Hazen: The Dark Whispers Reviews

Okay, I initially classified this game in my "This Game Sucks"-category (only after spending a few hours on it). I actually reloaded this game and forced myself to learn and play the game. Objectively, it's pretty sound - as most hack-n-slash follow similar key-binding layouts and mouse-behaviours of well-known games of this genre (i.e. Diablo). I think the majority of the negative reviews come from those that have played Diablo or similar hack-n-slash games as Hazen introduces a differing layout for control movement and attack. I played this game with the notion - "this is not Diablo, don't expect it to be Diablo". Looking beyond that, the game does quench the hack-n-slash thirst for those willing to overlook it's unique default control layout.

Well I mostly bought this game because i played an early demo of it as a kid, now years later with a job and remembering the name I seen on the demo screen, I was able to get this cheaper than when it was released plus now it's good enough for low end spec pc, which for now i have a stinking all in 1 pc and the cpu kinda sucks since it's .60 less than 2.0 ghz but yet it has 2 cpu proccessors and 1 core on each... but anyways coming back to it and seeing harsh reviews, I thought to give it my honest and truthful opinion about this game. This game's graphic aren't too bad it's more slightly updated than Fate series graphic (but the Fate series is still a childhood good classic to me), and the mouse controls i had to get used to again but after 2 hours you'll get used to it and doing pretty darn good... but warning if you go to the big picture mode it'll shift the save game folder directory from c:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/common/Hazen: The Dark Whispers/Profiles (where it originally saves at) to c:/Users/(your user)/Documents/Hazen for who knows what reason it took me hours to figure it out because i'm not used to games saving in documents it's alsoways in appdata roaming, appdata local, or where the game is installed and stored at. Also there is a story mode if your iq is high enough to figure out at the start of the game... the story just starts when you talk to the first villager (small story but a story).

poor hack'n slash game. nothing new under the hood, some settings are good but the overall impression is that is a bad diablo copy. avoid it even if you like the genre, there are beter things around

I positively *loved* this game. Finished it with a happy smile and will always remember it fondly, play it again sometime. Now, the not so fine disclosures and caveats: 1- From Pineville on, some saves can fail to load, *as least for me*, making me load an older save, and try to not quit the game till I arrived at a new place via teleport. Thanks the heaven I *always* backup the saves (when the game keeps only one) of all my games regularly as I play. So in a failure to load I just past over the last save I kept. C:\Users\your user name\Documents\Hazen\Profiles\you player name\saves. 2- Being 67 y.o. and somewhat slow now, I hacked it to death. As you can't use Cheat Engine (alt tab crashes the game), I use free HxD hex editor to look over the savegames in Documents, Hazen ... Save ... (Example, Darkvale.sav). Backup it first!. Found all the Potions and Spell Scrolls and gave me 9900 of each, and gold, gave me 983039. The Scroll of Exploding Trap is a wonder, works as grenades ! Also the Scroll of Henchman helps to fight and distracts some enemies. If you are a mage as me, later on you can get the Spell of Ring of Fire: this is extremely useful as it makes short work of almost anything (including some bosses). For gold, just find the hex number of the gold you had when saving, change it to FF FF 0E. For Health, Magic, Experience and Stoneskin Potions and Scrolls, find and use only the *1st* occurrence (found 3 or 2 always) of a text (always shown on the right side as you scroll the file). Attention, must be the name *with an explanation -not a short version-, just as it appears in the inventory*. From the last letter or number of that explanation, count *always* 66 places, and you'll find the number of items on the inventory, in hexadecimal of course. If it isn't there, you are not in the right occurrence of the desired text. Replace it with AC 26 (9900). Save and load the game with the modified save. Hopefully, enjoy it as much as me !

Starting the game, you will go into an area with no plot. Just you standing there, 'corpsewalkers' swinging at you. Then jarring popups tell you basic controls then guide you to a town across a bridge. The graphics are not that great, the interface is a mishmashed diablo, and quite honestly I had no idea what was going on. Play this on a bet, while drunk, or when you need to feel confused. You can't even alt+f4 out of it. Pros: Honestly cannot think of any. There are many more games out there that are dungeon splunks that do this better, for cheaper. Cons: To many to list.

* [i]Sigh[/i] * Me and the dark side of [b]Steam[/b] again... But well, if you know me at least a little, you know how much I like [b]ARPG[/b]s. Well, I like pretty much all genres (yes, I'm one of those people who like [i]everything[/i] as long as it wants you to press buttons), but there's something about [b]ARPG[/b]s I find especially pleasant. Not as pleasant as point-and-click adventures, but what matters here – I love the genre and I played tons and tons of games in it. Even those barely known by human beings in our part of the Galaxy. Naturally, I didn't want to miss this one. Just because it's an [b]ARPG[/b]. But as long as you're not like me and don't aim for beating each and every [b]ARPG[/b] out there? You shouldn't play this one. Seriously, you consider buying it? Just stop reading and remove it from your cart. It sucks. End of the story. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's take some time and go into some details. First of all – this game is bad. Wait, did I already say that? OK, I did. And still, this game is [i]bad[/i]. But no matter how bad it is, it's not a scam. In other words, it isn't [b]Grind Zones[/b]. Isn't one of those games that were supposed to look OK on screens but were never supposed to be a real deal, to provide you any real gameplay. [b]HAZEN[/b]? It was supposed to be played. You pay for a game – you get a game. Well... sort of. See, there are two things about [b]HAZEN[/b] (the game is called after its main villain, exactly the same way with [b]Diablo[/b]). And the first thing is – it was supposed to be episodic. We have only five small maps here and the story (if we can call this bunch of cheap nonsense a story) ends with a cliffhanger. You know how it is... They planned an episodic game, the first one failed, there were no more episodes ever made. And that's the first thing about [b]HAZEN[/b]. It's only a first episode of the series that was never made. And as for the second thing... Well, let's just say it was made by noobs. And it shows. The last time I saw something this noobish was in Ukrainian [b]ARPG[/b] called [b]Dark Tower Conspiracy[/b] (AKA [b]Dungeon Quest[/b], AKA [b]Заговор Тёмной Башни[/b]), back in [b]2006[/b]. And even though [b]HAZEN[/b] is Bulgarian game, it really does feel the same. But you can clearly see that it wasn't because the developers were scammers. It was just because some noobs with no experience decided that they are cool developers and can make their own [b]Torchlight[/b]. Here's a hint – they aren't and they can't. But OK, what exactly is so bad about [b]HAZEN[/b]? Well, everything. Everything about it is bad. Looking at core gameplay here you'll thank God for this game being too short. Things like balance, tactics and stuff like that? Forget about them. I mean, I know that the genre is all about them. Just... forget about them here. [b]HAZEN[/b] is not a game where you count numbers and make builds. It's a game, in which you run through some small maps by using the only character you can use, click on some generic enemies, die, respawn right under your enemies' feet, finish your job and continue. That's pretty much it. Painfully cheap and painfully random experience. So... yeah. [b]HAZEN[/b] is yet another disaster. The one where final product suffered from its makers having way too much ambitions without enough skill and talent to support them. You want a good game? Run as fast from here as you can. You don't mind something meh in the genre either? Nope, keep running. No matter how you look at [b]HAZEN[/b], it's a no-no product. But at least it wasn't supposed to be a scam, I can give it that.

I played this game to its crappy completion and all I can say is don't buy it. Not even if it is a dollar, too many good games out to play this garbage.

This game is awful. I cannot recommend it at all. The gameplay is frustrating, the fun factor is non-existent and you'll wish you'd never heard of it after spending 20 minutes playing it. There are no more episodes for this game as the first one was so bad, the company that made it went under. Avoid this game as much as possible.

This is the worst ARPG I've ever played. Broken, abandoned junk. There is no part 2 for a reason. The game play is slow, unresponsive and ganky, the 3D graphics look like they were pulled from a Game Cube. If you must buy an ARPG get ether Torchlight 1/2, Van Hellsing, Titan quest, Grim Dawn or any other less known ARPGs. Or go for gold just get 'Path of Exile' and never look back. Look on Youtube for videos of Hazen, it's plain broken and bad.

Game starts with no story, no reason why you are there, just begins with you holding an axe outside of town with skeletons coming to attack you. Click to attack, the character swings his arm instead of the axe. Skeletons dont seem to mind, they die anyway. Go into town, no story at all, just asked to get some keys to lock a gate. The skeletons wont be able to get in if the door is locked. As I walk around, scenery pops in everywhere. Graphical glitches are frequent. Ambient sound loops for abour 4 seconds before it repeats. I spec to be a mage as I usually do in these Diablo clones. Find a basic staff, and start shooting ice bolts at skeletons. 45-50 dmg. I upgrade my INT and skill level, and start to do 65 dmg. I run out of mana, and start swinging my staff. 250 damage per hit, one shotting everything. Find a donkey which gives you a quest. Nothing appears on the screen, I have to go into the quest log to find it. Apparently the town in which I came not only has a locked doors issue, but now needs flour. This donkey has flour. Time to save the day via bread. Then it crashed. Best part of the game in my opinion.