Hazen review and speculation thread

[Antipunk217]

I will buy the game when I get home and give a mini-review tomorrow. It looks good, but the description could have used a "once over" from someone fluent in English. I don't know how I feel about an episodic hack and slash game, but I am a sucker for cheap games, and as long as there is enough content (as they said there would be in the description) I can see getting into this.
So who has played it?
Did you like it?
What's the best/worst thing about it?
What's your favorite color?

Looking forward to everyone's perspective.

[BlueMendari]

At the moment, my pc crashed mid-download, and Hazen wouldn't load for me beyond the initial loading bar. Hoping its just due to my computer crashing and not the game itself. Will post a reply beyond this shortly after I redownload.

[AxoZombie]

typical diablo clone in torchlight way.

MUCH item, nice effects

sry my english is to bad to write a nice review.

but one of the problem is the controls option, und cant change any keys, u cant change the mouse sensitivity.


but i watched in the game folders . . . wow, i saw never sooo much .ini files ... what means u can change almost everything in this game with this .ini files.
and it looks like u can mod the game. . . i hope we will get tools for it or something like that.


(sry for my bad english:()


mhh, 7,19€ is not much . . .


but i would wait . . . maybe we get some more infos about the devs in the next days. . .
if the game gets game dev support and more episodes, yes!.



btw i found this in a .ini file:


_____________________
Single=gogo
Multiplayer=
Challange=
______________________


atm is only SP in the game . . . but looks like they planned more





http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1244692

[BlueMendari]

Well, after a re-download... it still crashes on me. I'm not sure what the problem is.

[Villike]

I got it, it works fine for me. The game really doesn't seem to be very well-developed though. You're basically thrown into an area with hoardes of skeletons, a merchant, a quest and a gambler. From there it's pretty much kill skeletons till you die, go back and buy stuff, etc. I can't see anything unique about it and not having the ability to move any other way than right-clicking every spot you want to walk to is getting pretty annoying. I haven't given it more than a 15 minute chance though, so I'll stop until someone tells me it gets better. I really have to stop buying games the day they come out.

[dagizz]

the game is OK imo.. its not a torchlight EPIC feel over it, but still "ok" ^^ at least makes the hours go away quick :P

and yes, annoying how u have to click where u wanna move and not being able to just hold the right mouse in at all times when moving instead :C

[AngryJens]

So basically a crappy Diablo 2 clone?

[pekbro]

Not a bad game, unfortunately not altogether stable, for me anyway, under win7 64. Runs fine most of the time but crashes occasionally during area transitions. My last crash left an empty save file and 2 hours wasted. Also, support channels seem non-existent at this point.

Could possibly be a nice casual rpg after some patches. My biggest problem with the gameplay was the lack of difficulty and some minor targeting issues.

-e

[Larry1212]

Meh, I played it for about 20mins last night thinking it would be a good hack and slash RPG type game only to find that the graphics aren't as good as they seem in the STEAM screen shots(Looks like a touch up in the STEAM SS's tbh), the animations look awkward/thrown together and combat is boring with no in-dept leveling system worth mentioning. I basically one shot enemies with a one handed weapon or take 90% off of their health with a shield attack(Which is random).

Basically all you need to do in this game is click beside a group of enemies and press "A" to attack the nearest skeleton or undead... Having said that I actually like the idea of pressing A over hovering over an enemy and clicking on it, seems to be a step in the right direction for normal attacks, certainly... but the game isn't even average. If the animations and graphics were touched up i'd say it would be that little bit more enjoyable but as is it's just not standing well.

Plus all the human characters/allies look like giants which really puts me off... It just looks out of scale because of this. :<

There is potential there, however... It could have done with a couple more months development to work on the graphics and animations(Which really bother me right now).

[elixenie]

and combat is boring with no in-dept leveling system worth mentioning. I basically one shot enemies with a one handed weapon or take 90% off of their health with a shield attack(Which is random).

Basically all you need to do in this game is click beside a group of enemies and press "A" to attack the nearest skeleton or undead...

That's kind of a turnoff. One of the things I liked best about D2 was how dividing your time between moving and targeting could be crucial (if you play it carefully, which I did). No other game I've played quite captures that experience.

I'd be curious to know if your opinion of the combat and leveling changes any if you get further into the game. D2 took a long time to flesh out your character, but started you off with a good basis for action. By comparison, Titan Quest starts with nothing particularly tasty and for a few hours relies on its (considerable) charm to keep things interesting.

(And then there's Torchlight, which inside of ten minutes gives your dog the ability to heal you and summon zombies.)

[wyldewilly]

game seems to be very unstable i am getting a lot of crashes

[aralici]

Hi, tested one hour or so.

The right-click to move is annoying, but apart that it's not a bad game.

I have a crash only one time when surrounded by a lot of squeletons (Win 7 64bit).

And worst, I'm now stick before the first boss, because he doesn't move at all... :/

Buggy game, don't try it before it's fixed.

[damaged]

My problem with taking a chance, is that it says, "Every single episode will be a "Stand alone" game with enough game-play and high re-play value. Stay tuned in next weeks for more information around "The Dark Whispers" and the news inside the world of Hazen.", and, "Expand the game downloading patches (adding content for each episode).", yet the game has been out since Dec 2008 and I don't see any signs of patches, or other episodes, seems to be just something to make a quick buck off of.

Someone tell me I'm wrong, I'd like to think this would be good, otherwise I'll stick to torchlight.

OMG, Valve added a newline to edited posts, finally, I don't have to add one myself. \o/

[Stanleyxd]

meh i was considering buying this, think im gonna hold for now.

[Metro]

Good that it's $10 list price because that means I can pick it up for $2 when it goes on sale a few months from now.

[Nebz]

Good that it's $10 list price because that means I can pick it up for $2 when it goes on sale a few months from now.


Save your 2 bucks man. This was put on steam just to rip people off. I understand now why people download games illegally before buying.

[madmarten]

Just finished the game, some thoughts

+ Low price
+ Lots of items
+ Music is okay (when it's actually playing)

- Too short
- The second area of the game had a few interesting side quests but other than that they were crap
- Enemies get stuck in geometry and sometimes just freeze
- I got lost a few times because the surroundings look the same and the fog makes it impossible to see where you are going
- Some gameplay features aren't explained in-game. For example the first time I fought a flesh giant and the game told me to press BLOCK I had no idea what to do
- No way to adjust mouse sensitivity or change key bindings
- Random crashes and the saved game can easily get broken. There's just one save slot, so I had to exit the game and make backup copies of my saves myself. Can't alt-tab out of the game without crashing

Overall it just feels like a beta version. They need to put a lot more effort into the upcoming episodes... if they ever even get released, that is

[DiceDuP]

I think the alarm bells rang for me when I checked the official website to find nothing had been posted on it since May 2009. Not one for me, shame though as I'm getting itchy fingers for Diablo 3 and was hoping for a fix of something similar to pass the time :D

[floydisme]

Not very good. Mostly my gripe is their aren't alot of skills and they aren't really interesting. (Just 3 classes). I haven't had any crashes though played no prob. Also the graphics are nowhere as good as the screenshots make it look. I'm hoping they do add more content like they said.

It's cheap but I'd still wait for it to go on sale or even better check out Titan Quest and Torchlight also on steam.

Oh and a tip. Cntl is for block! This is important for bosses as I lost 2,000 exp points constantly dying cause I didn't know what key it was (Options dont tell you the controls)

[yincision]

This game is not great, but also not as bad as some reviewers are posting.

After 1.5 hours of playing:
- gave up on any type of mage character or ranger since targeting is a mess
- got the biggest melee weapon and armor I could afford and just pressed 'A' repeatedly
- loaded up on red potions and just kept refilling as I got close to dying
That is pretty much it.

What I liked about it:
+ Decent enough graphics even on my laptop
+ Free camera angle is good
+ Merchant buying and selling is intuitive
+ Loot drops are marked well
+ Quests are easy to follow
+ Standard use of number keys for spell casting is good
+ Basic RPG character building (though very sparse)
+ Ability to carry two different weapons and switch with 'W' key
+ Can't get lost (basically only one way through)
+ Didn't have to trash my left mouse button by repeated clicking (but will probably have to get a new 'A' key on my keyboard)
***NOTE: Make sure to disable all of the sticky key options in the control panel or you will get a game crash as you repeatedly press 'A' and Windows pops up a dialog box***

What I didn't like:
- the map is mainly useless UPDATE: Found that map shows quest locations, that's about it
- the music and sound effects are disappointing
- targeting with distance attacks is very difficult
- mouse click attacking is also very difficult
- moving by right-mouse clicking is cumbersome
- very small skill tree and character options
- occasional crashes while loading and moving to new areas
- that I paid eight.ninety-nine for it (would be good for two.ninety-nine)

[Belsaga]

My problem with taking a chance, is that it says, "Every single episode will be a "Stand alone" game with enough game-play and high re-play value. Stay tuned in next weeks for more information around "The Dark Whispers" and the news inside the world of Hazen.", and, "Expand the game downloading patches (adding content for each episode).", yet the game has been out since Dec 2008 and I don't see any signs of patches, or other episodes, seems to be just something to make a quick buck off of.

Someone tell me I'm wrong, I'd like to think this would be good, otherwise I'll stick to torchlight.

OMG, Valve added a newline to edited posts, finally, I don't have to add one myself. \o/

Don`t doubt. Buy torchlight.

[yincision]

I agree. After trying to get myself to like/tolerate Hazen I am giving it up.

Buy Torchlight. Or better yet get the Guild Wars Trilogy pack this weekend for twenty bucks. That will be the best twenty you ever spent and will get well over 500 hours of playing time out of it (and no subscription fees).

[Zabeeble]

i can't get 10 minutes of solid playtime before it crashes on me. seeing as the 'official' website has no way to ask for help, i am just going to have to assume that i've wasted $8.99.

i will not be so quick to buy games from steam anymore. this is the second time i've been disappointed by buying a game that couldn't live up to the advertisement.

[prentle]

Like others I am concerned about empty promises of the additional content.

I would have thought the least the devs could do was update the official website to announce it was now available on steam, but no news updates since may 2009?!?! seriously!

Im holding out on buying this until I see some support and additional content.

[Krvavy_Patejl]

Oh, this is a crap. :( It's probably the worst Diablo clone I have ever seen.

[von_bunnell2]

Good that it's $10 list price because that means I can pick it up for $2 when it goes on sale a few months from now.

a dollar menu is more satisfying.

[Rizaloo]

All of the impressions I've read everywhere (not only here) have mostly been negative. Personally, I'd rather pay more for a quality game, like Torchlight.

Tons of people are complaining about crashes and bugs, and the right-click to move left click to attack mouse configuration (that can't be modified) sounds like a pain.

[rodr2257]

it's no wonder they went under!

[Oddmonster]

Finished the game in aprox 6 hours including crashes. The game has a few nice ideas like blocking and running, but the whole game has a "beta" feel to it.

The good things -
-It was cheap
-Lots of items


The bad things -
-It wasnt cheap enough
-Lots of crashes
-The map is useless...And I mean useless as in I didnt use it for like 4½ hour of my play time.
-Quests are mostly pretty lame.
-The story is more or less non-existent.
-To move you have to right click. Yes you cant hold down the right button, you have to click click click click it. Very annoying.
-When they say "Combos", what they mean is just skills. Each of the 3 classes has 5 skills(or maybe 6 dont remember), and they are not really exiting or new in any way.
-You cant alt+tab out.
-Ranged classes are just annoying to play because of the cursor and targeting problems.
-Melee class is OP and powers/skills are mostly useless(just attack+use health pot)
-You cant set you own controls in any way, and the default setup left me with cramps in my hand( untill i found out I just needed to use my health pot button and forget about skills)


Imagine if someone never played a hack'n'slash game in his life. Then imagine that you had 1 hour to explain to this person, what a hack'n'slash game was, and how it was played. When the hour was over, this guy had to make his own hack'n'slash game. The result of his labor would be something like Hazen.

[damaged]

(...)


Imagine if someone never played a hack'n'slash game in his life. Then imagine that you had 1 hour to explain to this person, what a hack'n'slash game was, and how it was played. When the hour was over, this guy had to make his own hack'n'slash game. The result of his labor would be something like Hazen.

Well put.

[Azcon]

The game isn't complete disaster if...

-They could release some bugfix to prevent the corrupt savefile and option to save multiple files.
-Maybe fix the general crashes.

I hope anyone could have some official statement from Steam vs Strategy First. Maybe they are indeed releasing new "episodes" in the near future or the game is just dead as all rumors/facts seem to suggest.

[Cobra007]

Crashes haven't been my problem. My problem is, it's just too boring. There's no sense of fun in this hack'n'slash game. Also, there isn't a story as to speak of.

Also, another fatal flaw of the game, is that when I left the second dungeon, and later on returned, the boss had respawned. The game is really buggy and it should not be bought until it gets a serious fix.

Anyways, even if it's on discount, don't buy this. Really, I'm not kidding. Even if it's price is changed to 1 dollar, you'll regret losing that buck.

[isthatacookie]

To those people who say this game has a lot of items. There are less than 20 of each type of weapon for the whole game. 10 bows that's it. Yeah you get stats on that bow but that's it. There is very little variety. And sets? Less than 8 sets.

This game is a dead horse. The chances of a patch (other than fanpatch, which is probably very doable given the childish programming) are minuscule at best. You can unlock every area in the game just by adding some 1's to an .ini file :p

[JTBrander]

agreed, even at 2$ it still wouldn't be worth it. you can polish a turd all you want but in the end it's still a turd...

[sarcacid]

And now they've removed the forum link from the Steam store page... what a class act.

[DiceDuP]

agreed, even at 2$ it still wouldn't be worth it. you can polish a turd all you want but in the end it's still a turd...

LMAO I was toying with getting it for dirt cheap but this comment has made my mind up for me. Me not lika turd.

PS: You can remove forum links all you like, but I'm fairly certain most gamers are like me and simply goto the forums and find it listed in games categories anyway.

[uklamok]

Yeah I'm sorry I bought it on sale. this game is broken in so many ways and even if you have a stretch where you arent getting repeatedly one shotted by a boss the attacks lag or just wont work because you arent clicking just right. It wasnt worth the $2.50

[Almost Human]

Unfortunately there will be no patches nor future episodes - the developer company is now defunct (second hand unofficial info - I know a guy who knows a guy from the team).

[thejmaster]

Lol. I now seriously regret buying this game; even at its sale price. I havent played ti yet but have had troubles with it already!!!! The game stopped downloading at 75%, forcing me to restart steam and now its going real damn slow... Cannot wait to enjoy me some delightfully buggy and genuinely bad game play *sarcasm*

[breichart]

Lol. I now seriously regret buying this game; even at its sale price. I havent played ti yet but have had troubles with it already!!!! The game stopped downloading at 75%, forcing me to restart steam and now its going real damn slow... Cannot wait to enjoy me some delightfully buggy and genuinely bad game play *sarcasm*

I hope you do know, that everything you just mentioned either has to do with your internet connection or Steam running slow. No game in Steam can directly affect what you mentioned.