tom clancy's hawx - fun but ends in a flat spin.

Review written by KatanOmega on 3/17/09
Last edited on 3/17/09

We all saw Top Gun as kids and everyone wanted to be Maverick pulling g’s in an F-14, ever since the Video Game industry has been trying to give us that in games. Not many games have been able to do it, actually I can’t think of a single game that has been able to pull it off. Does HAWX succeed where all others have failed, read further to find out.

Graphically HAWX seems to excel in some areas and fall short in other. A lot of flight combat games end up having mushy textures that look good when you are flying high, but when you go on a bombing run you see how little detail is there. The HAWX development team did an outstanding job of correcting this short coming. There are still a few spots that you will see some low rez crappy textures but for the most part HAWX boasts the most realistic ground environment mapping I’ve seen in a flight combat game.

From Wikipedia “Tom Clancy's HAWX uses a new high resolution image program. HAWX uses GeoEye’s commercial Earth-imaging IKONOS satellite system. The HAWX development team worked closely with GeoEye so that satellite images could be used in the game's sixteen level's environment. "High-resolution satellite imaging is moving from the black world of intelligence to the white world of commerce, and Tom Clancy's HAWX will bring that reality to gamers," says Mark Brender”.

Now I’m not sure what all that means but I’m pretty sure he is telling us how they made the pretty ground.

On the other side of the coin, the aircraft models and textures could be better. I expected my planes to be much more realistic but ended feeling like I was playing a ported PS2 Ace Combat.

The story takes place in the near future where you are an ex-air force combat pilot recruited into Artemis a private military company or “PMC” for short. Apparently the story takes place along the same timeline as the ghost recon games and you will actually fly a couple of missions in support of the Ghosts. Who Fucking cares, seriously if anybody came to me and told me the loved a Tom Clancy story I would tie them up and light them on fire. This is the same bullshit we have been seeing for years; I could almost recite the entire plotline of any Tom Clancy story in my sleep. Big bad guy gets his hands on a big bad weapon, send in elite team to hand big bad guy his ass, game over. Ok though, I didn’t buy this game so I could be entertained by the story, I bought it because I wanted to shoot shit down.

The game play while innovative is kind of repetitive and lacks substance. This is where a good story really could have helped things out. If you’re into flight sims and love a more realistic flight combat game this is not the game for you. There is just enough physics in this game to make your plane stall, but only in really extreme circumstances. The ability to power slide your aircraft is more reminiscent of Burnout than a flight game, but actually works and is entertaining.

The AI is adequate, but if you want a challenge you are going to have to play on hard or very hard, because the amount of damage doled out by the enemy AI is close to nothing on normal. Increasing the difficulty level does not boost the AI intelligence at all but it does increase the damage they do.

The multiplayer is fun but broken. A simple patch that balances out missile damage and lock on glitching will make multiplayer an entertaining experience. Until then though higher ranking players that have unlocked the broken weapon systems will rule the sky. The 4 player co-op is where this game really shines. Playing through missions that are frankly uninspired and repetitive with the AI ally’s would have been unbearable but with a team it defiantly made it easier. Here is the thing though, unless you are hosting the game you do not get credit for playing the level. You get your experience points, but no achievement and no record that you beat that level. OMGWTF!

In conclusion, HAWX is a weekend game that I will probably never revisit. That’s not saying it does not have some good points to it, but the fact that co-op, and multiplayer are broken makes me angry and when a game angers me I usually do not go back to it. These two components are the main features that promote replayability in a game and if you’re going to put them in your game make sure that there are not major fucking issues at launch. HAWX unfortunately failed to give me that Top Gun feeling, maybe the next flight combat game coming down the pipe will.