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Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. was released for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 back in March 2009. At that time the game was too repetitive, with nice graphics if you look from high above, some low resolution textures on close-ups and was linked with the story of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. The follow-up, H.A.W.X. 2, promises more mission variety, improved graphics, better controls and the same arcade-style approach. It’s time to find out if the second game in the series, developed by Ubisoft Romania, is worth our time and money.
The story is based around three pilots (from USA, UK and Russia), as they are fighting a new global crisis. The action takes place in different locations, like Middle East, Russia and Norway. The story is told through cutscenes before every mission and through in-game videos. Unfortunately, the storytelling is poor and the voice acting doesn’t really do much to improve it. The lack of twists makes the story uninteresting and you won’t have any motivation to find out what happens next. You’ll change identities, much like in Call of Duty and there is nearly no link between the story of each of the three pilots. There is still one good thing in the storyline though, and Tom Clancy fans will surely notice it. It’s the appearance of Hunter from Splinter Cell Conviction. I am a big fan of the Splinter Cell franchise myself and my second eye opened for a moment when he appeared on the right corner of the screen. This guy looks like it was imported directly from Splinter Cell, because his character design and voice acting are way above the rest of the game.
The graphics are poor. All textures are low-resolution, on close-up, the ground looks plain and the trucks look like cardboard boxes. The plane models are ok and the smoke coming from the rockets looks very good in the middle of a dogfight, but the explosions look funny at best. The cutscenes are rendered with the in-game engine, but the character models are poorly designed and the lip sync is bad. I was amazed of how beautiful the satellite images can look from high altitude, so I tried to stay at around 5000m at all times.
As said earlier, the voice acting in poor. The engine of the aircraft sounds realistic, but the weapons are not so impressive. The overall sound value isn’t too great and it can’t create that atmosphere you are looking for.
The mission variety was drastically improved over the first installment. There is no more dogfight after dogfight repetition. Now, you’ll get missions where you need to spy on the enemy using UAVs and others where you’ll have to support the ground units with an AC-130. There are also some stealth missions where you’ll have to fly at over 5000m and use nightvision. I won’t spoil all the fun for you, but there’s lots of variety in the game. There are two air-refueling sequences in the single-player campaign and they can quickly become very frustrating. Talking of frustration, the last moments in the game are frustration incarnate. I was 2 attempts away from giving up and writing this review. I almost couldn’t finish the game because of that last few minutes.
The air combat isn’t fun at all, because destroying the enemy is as simple as locking on him and fire two heat-seeking missiles. To dodge the incoming fire, you can just fly in circles. Sorry Ubisoft, but flying in circles all day to finish this game isn’t my definition of fun. If you’re new to this kind of games, you’ll probably want to start the game on rookie, because the AI can be pretty tough at times, especially when you’re followed by 10 missiles. In the end, you’ll get the hang of it and you’ll have no problem beating the AI on veteran, after a week or so.
The entire campaign and all the other game modes can be played in co-op, with up to four players. The other modes include Survival (where you have to fight against 10 waves of enemies), arcade (where you can play only with a specific loadout) and free ride (where you can fly around the beautiful locations). The multiplayer 4 versus 4 mode is fun at first, but you’ll get bored of it quickly. You have a set amount of time to score as many points as you can by destroying the enemy planes and their AI-controlled ground units. You will gain experience with each plane and unlock new ones. There is also an overall XP system that will add every point from single and multiplayer, unlocking new survival and arcade maps.
Conclusion:
Uninteresting story, poor graphics, but with nice satellite technology in it, strange sounds and voice acting, weak level of immersion, varied gameplay, but with too many frustrating moments and a boring multiplayer component. This game will last you around 6 hours in the campaign and maybe another 3 or 4 in the co-op and competitive modes.
We’d like to thank Ubisoft Romania for giving us the review copy of the game. The game was reviewed based on the PlayStation 3 version.
Story: 6.5
Graphics: 7.5
Sound: 7
Gameplay: 7
Multiplayer: 7
7/10
