal" visions being an effective storytelling technique which fits into some cool setpieces, and the rebel mechanics like playing dead and damaging enemy nectar supplies to pit them against each other is a really clever way to change the core gameplay of the campaign while still playing off of what the player saw while working for Mantel. Plus the way the Mantel troopers act like coked up teenagers instead of soldiers could lead to some really interesting dynamics if done right. There are a lot of really good ideas in this game which the devs just weren't able to do justice.

Oh man, Haze? that brings back so many memories. I remember my mom getting me the game because I liked the PSN profile picture of the soldier. I don't remember anything about the game except that at some point you drive a car and have to destroy some small bases or something, and I don't think I even finished the game, but I know I liked it. Honestly from your video, the game doesn't seem bad at all, I will definitely replay this at some point just like I did with Resistance 1

That was, without a doubt, the most brilliantly placed SCHWACKED you've ever done. I'm not kidding that had me laughing out loud for a good few minutes.

It had potential. This idea of substance-injecting soldiers to have them perform better, and surpress the horrors of war and combat is pretty damn interesting. Just sucks major balls that this, this concept was wasted for something that could've actually be amazing.

“Haze is one of the most disappointing things ever made by another human being” Only ranks slightly above me.

4:24 to 4:27 my heart almost fell with that scream 😂

Aimed at halo. Missed and hit timesplitters

I'll be honest; the last words: "don't tell mom" make sens considering he's a war criminal, sure it's not welm delivered but yeah

Mister GMan, that thumbnail is one of your finest works

I love the "script seems like it's written in crayon by a kid", such a lively image, just a kid sitting in a conference room giving orders to staff and management, LOL.

"The HALO Killer" In a very alternate universe.

not often do I actually laugh from seeing a title and thumbnail combination god tier

Also that jump scare hit me so hard as a kid i stopped playing at that point and it took a lot of courage and closing my eyes when it was coming to get through it LOL

I still own a PS3 and never even knew this game existed I had an image of this game as profile picture for my PSN account because I thought it looked sick The whole nectar concept and mechanics sound really good on paper but sadly the execution is this thing what a shame

4:36 I didn't know Dana White was working part-time as a soldier in a PMC

Halo didn’t die it’s just missing in action

The game cover artwork is such a memorable one, i had always seen it but i never thought of it

The off-nectar mode is interesting. Reminds me of that black mirror episode where I think soldiers had built in augmented reality tweaking what they say and manipulating them into doing things as a result