I have played through this game now, and have to say it is a very strange experience, some parts look really quite good, while others look incredibly poor, and a couple of sections are simply unfinished, some parts I really liked playing through, while others were an absolute chore.
There are a couple of glimpses that this could have been a classic, the swamp level looks simply stunning, although it only lasts five minutes, if the whole game looked like this it would have made it easier to ignore some of the other huge faults.
Top of this list is the AI of your friends and foes, it is woeful, your friends constantly run into your line of fire, while your enemies will often just stand around not reacting to you or their surroundings, in the village section I watched as two mantel troopers walked casually straight past me, along an alleyway and into a wall, and attempted to keep walking, all in the middle of a fire fight!
Also the inane chatter, particularly from the rebels becomes extremely annoying, the same old lines delivered over and over and over again, I stopped reviving them in the end just to get some peace and quiet, it's not as if they are any use anyway, I have not tried the co-op as yet, it might make that better.
The level design and objectives leave alot to be desired too, like make your way to the top of the hotel and escape, killing troopers along the way, far too similar to making your way to the top of the land carrier later on, killing troopers along the way.
Now the unfinished levels are two of the vehicle based ones, particularly bad is making your way up to the observatory, after being killed, the game reloaded, but all the scenery, except the sky, and a few of the grass tufts had disappeared, driving forward caused instant death, the game reloaded again, I rammed an armoured car, and the road just vanished, and on another occasion, the console crashed and had to be hard reset, it is unacceptable that a game should be released in this state.
As has been mentioned before, although the graphics of the scenery and the characters are good, the rotten 2d trees and flickering textures, and horrendous pop up later in the game spoil any good effects that there are, we know that the ps3 can do better than this, and with games that do not require a huge install of 3.6 GB too.
Having said all that, I did find myself enjoying the game, the gunfights are tight and engaging, I must be one of the few that did not find the story that bad, it is badly acted though that much is true!
I really liked the beach and freighter section, the village fight is dark and moody, there are just a couple of levels like escorting the carrier over the bridge that are a pain.
The nectar element of the game is fun, especially lobbing a nectar grenade into a group of troopers and watching them freak out, and kill each other and then themselves, and using it yourself sends you on a frantic killing spree to keep the gauge high.
So, is Haze worth playing, in my opinion it is, but not at full price,the campaign is quite short and the multi player uninspired, but it has
enough good set pieces to keep you going til the end, some of which I would happily play again.
Some of the reviews on line are just ridiculous, despite it's faults, Haze plays way better than Blacksite, Timeshift or Turning point, it seems too many people were willing to trash it before they started playing it.