Haven: Call of the King

Haven: Call of the King Ambition is a double edged sword. Genre: Platforming Flying Puzzle Racing Platforms: PlayStation 2 Release Date: November 2002 Developer: Traveler's Tales Publisher: Midway Franchise: Haven

Haven: Call of the King is a 2002 multi-genre Platforming game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Midway Games for the PlayStation 2. A port for Xbox and Gamecube, and a Gameboy Advance version were planned but all were cancelled.

Why it Sucks

1. The game was too ambitious for it's own good. It shoehorns too many different genres into itself, like racing, shooting, space flying, combat, etc and ends up being too unfocused.
2. Some of the elements in the game feel ripped off from Jak and Daxter.
3. Awful turret sections that feel longer than they need to be and suffer from fake difficulty.
4. Many of the different minigames can be very frustrating for the same reason as above.
5. In-game models are rather choppy.
6. Hit-or-miss voice acting. Some characters are near impossible to understand what they say.
7. None of the characters are interesting or memorable, and there is no character development.
8. Haven always keeps an overly happy smile even when serious grim situations are happening. This was probably done intentionally to show he is optimistic and never gives up no matter how hard things get, but instead it just comes off as awkward, especially since his happy smiley face looks rather silly.
9. In order to fully complete the game, you must do a massive amount of time-consuming sidequests with little hint on what to do or where to go. Often you'll have to explore an entire planet just to find a small hard to notice building to do a sidequest.
10. You constantly have to collect orbs otherwise you die, even when doing minigames.
11. Very infamous cliffhanger ending with no sequels.
12. If you 100% complete the game, all you get is more sequel baiting text and Traveler's Tales' E-Mail address.
13. Vetch, the main antagonist of the game, feels too stereotypical to be taken seriously as a villain. And a lot of the things he says are unintentionally cheesy.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The actual Platforming sections of the game are rather well done.
2. Impressive sense of scale for a 2002 game.
3. The soundtrack is actually pretty decent.
4. Being able to travel to a different planet in a spaceship is pretty groundbreaking, especially for a PlayStation 2 game that came out in 2002.

Trivia

• The game was originally set to star the character depicted in Traveler’s Tales’ old logo, as seen in this video.

Reception

Haven: Call of the King received mixed reception. The game was praised for it's large scale and platforming sections but was heavily criticized for shoe-horning too many different genres, it's lack of focus, and very poorly executed sequel-bait ending. Likewise, the game sold very poorly.

The game was planned to be the first part of a trilogy, but due to underwhelming reception and bad sales, the sequels were cancelled.

Comments

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SuperSonicKazooie

3 months ago

Score -1

In all honesty, this game doesn't look that bad at all. It got a 7.6 on GameSpot and a 7.4 on IGN. I wish it's sales were very strong, that way it would've had a trilogy.

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SpazJR61

3 months ago

Score 1

Do not rely on critics too much and IGN and GameSpot are unreliable sources.

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SuperSonicKazooie

3 months ago

Score 0

@SpazJR61: No no no, I wasn't trying to rely on critics too much about what I said. Just to let it be known as a disclaimer, I'm not dictating that as one of the reasons why I thought the game looks fun.

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Zeephare

3 months ago

Score 0

It's called a "personal opinion". The game wasn't generally well-received by critics, expect for IGN and GameSpot, and others who gave minimum 6/10.

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SuperSonicKazooie

3 months ago

Score 1

@Zeephare: Yes I'm aware that this is a "personal opinion" and I also know that the game received mixed opinions by critics, hence that's why I stated that I wasn't trying to rely on critics too much about what I said and also that I'm not dictating what they say or even GameSpot's and IGN's scores as one of the reasons why I thought the game looks fun as they have nothing to do with the game's qualities.

Therefore, to top it all off, I can respect both yours and SpazJR61's opinions on the game so please don't judge and/or criticize me for this.

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Zeephare

3 months ago

Score 1

Update for the first comment: Actually the game has 69/100 on Metacritic. This page lies about the reception. But the game aged poorly, as others say.

@SuperSonicKazooie I don't judge you. It's fine that you enjoy this game. I am neutral towards the game, mainly because I haven't a chance to play it.

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SuperSonicKazooie

3 months ago

Score 0

@Zeephare Ahh yes, I've heard it actually has a 69/100 on Metacritic which indicates "mixed or average" reception, and good thing someone edited what the reception initially said in this page before as it was a lie, even though it sadly flopped commercially.

Anyways thank you for not judging me. I can tell that you truly understand that I'm not dictating what the critics say or even GameSpot's and IGN's scores as one of the reasons why I thought it looks like a fun game as I know that those have nothing to do with the game's qualities. Because of that, we're good! 😎👍💯

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