One unique weapon that the rebels possess to fight Mantel soldiers are Nectar grenades that can be made from fallen soldiers and then used to cause the enemy to overdose and attack one another. Now you would think that given the “edge” Mantel soldiers have because of Nectar they would make for some tough combatants, but Haze drops another ball by giving you incredibly stupid soldiers throughout the game that strafe right into your fire, have no idea what the word flank means, and are easy to overrun. When taking critical damage, the game allows you to press L2, the former Nectar button, to disguise yourself as a corpse that the drugged soldiers are programmed not to see, but honestly they seem blind at any point, and can be easily maneuvered around before provoking a reaction.

Haze attempts to break up the repetitive, devolving gameplay with some driving sections, but these are hardly a welcome change of pace. While on foot, controls are fairly serviceable by FPS standards, but the vehicles handle like the poorly rendered blob of polygons they appear to be, and feel like they have absolutely no grip onto the surface you’re traversing. Haze’s 6-7 hour campaign is rampant with boring monotony, especially after Nectar is thrown out the door, which is really the only thing the game had going for it. Things can be a bit more enjoyable when playing either two players in split screen co-op or four online, but just a slight amount of extra fun results from having another trigger around, and the only moments there are to do anything together is hop on a vehicle and enjoy making fun of that mess together.

The Mantel-versus-Promise Hand dichotomy carries over into multiplayer, with one team playing as the rebels and the other the stoner brigade. The dangers of a rebel casting a Nectar grenade can create some pretty hairy moments when you and other teammates all overdose and start roid-raging on each other, but despite this interesting dynamic, Haze’s multiplayer as a whole feels pretty slim. There are only six different maps, and three gameplay modes. The regular deathmatch types are present, along with Assault, which provides each team with story driven objectives that involve scenarios such as the rebels escorting a leader to a helicopter, and the Mantel solders attempting to prevent them. The action for the most part doesn’t feel quite frenetic thanks to sluggish player movements, and the lack of variety in maps and game types allow Haze’s multiplayer to only be entertaining until you reach a solid impression of it as this reviewer did.