I thought the gameplay is a bit meh, but haze is a story-centric game. Your fellow soldiers are meant to sound stupid, to make a contrast with the rebels that you join later.
As said before, the hole in the helmet symbolises him seeing the truth, as when the face mask is down, the nectar hides the horrors of war, so dead bodies dissapear due to nectar hiding them.
I think the problem is that they have taken the nectar infused gameplay too far, just to make it contrast with the second half. I did kind of feel addicted to nectar, but that was only because the enviroments were very drab, and even in a jungle, everything seemed very dark, and so the enemies just faded into that, effectively forcing you to use the nectar.
I think this game has a very interesting concept, but the gameplay is't quite there, and the voice acting probably does need some work. I think I will play the demo again to give it another go. I was not particually impressed the first time, though it was quite enjoyable playing co-op, and this is like the only PS3 games that I have that supports proper offline mp







