History YMMV / Haze

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A common discussion point when talking about the game was that the core concept of battling enemies that are, essentially, FPS protagonists, was a really solid one. Switching sides should mean a complete overhaul in gameplay, where you go from hunting down pitifully weak rebels to struggling against power-armored goons with highly advanced weapons and RegeneratingHealth, pumped up further by combat drugs--possibly resulting in a change to a more stealth-survival strategy where a firefight with more than one Mantel trooper is probably going to mean a death. Heck, this game's premise is surprisingly close to that of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', showing that the story premise potentially has some legs. However, none of this happens in gameplay, and all that really changes between fighting outgunned South Americans with scavenged gear and highly-experienced PMC soldiers with sci-fi equipment is that the latter are easier to spot. Even your Promised Hand squadmates suddenly gain RegeneratingHealth whenever they're on your side.

* AnticlimaxBoss: The final shootout against Duvall. He's a totally normal enemy with a pistol that happens to kill you in two hits and a ridiculous number of {{hitpoints}}.

* HilariousInHindsight: Given its themes, this game could be seen as a precursor of sorts to ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A common discussion point when talking about the game was that the core concept of battling enemies that are, essentially, FPS protagonists, was a really solid one. Switching sides should mean a complete overhaul in gameplay, where you go from hunting down pitifully weak rebels to struggling against power-armored goons with highly advanced weapons and RegeneratingHealth, pumped up further by combat drugs--possibly resulting in a change to a more stealth-survival strategy where a firefight with more than one Mantel trooper is probably going to mean a death. However, none of this happens in gameplay, and all that really changes between fighting outgunned South Americans with scavenged gear and highly-experienced PMC soldiers with sci-fi equipment is that the latter are easier to spot. Even your Promised Hand squadmates suddenly gain RegeneratingHealth whenever they're on your side.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: What message there is left in ''Haze'' isn't a bad one, given that disassociation from reality and abusing stimulating drugs as a mental inhibitor for committing murder and destruction is very obviously a bad thing, alongside unlawful occupation of another country while demonizing them to be the bad guys. And something in there about [[spoiler: how easy it is for dictatorships to change hands due to good intentions being exploited.]] The problem is the sheer incompetence of the storytelling and boatloads of {{Narm}} ran the message over with a semi-truck and turned it into a mix of too cheesy to take seriously and pure {{Anvilicious}}.

** Duvall's FamousLastWords ([[spoiler: "Please. [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Don't tell my mom]]."]]) utterly destroy the attempt at a dramatic demise, and only further paint the image that all of Mantel's soldiers are nothing but [[{{Manchild}} man-children.]] Can also work as NarmCharm, [[DeconstructiveParody depending on how you see it]].

* {{Anvilicious}}: War is bad! No blood for Nectar! Interestingly, an interview shows that Ubisoft significantly ''toned down'' the anviliciousness. It was originally set in present-day Iraq. Elements of this still persist in the final story, where if the plot's not focusing on Nectar and the madness it brings, it's a thinly-veiled and rather aggressive allegory of the UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A common discussion point when talking about the game was that the core concept of battling enemies that are, essentially, FPS protagonists, was a really solid one. Switching sides should mean a complete overhaul in gameplay, where you go from hunting down pitifully weak rebels to struggling against power-armored goons with highly advanced weapons and RegeneratingHealth, pumped up further by combat drugs--possibly resulting in a change to a more stealth-survival strategy where a firefight with more than one Mantel trooper is probably going to mean a death. However, none of this happens in gameplay, and all that really changes between fighting outgunned South Americans with scavenged gear and highly-experienced PMC soldiers with sci-fi equipment is that the latter are easier to spot. Even your Promised Hand squadmates suddenly gain RegeneratingHeath whenever they're on your side.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A common discussion point when talking about the game was that the core concept of battling enemies that are, essentially, FPS protagonists, was a really solid one. Switching sides should mean a complete overhaul in gameplay, where you go from hunting down pitifully weak rebels to struggling against power-armored goons with highly advanced weapons and RegeneratingHealth, pumped up further by combat drugs--possibly resulting in a change to a more stealth-survival strategy where a firefight with more than one Mantel trooper is probably going to mean a death. However, none of this happens in gameplay, and all that really changes between fighting outgunned South Americans with scavenged gear and highly-experienced PMC soldiers with sci-fi equipment is that the latter are easier to spot.

* {{Anvilicious}}: War is bad! No blood for Nectar!
** An interview shows that Ubisoft significantly ''toned down'' the anviliciousness. It was originally set in present-day Iraq. Elements of this still persist in the final story, where if the plot's not focusing on Nectar and the madness it brings, it's a thinly-veiled and rather aggressive allegory of the UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror.

* SpecialEffectFailure: A major plot point is that Nectar hides the true horrors of war and makes bodies disappear. Unfortunately, the gore system for the "true horrors" is anaemic (not even putting impact marks on bodies, something ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 GoldenEye]]'' managed) and the weak engine means bodies still vanish even when you're a Rebel, it just takes somewhat longer for them to do so.

* SoBadItsGood: Much of the dialogue, especially between the Mantel soldiers.

* ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs: ''Haze'' is in many ways ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' on drugs.

** An interview shows that Ubisoft significantly ''toned down'' the anviliciousness. It was originally set in [[TooSoon present-day]] Iraq. Elements of this still persist in the final story, where if the plot's not focusing on Nectar and the madness it brings, it's a thinly-veiled and rather aggressive allegory of the UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror.

** Duvall's FamousLastWords ([[spoiler: "Please. Don't tell my mom."]]) utterly destroy the attempt at a dramatic demise, and only further paint the image that all of Mantel's soldiers are nothing but [[{{Manchild}} man-children.]] Can also work as NarmCharm, [[DeconstructiveParody depending on how you see it]].

** Duvall's FamousLastWords ([[spoiler: "Please. Don't tell my mom."]]) utterly destroy the attempt at a dramatic demise, and only further paint the image that all of Mantel's soldiers are nothing but [[{{Manchild}} man-children.]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Instead of being offended by the the game supposedly being a commentary on the War on Terror, think of it as a game where you get to play from the perspective of a Mook in a military organization that's a goofy parody of [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 the Combine]] or [[VideoGame/{{Killzone}} the Helghast]]. The characters suddenly make much more sense.

** An interview shows that Ubisoft significantly ''toned down'' the anviliciousness. It was originally set in [[TooSoon present-day]] Iraq. Elements of this still persist in the final story, where if the plot's not focusing on Nectar and the madness it brings, it's a thinly-veiled and rather hostile allegory on the UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: What message there is left in ''Haze'' isn't a bad one, given that disassociation from reality and abusing stimulating drugs as a mental inhibitor for committing murder and destruction by a corporate order is very obviously a bad thing. And something in there about [[spoiler: how easy it is for dictatorships to change hands due to good intentions being exploited.]] The problem is the sheer incompetence of the storytelling and boatloads of {{Narm}} ran the message over with a semi-truck and turned it into a mix of too cheesy to take seriously and pure {{Anvilicious}}.

** An interview shows that Ubisoft significantly ''toned down'' the anviliciousness. It was originally set in [[TooSoon present-day]] Iraq.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: What message there is left in ''Haze'' isn't a bad one, given that disassociation from reality and using that mental inhibitor for committing murder and destruction by a corporate order is very obviously a bad thing. And something in there about [[spoiler: how easy it is for dictatorships to change hands due to good intentions being exploited.]] The problem is the sheer incompetence of the storytelling and boatloads of {{Narm}} ran the message over with a semi-truck and turned it into a mix of too cheesy to take seriously and pure {{Anvilicious}}.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: What message there is left in ''Haze'' isn't a bad one, given that disassociation from reality and using that mental inhibitor for committing murder and destruction by a corporate order is very obviously a bad thing. And something in there about [[spoiler: how easy it is for dictatorships to change hands.]] The problem is the sheer incompetence of the storytelling and boatloads of {{Narm}} ran the message over with a semi-truck and turned it into a mix of too cheesy to take seriously and pure {{Anvilicious}}.

* MostAnnoyingSound: The looped dialog. Good heavens ''the looped dialog''.
** Today is the day that Mantel falls!
** Mantel will fall today!
** Make them ever regret coming here!
** Let's send them all to hell!
** Merino is depending on us!
** BOOSH!
** Buddy!
** REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE TO MARINO! REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE TO MARINO! REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE TO MARINO!!!

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Instead of being offended by the the game supposedly being a commentary on the War on Terror, think of it as a game where you get to play from the perspective of a Mook in a military organization that's a goofy parody of [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 the Combine]] or [[VideoGame/{{Killzone}} the Helghast]]. The characters suddenly make much more sense.
** Another way to look at it in a modern lens and some [[HarsherInHindsight hindsight]] is expanding beyond the whole {{Deconstruction}} of FPS games and seeing all the Mantel troopers as [[TakeThatAudience gung-ho FPS players that eat these kinds of games up.]] Suddenly the whole craziness and dudebro nature of Duvall and the other troopers shifts into a scathing look at the genre's consumers with BlackAndWhiteInsanity to justify wiping foreign armies out on orders, and Mantel using their Nectar addictions to take psychological advantage of them for profit and gain - [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything not unlike modern game publishers and corporations.]]

** Another way to look at it in a modern lens and some [[HarsherInHindsight hindsight]], is seeing all of the Mantel soldiers as a [[TakeThatAudience gathering of gung-ho FPS video game players]] treating the war as just another game as they follow orders and fight the evil foreign terrorists like in every other FPS out there in the years that followed the modern shooter craze, and Mantel using the addictive quality of the Nectar to keep them complacent. Not to mention characters like Duvall being a PsychopathicManchild throwing murderous tantrums and then [[spoiler: asking Carpenter to not tell his mom about everything he's done as he dies,]] and the infamously cheesy dudebro companions that practically parody real gamers. Suddenly the bad guys shift from a gaggle of hilariously StupidEvil troopers that are too ridiculous to take seriously, to a scathing {{Deconstruction}} of the genre's consumers and a corporation [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything taking full psychological advantage of them for profit and gain.]]

** Another way to look at it in a modern lens, is seeing all of the Mantel soldiers as a [[TakeThatAudience gathering of FPS video game players]] treating the war as just another game as they "[[ObliviouslyEvil do the right thing for their country]]" to fight the evil foreign terrorists like in every other shooter out there in the years that followed, and Mantel using the Nectar to suppress their morality in the process with an addictive means to keep them hooked and coming back for more. Suddenly the game shifts from an evil private military company with implausible amounts of StupidEvil manpower just to be bad, to a scathing {{Deconstruction}} of the genre's consumers and a corporation [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything taking full psychological advantage of them for profit and gain.]]

** Another way to look at it in a modern lens, is seeing all of the Mantel soldiers as a gathering of FPS video game players treating the war as just another game, and Mantel using the Nectar to suppress their morality in the process with an addictive means to keep them hooked. Suddenly the game shifts from an evil private military company with implausible amounts of StupidEvil manpower just to be bad, to a scathing {{Deconstruction}} of the genre's consumers and a corporation [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything taking full psychological advantage of them for profit and gain.]]

** Another way to look at it is seeing all of the Mantel soldiers as a gathering of FPS video game players treating the war as just another game, and Mantel using the Nectar to suppress their morality in the process with an addictive means to keep them hooked. Suddenly the game shifts from an evil private military company with implausible amounts of StupidEvil manpower just to be bad, to a scathing {{Deconstruction}} of the genre's consumers and a corporation [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything taking full psychological advantage of them for profit and gain.]]