10 Amazing Ideas Wasted On Terrible Video Games

5. An Unreliable Protagonist - Haze

Haze game
Ubisoft

Even though it was effectively destroyed by Ubisoft wanting it to be the next Halo, Free Radical's underwhelming Haze did still have a cool couple of ideas fuelling it. In particular was the central narrative drive, which had you jumping in the shoes of a futuristic soldier hopped up on 'Nectar', an experimental drug that, it turned out, had pretty intense hallucinogenic properties.

Not only did it make you better at killing, but it also made it easier to kill, by warping the mind of its user so that they couldn't actually see the horrors of what they were doing. Not only that, but the drug actually left the majority of its soldiers complete wrecks if they ever stopped taking it, with only the most mentally-sound operatives being able to withstand being subjected to it for too long.

It played with some pretty lofty themes before the likes of Spec Ops: The Line would do it more elegantly, but even now an unreliable protagonist whose own mind is not to be trusted has sadly not really been experimented with, and it still hurts to see it squandered on Haze.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.