Tom Clancy's HAWX is an arcade modern fighter plane war game. Think of Ace Combat 5 on the PC (just not as good, but close). I bought a
Saitek Cyborg X just for this game. I hate flight simulators. I do. I can't stand how boring they are.
HAWX is a very fun game. You get an assortment of many different fighter and fighter/bomber craft. The weaponry load-out is unrealistic, except on the highest difficulty setting. Same goes for damage. Also the physics are certainly arcade-y, but one thing HAWX has that not even the Ace Combat Series has is a "Limiter Disengage" which basically takes you out of first person, throws you into third person (unless you are already there), then focuses you onto your target no matter what orientation you are at, and allows more "free" physics that can easily kill you and even allow to to stall, but gives you more of an aerobatic edge over the opponent.
The Single Player campaign is fun. Better with Co-op (YES CO-OP!). The problem with Co-Op, is only the Host gets any awards, unlocks, and promotions from the game. It is fun however, though you are limited in your first play-through because you don't get all of your weapon load-outs that you'll eventually get. You may not even get a chance to use the Cluser Bombs in-leu of the dumb bombs.
There's also some cameos of the Ghosts from Ghost Recon.
AI - The AI is decent. There isn't much needed however. Basically, they try to get behind you to obtain a lock and fire. This makes it so you are both constantly dancing around each other and trying to evade each other's missiles. Missiles are much easier to evade with the limiter off. Also, throwing yourself in a stall makes it real easy to flight your plane around and lock-on. The AI won't follow you into the ground, so usually you'll get a hit or two on them. That's great if you can get your engines up and going faster enough.
Multiplayer is alright. Its basically a lock-on fest if you play with the rules that most people play with. If you make it so load-outs are realistic then it gets interesting. The only problem is that the All Aspect Missiles are a bit overpowered. They can only be used in close range, but they'll almost always hit. And playing with an unrealistic load-out means more AAM's, but with a more realistic load-out means that you need to get in close and use your guns (and be in range of AAM's).
There is both ranked and unranked play as well.
Overall, I liked it a lot. The story wasn't strong, but it doesn't really matter. It is a fun game, that's for sure. I just wish there was more like it. I still wanted Ace Combat, but if they continue to make more modern fighter games like this then I'll be happy. The WWII ones are alright, but there's nothing like flying under bridges with afterburners on full, locking-on and blowing up AA, SAM's, Tanks, MLR's, etc. etc.
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Topic: Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X (Read 271 times)