(Not so) super soldiers

Doing drugs doesn't mix well with waging war. Unless, that is, the narcotic you're nailing is a life-boosting, aggression-inducing combat cocktail that lights up your enemies with heat vision and improves your aim and agility. In the anything-goes time of 2048, a private military corporation employs one such stimulant for its battles abroad, boosting its ranks into super soldiers, but blinding them from the realities of their actions as a side effect.

So goes "Haze," Free Radical's first-person shooter hitting the PlayStation 3. The UK studio is known for its satiric works in the goofy "TimeSplitters" games on PS2, but they're also the folks that produced "Goldeneye 007" on the Nintendo 64, a defining gaming moment for many. Over outright action, "Haze" endeavors to be a self-aware shooter: its message on corporate-sponsored combat centers the experience. The player shifts from a straight-laced sergeant Shane Carpenter serving Mantel, to a disillusioned AWOLer, and then righteous rebel of the indigenous army his former employer is set against.

The setup gives a good base for gameplay. As a Mantel soldier, players tap the left trigger to inject Nectar in the field, intravenously improving their damage resistance and accuracy; as a rebel for "The Promise Hand," players can play dead to avoid enemies, set traps, and fashion impromptu grenades from salvaged Nectar. Any enemies unlucky enough to be in the blast radius of the latter will overdose and go haywire: unable to tell friend from foe, firing at random while their vision blurs and ripples with discoloration.

The asymmetrical style of combat is a welcome one. In theory, unequal factions would make for a thinking-man's shooter - one sprinkled with challenging enemies and encounters that ask for a less straightforward approach. Instead, "Haze" ironically lingers on life support, its gameplay and graphics begging for an injection of something, anything to keep its fun from flatlining.

The core concept just doesn't get absorbed by the game's design. Gunplay has a decent feel to it, but just a handful of standard-issue arms to do battle with. Level construction is mired by a weird balance of sprawling outdoor areas that are too big; inside, it's tired industrial stairways, elevators, and crate-filled warehouses.

Trained gamers will have trouble pegging "Haze" as a PS3 title - visually, it could pass as an original Xbox game. Tame textures, jagged edges - drab, uneven graphics can't manage to make the game's jungle scenes sing.

Forgettable audio is another casualty. Along with a score and sound effects that fade into the background, the game's annoying AI teammates will make you wish you hadn't switched to their side. Lamely delivered lines like "Today Mantel will fall!" and "Don't forget your promise to Marino!" are repeated endlessly by your allies - grating flaws like this are a sure sign of a game rushed to retail.ȯˆ¿Ã‚ˆ½

As the shooter genre experiences a mini-renaissance in titles like "Halo 3," "Call of Duty 4" and "Team Fortress 2," there's little reason to spend time with something so half-finished and apologetic as "Haze."