Haven: Call of the King

"A fantastic breath of fresh air thats too often overlooked....."

Haven: Call of The King.

Introduction:

Well, there is a lot to be said about this game. Upon its release I think it could have gone very far with the right marketing, but as it happened Haven Call of the King was simply overshadowed, overlooked and ultimately not given the time of day. Produced by the likes of respectable videogame publishers Midway and the lesser known Travelers tales, Haven has all the right ingredients to satisfy even the most hardcore platform gamers, while at the same time keep the more casual gamer occupied for a rather long time.
Now for the game specifics: Haven is of course a platform game, but also branches out into many other genres throughout the course of the game (more on this in the gameplay section) and is a one player game. At first glance one could assume the target audience is younger gamers, while this is in part true, the game provides easily enough challenge to satisfy anybody at all. Now, onto the review…..

Gameplay: 9

The gameplay is (by far) Havens' strongest point, largely because of its versatility. Calling it a platformer almost seems wrong, because it is so much more. While the basics do include all of the stereotypical platforming guidelines (collecting things, running, jumping, defeating enemies) we've come to expect from the genre, the gameplay branches off into many other genres at a break neck speed. The level of variety this game has to offer is apparent within the first hour of playing and gets better and better. In the first three hours or so you'll find yourself racing, shooting, flying, extinguishing fires, solving puzzles and of course, plain old school platforming! That's not even to mention the large variety of vehicles at your disposal, which include a jet pack, a glider, a bi-plane, a speedboat and of course, the enormously fun Quad racer.
While most levels offer you something different every step of the way, towards the end of the game you might feel as though you're walking on ground previously covered. This isn't however necessarily a bad thing, as most of the features, vehicles and little mini games are so much fun, I found myself wanting a couple more levels of the same thing, but of course at a greater difficulty. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed.
If anything can ruin an otherwise perfectly great game, it's the controls. I find this to be the demise of many games with potential, but luckily, Havens' controls are actually pretty good. Whether you're racing or flying, shooting or jumping, I found the controls fluid and natural. As far as a platform game can go, the controls are pretty much flawless and follow the usual guidelines every other platform game out there. ‘Nuff said.
So, overall I have little or no complaint about any aspect of the gameplay. So why not a 10? Good question. Well, as there is plenty of variety and the controls are good, the gameplay was great, but not perfect. As I said, the game throws all of its ideas at you within the first three hours. From then on it's basically the same thing, but different levels. While I have no problem with this, the sudden change of pace may disappoint some harder to please gamers.

Story: 6

Well, the story is exactly what you're expecting: One hero, one girl (whom you are obviously obliged to save) and one evil emperor/king/ruler dude. Much like every single other game in this genre, it certainly won't be winning any awards in this department. But, one thing I will say for the stories benefit, is that quite simply, it works. By that I mean, nobody is expecting a Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy type of epic plot, so in that respect, you're not going to be disappointed. Even so, by platform game standards the story is fantastic: The evil emperor Vetch is a world conquering buffoon, you're stereotypical nemesis. By infecting all of his slaves with a deadly virus, he ensures they keep slaving away, by supplying them with an antidote known as catana. This is the usual pick-up item in this game, while crash had apples, spyro had gems, Haven has catana. This is actually a good thing, because unlike most games (like the two mentioned above) you actually have a reason for collecting these things that do relate to the story. Now the hero: The hero of the game is called Haven (big surprise!) and he has been having strange dreams. Dreams of the good king who took off a millennia ago to fight an intergalactic crusade. It was of course in his absence that Vetch stepped in.
Well, long story short, your goal in the game is to chase down these dreams to find their meanings, while being hounded by vetch's minions. It's a matter of reaching the end before Vetch can reach you. Not exactly brilliant and clichéd to hell and back (it's basically a futuristic version of the moses story) but like I said, it's more than adequate and above all, it works.

Graphics: 7

Quite impressive at there best, functional at there worst. Quite simply, these graphics aren't going to make your eyes pop out or your PS2 strain itself, but they have clearly done a very good job and put in the right amount of effort. Nowhere does the game look rushed or like short cuts have been taken and in places it actually succeeds in making you believe this is a whole other world. So, in terms of the overall look of the game, I'd say it falls under the category of good.
While playing the game however, I only found one physical problem with graphics and this was how they behaved with many characters on the screen, such as one of the villages early in the game. The characters closer to the player move fluidly and at the right speed, but the characters further into the distance appear to be moving in slow motion. This is a very, very minor problem and may even have been done intentionally to create the feeling of distance between them, so I wouldn't worry too much about it, you may not even notice it. So, Havens' graphics: Not great, but certainly good.

Sound: 9

Another major strong point for this game is the sound. The voice acting is fantastic, or at the very least good enough that the makers decided they didn't need subtitles. Every character sounds different and unique and the whole game has a very cartoon style sound to it, which I like. The sound effects however, are not cartoony (thank god!) and don't really stand out. Infact, you probably won't notice them at all, as they're not bad enough to dislike and not really good enough to really catch your attention.
As great as the voice acting is and as neutral as the sound effects are, the greatest aspect of the sound in this game is of course, the music. From the delicate plucking of Spanish acoustic guitar to the dazzling background music, it never feels out of place or worn out. Above all though, it always fits your surrounding and thus really helps create a sense of atmosphere. From a sunny dock to a molten pit, the music is always just as essential as the graphics at creating the vibe. Great job.

Play Time/Replayability: 6

While this game obviously isn't going to take you months to get through, it certainly will entertain you for a week at least. For a platform game this is very long and very difficult, which for me gives it some lasting appeal. As for replayability, I have only seen one ending, but there may be more, I'm not sure, but even if not, there's plenty of things in this game to keep you coming back for more.

Final Recommendation:

This game is probably as good as any platformer can get. It has variety, lasting appeal, semi-likeable characters and is just a joy to play. With all the serious games on the market today, this is a real sigh of relief. I just can't understand why people never really caught on to this game, it could have been very big.
So, with its few flaws, Haven is above all an extremely well polished and extremely playable platform game and pretty much any other game you want it to be.

So, Buy or rent??
At this price, are you kidding me?? I picked up my copy for £5, which for you is around $4.80 or something. As far as I'm concerned that's almost as much as a rental! So my solid complete advice and recommendation is simply, buy this game, even if it's just for the rainy days, you'll always have something to play on.

Final Score: 8 out of 10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/04