Gaming for me is a religion and Haze is the shit!

I had to come up with a Let's Play that can hit up that kind of rush I get from the game and I think we really rocked it!!


Haze is a 2008 first-person shooter for the Playstation 3 developed by Free Radical Design (founded by Team Goldeneye 007 and best known for the TimeSplitters games and Haze) and published by UbiSoft (best known for the Just Dance games and Red Steel 2). In it, you play Shane Carpenter, a Sergeant working for Mantel Corporation, liberating the South American jungle from a rebel group called the Promise Hand, led by "Skin Coat" Merino. Mantel soldiers' natural fighting prowess is enhanced through the use of a drug called Nectar that gets pumped in through their suits, allowing them to move faster, see farther and shoot better. The game also features a hearty multiplayer mode, including four-player drop-in co-op through the entire campaign.

Basically, this is the PS3's Halo killer, and I'm sure IGN would've written in their review that it "will blow you away" had they ever written one.

I'm Phenwah, and we've got a lot of hearts and minds to free. Welcome to Haze!

We're playing this one fast-and-loose; after the slog that's been my Peace Walker Let's Play, I needed a game with subtitled cutscenes and throwaway dialogue that I wouldn't have to worry about our commentary interrupting. For anyone actually looking for a solemn and tasteful look at the game, I'll probably upload a commentary-free "all cutscenes" video at the end of this wild rollercoaster ride.

Also, this was originally meant to be a co-op playthrough, and should the Demonware servers ever come back online during the course of this Let's Play, we do intend to showcase that feature, somehow.

Today's video takes us to the Selva region of the South American jungle and introduces core game mechanics and key players.

Man, I can see the fragments of a bold story here, that keeps sabotaging itself by thinking that it's not allowed to be that bold back when it was made.

So where's the mod that turns the suits green and replaces Nectar with Mtn Dew?

The hunt for "Skin Coat" Merino is on! We spend the majority of today's video on-wheels in a high-speed pursuit, through some sort of mine-filled quarry. Today's color forecast calls for tan, with a touch of grey. Boosh!


I don't want to set a precedent for any sort of update schedule; I'll be posting these videos as they're ready to be posted.

This game goes in a direction, for better or worse!

Man, that's some quality voice actin'

This also goes in a direction, for better or worse!

In today's video, Shane Carpenter catches up with the elusive "Skin Coat," Lobst's administrator is disrupted and Taxus experiences a Nectar overdose. To hearts and brains!


Now that we've captured that skin-wearing son of a gun, Mantel should see a big boost in morale -- and profit margins. There's never been a better time to invest! [http://www.mantelglobalindustries.com/]

In today's video, everything goes sideways and now we're not even sure who the real bad guy is! (it's Duvall)


I'm not sure why the date and time are "unknown;" one would assume it's still 18 June 2048, shortly after the events of the previous mission. Oh well!

Finally. I can't believe it took so long for everything to resolve, especially considering Haze's twist is transparent enough that you see it coming from fifteen minutes in.

Regardless, top notch work as always.

The three-way-simultaneous "Mountain Dew Haze!" at the end was hilarious.

Game designers, take note! When you want to ramp up toward a climactic showdown, make sure your bosses and minibosses take as many bullets to kill as any common foe.


Also this video's like 80% cutscene, and it's pretty much cemented my decision to make a "Theater Mode" video at the end of this rollercoaster.

The line was actually "Mountain Dew: Code Haze!" The line was actually Taxus and I talking over Lobst saying "Baja Blast."

In today's update, Shane Carpenter leads the Promise Hand in an assault on an island that contains the map room for the Halo Installation, in order to locate the Control Room. (thanks, wikipedia)

Today's video demonstrates the additional gameplay mechanics afforded to us as a Rebel soldier! They're not very good.

So... rebel soldiers are Elites from modern Halo? Seems legit.

Today we battle our way up the beach and through something resembling a hotel for extraction, and bid adieu to the region we've been in since Video 6. Hey, did anyone else notice that Merino is missing a finger?


Now I'm just thinking about a Halo game where in a shocking twist you side with the Covenant and fight against the UNMC. Also you actually turn into an Elite. Fuck, I'd play that game.

this game has such boring enemies! I'm glad I'm not playing this.

In today's video, very little happens in the world of Haze but we somehow manage to spoil most of Jacob's Ladder. Also, part of the reason this video took so long is because I insisted on having the chaingun noises playing at full volume whenever possible. I'm kind of an idiot, I guess?


Don't worry! The giant mechsuits and agile ninja robots will be rolling out any dpffffffffhahahahaha

In today's video, we cross a bridge very slowly! I don't think this is the level of Haze where I died the most, but it's definitely the level where I got the most frustrated just because I couldn't figure out how to get the damn mission to start.

In today's video, we're driving driving driving a car. Again.

When's the next installment? I need more Boosh Juice!

RIGHT NOW.

In today's video, we slowly lurch ahead toward an inevitable conclusion, and put a serious dent in Mantel's dastardly plans in the process! What awaits our hero next?

In today's video, we bid farewell to Merino, to Duvall, and to Haze for the Playstation 3.


NOTE: This isn't actually "the last video," as I still have the Attract Mode and cutscenes to chop together into something coherent and commentary-free. Stay tuned, if you're into that sort of thing!

Thank you.

Man. That was a terrible game. I'm glad I didn't play it.

That is sure an ending.

Yeah, same here. I enjoyed the LP, though! The three of you did a great job wringing interesting and funny commentary out of... well, this.

Theater Mode.

It was a boring saturday night so I finally got around to watching the rest of these. That was some last boss, huh.

You say the game lasts only four hours or so, but it feels a LOT longer than that.

I've only watched the first ep of this so far, and holy cats do I not know what to make of it. If it were me attempting to play, I'd have gotten about 90 seconds into the bro dialogue and written the whole thing off--as it stands, it's hard to decide if I'm supposed to see this as satire of the brown shooter genre/trend (including the indifferent voice acting) or a relatively sincere attempt to cash in on it.

The drug use is weird and what, for me, was most uncomfortable to watch. Everyone takes using the drug as a given, is all woo-hoo about it (we can use drugs on the job! yeah!!), and seems unconcerned about the effects of overdose. No one's "hey man, be careful with that, you could kill us all."

Am I overthinking this? Is the mechanic simply there to spackle over a lack of decent color design?

I guess I should have seen the big reversal coming, since the hints that things were not what they ought to be on the Mantel side were not exactly subtle. The story is a lot less grating once you change sides, but it's also less interesting. And now that I've seen the trailer in the first part of your theatre mode, the reversal is right there before you even play the game....

I'll just [edit] this to add more impressions:

The Mantel soldiers would have more of an impact if they had names like Kehebuak Jackalquester. (Name pulled randomly from A New Beginning)

Pt. 5: Early on where you are/Carpenter is walking with Merino has a really weird feeling to it. It isn't just your being close enough to count his pores, it's also that you're both walking and the "camera" is completely steady.

Pt. 8: You make nectar grenades by attaching the nectar administrator onto a grenade? With what?

Maybe all the gear in this world is modular, like Legos. That would go a ways to explaining why you might be able to use the same kind of bullet in every gun, and would also open the field to making a one hundred-Nectar knife-knife.

Pt. 9: A rocket launcher is an excellent short-range weapon. Or an amusing one.

Pt. 13: Well. That was subtle.