Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Posted 07/25/09 at 11:00:34 AM by Norman Chan
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Best played to the tune of Kenny Loggins's Danger Zone
Despite what you see in the screenshots in this review, H.A.W.X. is as much a flight simulator as Burnout Paradise is a driving sim. Ubisoft’s latest liberty with the Tom Clancy franchise is more akin to Descent or Wing Commander than it is to Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X. It’s an arcade shooter that cares more about maintaining a high explosion-per-minute ratio than realism or even proper physics. That means fighter jets with 200-plus capacity payloads, a dearth of takeoffs and landings, and an army of AI-controlled enemy units that are more than willing to fly straight into your missiles for the greater pyrotechnic glory.
As David Crenshaw, former leader of the Air Force’s elite H.A.W.X. squadron, you’ve now turned to the private sector to pay the bills and catch the thrills. In the first half of the game, Artemis Global Security hires you to guard oil refineries and bomb military bases for the highest bidder, which—shocker—eventually has you at odds with the U.S. government. Ever the patriot, this twist sends you back into the arms of Uncle Sam and you spend the rest of the game defending America from an all-out invasion.
Weaving between the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago is possible but not recommended.
The missions, which range from aerial escorts to bombing runs, each last about 20 minutes, and have you taking on enemies from land, sea, and air. Wiping out waves of tanks, boats, and patrolling helicopters becomes brutally mundane, since these enemies never pose a real threat to you and are easily dispatched with auto-locking missiles. Dogfights with other jets fare much better, as we actually had to evade homing missiles or out-flank ace pilots with fancy flight maneuvers.
But the real fun comes from the varied locales where we conducted our fiery aerial ballets. Our hearts raced as we jetted across the skies over Cape Canaveral to ward off dozens of bogies threatening an in-progress space shuttle launch, and a desperate defense of Air Force One after the battle for Washington DC was nothing short of epic. We didn’t mind that the story was farfetched; the gripping urgency and deft dramatic flair packed into these scenarios reminded us of a nail-biting episode of television’s 24—from one of the good seasons.
The arcade physics lets you fly straight down toward a battleship and bank up just before you hit the deck.
The later scenarios also featured interesting challenges to keep us on our toes. One assault on a series of broadcast towers, for example, required that we fly below a certain altitude to avoid radar detection. Having a low flight ceiling forced us to adjust our speed and use evasion as opposed to direct engagement.
We played the game with both a gamepad and joystick, and the latter is definitely our preferred control system. Hardware buffs will be bummed though, because even though you can unlock aircraft ranging from Cold-War era MIGs to fifth-generation jets like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, they all handle the same. A third-person perspective mode lets you staff for “advanced” flight tactics, but we still enjoyed playing from the non-functioning virtual cockpit more. But even given all that, H.A.W.X. is a pretty enjoyable action game—we just know it could be so much more.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Afterburn
Fast-paced action, exciting mission scenarios, and maps that use satellite imagery.
Sunburn
Dumb opponents, unrealistic physics, unrewarding unlock system.
yea this is a pretty old
Submitted by austin43 on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 9:09pm
yea this is a pretty old review, but the pc games market is pretty dry this time of year, just wait til fall and you'll see all kinds of good reviews :). l4d2, crysis 2, modern warfare 2, oh i am getting all giddy just thinking about it.
Submitted by Stever on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 6:27am
I couldn't get the demo to run on Vista, so gave up. Was pretty frustrating as I was looking forward to using my HOTAS. But, since I couldn't even get the demo to run, after way too much time troubleshooting and trying everything I could find online, I gave up and downloaded the demo on my PS3.
I played the demo and it
Submitted by Caboose on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 12:25pm
I played the demo and it was alright. The training mission is absolutely boring and the fact that you are FORCED to play it is just stupid. I honestly which you could skip it, or be given the option to play it when you start a new game (the first time).
One thing I noticed is that there was both DX9 and DX10 versions (different EXE's). I'm surprised MPC didn't mention that. There is a bit of a difference between the DX9 and DX10 versions. I mostly noticed it in lighting and shadows. There was also a bit more detail on aircraft and scenery. However I had mucho difficulty running the game in DX10 mode. It'd sometimes just go to a black screen, and when I'd Alt+Tab or bring up task manager, I'd see the game menu flash on screen. I haven't tried since the patch came out, but I should and see if it's been fixed...
I really wish that voice worked properly in the game. I've yet to get it to work at all. Would make online play much more enjoyable.
Speaking of online play, that is one aspect of the game which is absolutely horrible. Trying to find a game in progress, I'd have to leave the game running for 10-15min before I could find anyone in the lobby, and even then there'd only be a few games going on with really high pings. There needs to be more online components. Such as deathmatch, squad deathmatch, air superiority (you and your squad against wave after wave of enemy planes which get more difficult as you continue), or even a Versus mode, where you get to pilot an enemy plane. It would not be so hard to include those types of gameplay.
It took a patch, before you could adjust the sensitivity of your joystick. I found that the unpatched version left too large of a deadspot, so quickly manouvering became difficult. Maybe I'm used to Ace Combat and PC flight sims.
Even for an arcade flight sim, they left out a number of things, and did a few things rather poorly. I wish I could throttle down to 0 (idle) power instead of throttling down to brake, and then it automatically throttles back up. I'd rather set a button on my joystick for the air brakes.And whats with the lack of HUD and actual instruments that move and show real data when in cockpit view? Id like to be able to look around a bit when I'm in the cockpit using the HAT (yes, thats what it's called) on my joystick. I can look around in console Arcade flight sims, why not a PC arcade flight sim?
All in all, it's a decent game, needed some more work before it was released I think. Maybe it'll be opened up to the modding community??
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
I tried playing the demo and
Submitted by I Jedi on Sat, 07/25/2009 - 10:33am
I tried playing the demo and although I found the game enjoyable to a degree, I could not see the justification in spending $50 dollars for something I knew I wasn't going to beat the whole way through.
Submitted by comptech08 on Sat, 07/25/2009 - 9:15am
when was this game released?
If your looking for a better
Submitted by DBsantos77 on Sat, 07/25/2009 - 9:13am
If your looking for a better flight sim & shooter, look no further then Ace Combat.
So MPC does reviews on
Submitted by AntiHero on Sat, 07/25/2009 - 9:06am
So MPC does reviews on games now? All ways, I liked this game for just a "what else is there to do" game, not a "i gotta play this" game.
I don't like Microsoft, I associate with it.
Submitted by comptech08 on Sat, 07/25/2009 - 9:16am
what do you mean now? They have been doing it for a long long time.
Submitted by AntiHero on Sat, 07/25/2009 - 10:04am
I know, but not like that, and not really games like HAWX. More the popular games of the "now".
I don't like Microsoft, I associate with it.
Submitted by I Jedi on Sat, 07/25/2009 - 10:36am
H.A.W.X. is relatively the "now" as you put it. It's a few months old, given, but the game only just came out relatively speaking.
Submitted by punditguy on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 4:23am
Relative to "Oregon Trail," yeah -- H.A.W.X. is relatively new. I just don't understand the need to review a title that's been out for 5 to 6 months. They did the same thing with "Burnout Revenge" not too long ago.
___________________________________________
Preferred boot, but will give this Maximum PC thing a try.
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