Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X

_Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X_ is the latest in a long line of games to have the infamous Clancy name associated with it, but it is the first combat flight simulator to do so. It appears that Ubisoft wants every genre to have some sort of Tom Clancy game available: _Rainbow Six_ has got the first person shooter covered; _Ghost Recon_, the 3rd person shooter; _Splinter Cell_ has your stealth action fix and the recent _End War_, your real-time strategy. Luckily, all of the above have been at worst of a good standard, with quite a few of them being fantastic (looks at _GRAW_), so who can blame Ubisoft for diversifying even more; as long as the games are good, who cares?

Like all the Tom Clancy games, _H.A.W.X_ is set in the near future, 2012 to be exact, with the events taking place in between those seen in _Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2_ and _End War_. The game is set in the same universe of all the previously mentioned Clancy games; a few missions even include characters from _GRAW_ and there are small references to other story elements featured in the other Clancy games, such as Third Echelon, a division found in _Splinter Cell_. And although fans will like these nods, the story is rather generic and most of the twists are predictable. You play as David Crenshaw, who at first is a U.S fighter pilot but quickly becomes hired by a private military company (PMC), defending the air for the highest bidder. PMCs seem to be the hip topic at the moment, with _Metal Gear Solid 4’s_ entire plot centred around them, and, considering the PMC you’re hired by has enough military might to take on the U.S.A, it is a bit different from what you’ve seen before. Story elements are conveyed throughout the game in two different ways; firstly there are pre-mission briefings which mostly comprise of a map with a video of someone telling you what’s going on. These aren’t very engaging and simply tell you what you’re going to be shooting at in the next mission; I don’t normally skip this sort of thing but I was extremely tempted this time round. Secondly, objective changes or simply extra information are given to you, mid-mission, through picture-in-picture video of whoever might be talking. These are used to good effect, and actually give the story some impact. It was much better to see the story twists occur mid-mission than through the boring mission briefing map screen; some of it was truly exciting, sort of…

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The campaign is split up into 19 missions, all of which can be replayed once you’ve unlocked them for the first time. There are three difficulty levels; there isn’t an easy mode but normal makes up for it; I completed the single player on normal in about 5 hours and only had to restart one mission a few times. It really wasn’t challenging. Increasing the difficulty doesn’t seem to improve the enemy AI either, it simply reduces the amount of weapons you have and increases the amount of damage you take from enemy fire.

OK, so the story isn’t great but _H.A.W.X_ does have other things going for it; most importantly, the gameplay is right on target. _H.A.W.X_ (which stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron, by the way) is the 2009 version of _Ace Combat_ and honestly that’s about it. They play almost identically but, luckily, there hasn’t been an _Ace Combat_ game for years so _H.A.W.X_ does feel fresh. It’s nice to have a good arcade flight sim back on a console. The combat revolves mostly around the same thing; you line up your target, wait until you get “tone” (i.e. the courser changes from yellow to red) and fire. You do this over and over again, and it does get slightly repetitive but it works well and does make you feel like you’re in the action. There’s also a considerable range of weapons available, and extra ones are unlocked as you progress. There’s a pretty good selection, although most of them operate in the same way; there’s all purpose, anti-air and multiple target missiles as well as free-fall bombs (which causes a large circle to appear below your plane, as opposed to the normal targeting system). There’s also the old school cannon which, compared to the other weapons, is much harder to use, simply because it is completely manual without auto-aim at all; it is useful, but only when your missiles are reloading. Considering that _H.A.W.X_ is an arcade game, you have plenty of armaments; even on hard you have 80+ missiles, just a few more than the 6 most of these planes can actually carry. Saying that, this game would be rubbish if it was realistic; having a stupid amount of firepower is one of the main reasons it’s fun.

The way each plane flies is also excellent, they move just like you’d expect million dollar fighter jets to move. There’s also a distinct feel to how each of the different planes control; some are light and nimble while others are slow and heavy. There are multiple camera options to fly your plane from, the one I used the most was situated behind the plane but there are also two different in-cockpit views. The combat is great but, due to the genre of the game, you simply don’t get the connection you do with the other Tom Clancy games. You’re just bombing the crap out of the bad guys from a mile away. It isn’t as intimate as _Ghost Recon_ when you’re cowering behind a wall while being suppressed by tens of Mexican rebels.

In _H.A.W.X_ you gain experience for everything that you do, whether it’s single player or online in the multiplayer. Any kills that you make or objectives that you complete give you points which, once you have enough, take you to the next level. On moving up to the next level you unlock new planes and weapon packages, which all add to your ever increasing arsenal. On completion of the single player campaign I had reached level 20, half way to the maximum, so there’s definitely some replay value to be had. You also get experience point bonuses by completing challenges; these range from using a certain amount of missiles to travelling at Mach 2 for over an hour. There are loads of these challenges to complete which really adds some depth to the game, you’ll be playing it for hours to try and get them all. Saying that, I don’t think many people will really want to complete the game 100%. Despite adding intensity and making the game last longer after finishing the campaign, the level system doesn’t help the generally repetitive nature of what you’re doing; it’s still the same game after all.

The multiplayer also adds to the overall package and it’s surprisingly fun. Currently, only Team Deathmatch is available; here, two teams of four fight it out, the team with the most kills wins. The combat is identical to that found in the single player, but there are some additions that spice up the gameplay. Once you’ve racked up a big enough kill streak you can activate special abilities that either help your team or hinder the opposition. These range from creating a maximum altitude barrier for the enemy team to improving the damage capabilities of your team’s missiles; the whole thing feels very similar to that found in _Call of Duty 4_. These abilities make the online matches exciting and can really change the outcome of the battle; most of the online games that I’ve played have been really neck and neck. Multiplayer is probably the only way you’ll ever reach level 40, and it looks like it’s do-able if you really got into the online component.

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_H.A.W.X_ holds its own graphically too. Considering the sheer scale of the majority of the maps you’re flying over, the detail is very impressive. The plane models look awesome; with some sharp textures and an accurate representation of each, they look just like the real thing. The landscape textures are taken from satellite data so they’re also very impressive. They can get a bit murky once you’re only 40 metres above them, but that’s to be expected. It’s how populated the scenery is that makes it look better than most flight sims; cities have hundreds of buildings while forest locations are filled with trees. It’s the first console flight sim I’ve played that doesn’t feel sparse, the _Blazing Angels_ franchise could learn a thing or two here. Explosions also look great, especially those from missiles; they look full and not like a texture popping up in mid air. The same can be said for the clouds, they look volumetric and solid, again not like they’ve just been painted onto the sky; nice clouds make me happy. And even though the game is big on scale and normally has a lot going on, it runs perfectly on the PS3. I didn’t have any problems with frame-rate even when playing online. This might be to do with the 5GB hard drive install the game needs before you can even start playing it; having to wait half an hour really wasn’t fun!

Finally, sound design. There isn’t too much to say about this; there isn’t really a soundtrack but sound is used throughout the game as an addition to the gameplay. For example, once your plane has locked onto the enemy, not only does the targeting recital turn red but there’s also a “locked on” sound just like the real thing (well, from what I saw in Top Gun). There’s also good radio chatter present in most of the game as well as a nice sonic boom once you break the speed of sound. What is rather useful is the annoying beeping noise that occurs when a missile is about to hit you; unsurprisingly, I heard that noise a lot.

_H.A.W.X_ could have been the start of Ubisoft milking the Tom Clancy franchise for all it’s worth but, although it’s not excellent like the _Ghost Recon_ games or _Rainbow Six_, it’s still a good game overall. I loved _Ace Combat_ and _H.A.W.X_ reminds me greatly of that, but I wish they could’ve figured out how to make the game less repetitive. _H.A.W.X_ is a bit of an old school throwback and surprisingly it’s still enjoyable today.