History YMMV / HavenCallOfTheKing

* SoOkayItsAverage: ''Haven'' isn't a bad game, but it's not really what most people would call an "underrated gem" either. It's mixture of various gameplay styles into one game is handled competently enough, but none of them are anything outstanding. The story is also as detailed above, A complete ClicheStorm. Arguably the prime reason this game hasn't completely been forgotten is due to the [[DownerEnding infamous ending.]]

* SoOkayItsAverage: ''Haven'' isn't a bad game, but it's not really what many would call an ''underrated gem'' either. It's mixture of various gameplay styles into one game is handled competently enough, but none of them are anything outstanding either. The same could be said about the story as detailed above. Arguably, The infamous ending is the only reason people remember this game.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: As dissapointing ''Haven'' may be, one thing it does have going for it is a unique Final Fantasy-esque art style designed by the talented Rodney Matthews. The game's graphics, which were impressive for its time, certainly help.

* ClicheStorm: One of the main criticisms the game received was how extremely cookie-cutter the story and characters are. Haven himself is an archetypal wide-eyed boy scout with no character development or flaws to make him an interesting protagonist. The supporting characters don't fare any better in memorability, and the main antagonist himself, Vetch, is a stereotypical evil dark overload who wants to enslave the Galaxy, and the whole point of the story is for Haven to stop Vetch and free his people, which is a concept that has been done to death many times and the game does little to add to that formula.

* EndingAversion: If you already know the game's notoriously [[DownerEnding depressing ending]], and the fact that a sequel will almost certainly never happen, there's no point in getting invested in the game's story -- which as seen above, has its own share of problems anyways.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The game pretty much suffers from this if you're already aware of its DownerEnding. [[spoiler:The plot is more or less a ShootTheShaggyDog story at its bleakest, because despite Haven's efforts, he fails to both save his people and defeat Vetch, and ends up [[AndIMustScream being chained up for the rest of his life with no one to rescue him.]] And as mentioned on EndingAversion, why bother getting invested in the story and characters if you already know that everything ends badly?]]

* NightmareFuel:

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The game pretty much suffers from this if you're already aware of its DownerEnding. [[spoiler:The plot is more or less a ShootTheShaggyDog story at its bleakest, because despite Haven's efforts, he fails to both save his people and defeat Vetch, and ends up [[AndIMustScream being chained up for the rest of his life with no one to rescue him.]]]]

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The game pretty much suffers from this if you're already aware of its DownerEnding. [[spoiler:The plot is more or less a ShootTheShaggyDog story at its bleakest, because despite Haven's efforts, he fails to both save his people and defeat Vetch, and ends up [[AndIMustScream being chained up for the rest of his life with no one to rescue him.]]]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Vetch crossed it when he killed King Athellion.

* MoralEventHorizon:

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: As dissapointing ''Haven'' may be, it does have a unique Final Fantasy-esque art style designed by the talented Rodney Matthews. The game's graphics, which were impressive for its time, certainly help.

* UncertainAudience: A likely major factor as to why the game flopped so hard. It was hyped up big time by Midway, so much so that they went as far as coining the term "[=FreeFormer=]", as the developers wanted the game to incorporate all kinds of genres for the player to go through. Even if the game was able to efficiently juggle all these genres at once, the idea of incorporating so many different genres together is a hard sell. Being an action game and a platformer in one isn't a hard sell, but throwing in racing, space shooting, turret shooting and arena fighting doesn't bode well for people who like at least one of these genres but not so much the other. Granted, Franchise/RatchetAndClank and VideoGame/JakAndDaxter both tried to do the same thing, but those games did a much better job at implementing those elements.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: It also features an epic soundtrack composed by Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra.

* TheWoobie: Haven, especially at the end...

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: As mediocre ''Haven'' may be, it does have a unique Final Fantasy-esque art style designed by the talented Rodney Matthews. The game's graphics, which were impressive for its time, certainly help.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: As mediocre ''Haven'' may be, it does have a unique Final Fantasy-esque art style designed by the talented Rodney Matthews. The game's graphics, which were pretty for its time, certainly help.

* UncertainAudience: A likely major factor as to why the game flopped so hard. It was hyped up big time by Midway, so much so that they went as far as coining the term "[=FreeFormer=]", as the developers wanted the game to incorporate all kinds of genres for the player to go through. Even if the game was able to efficiently juggle all these genres at once, the idea of incorporating so many different genres together is a hard sell. Being an action game and a platformer in one isn't a hard sell, but throwing in racing, space shooting, turret shooting and arena fighting doesn't bode well for people who like at least one of these genres but not so much the other. Granted Franchise/RatchetAndClank and VideoGame/JakAndDaxter tried to do the same thing, but those games did a much better job at implementing those elements.

* UncertainAudience: A likely major factor as to why the game flopped so hard. It was hyped up big time by Midway, so much so that they went as far as coining the term "[=FreeFormer=]", as the developers wanted the game to incorporate all kinds of genres for the player to go through. Even if the game was able to efficiently juggle all these genres at once, the idea of incorporating so many different genres together is a hard sell. Being an action game and a platformer in one isn't a hard sell, but throwing in racing, space shooting, turret shooting and arena fighting doesn't bode well for people who like at least one of these genres but not so much the other. Granted Franchise/RatchetAndClank and Franchise/JakAndDaxter tried to do the same thing, but those games did a much better job at implementing those elements.

* UncertainAudience: A likely major factor as to why the game flopped so hard. It was hyped up big time by Midway, so much so that they went as far as coining the term "[=FreeFormer=]", as the developers wanted the game to incorporate all kinds of genres for the player to go through. Even if the game was able to efficiently juggle all these genres at once, the idea of incorporating so many different genres together is a hard sell. Being an action game and a platformer in one isn't a hard sell, but throwing in racing, space shooting, turret shooting and arena fighting doesn't bode well for people who like at least one of these genres but not so much the other.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The game pretty much suffers from this if you're already aware of how the game ends. [[spoiler:The plot is more or less a ShootTheShaggyDog story at its bleakest, because despite Haven's efforts, he fails to both save his people and defeat Vetch, and ends up [[AndIMustScream being chained up for the rest of his life with no one to rescue him.]]]]

* Narm: Whenever Haven interacts with another NPC, he always has this goofy, simple-minded looking toothy grin on his face while he listens to what they have to say.

* TearJerker: Regardless of what you think of the game, the ending is pretty damn solemn. [[spoiler: Haven failed to save his people and Athellion, was betrayed by his best friend, and is sentenced to a FateWorseThanDeath for the record books while Vetch goes on to enslave the galaxy.]]

* UncertainAudience: A likely major factor as to why the game flopped so hard. It was hyped up by ''Midway'' to the point of coining the term "[=FreeFormer=]", as the developers wanted the game to incorporate all kinds of genres for the player to go through. Even if the game was able to efficiently juggle all these genres at once, the idea of incorporating so many different genres together is a hard sell. Being an action game and a platformer in one isn't a hard sell, but throwing in racing, space shooting, turret shooting and arena fighting doesn't bode well for people who like at least one of these genres but not so much the other.

* UncertainAudience: The game was hyped up by ''Midway'' to the point of coining the term "[=FreeFormer=]", as the developers wanted the game to incorporate all kinds of genres for the player to go through. Even if the game did these genres well, the idea of incorporating so many different genres together is a hard sell. Being an action game and a platformer in one isn't a hard sell, but throwing in racing, space shooting, turret shooting and arena fighting doesn't bode well for people who like at least one of these genres but not so much the other.

* UncertainAudience: The game was hyped up by ''Midway'' to the point of coining the term "[=FreeFormer=]", as the developers wanted the game to incorporate all kinds of genres for the player to go through. Even if the game did these genres well, the idea of incorporating so many different genres together is a hard sell. Being an action game and a platformer in one isn't a hard sell, but throwing in racing, space shooting turret shooting doesn't bode well for people who like at least one of these genres but not so much the other.