It was only a matter of time before the Tom Clancy series broke free from land and took to the skies with deadly intent in a military, jet-powered dogfighting game. In Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X, you'll settle inside the cockpit of a series of custom outfitted fighter jets to test your dogfighting wits and tactics against air, ground, and sea forces.
PMC Squadron
Your training and initial mission finds you in the comfortably familiar confines of the U.S. Air Force, but it's not long before your squadron is decommissioned, a casualty of the Air Force's increased reliance on unmanned fighter planes. While Uncle Sam might have moved on to cold, calculating computer-powered fighters, the Private Military Corporation (PMC) Artemis Global Security is only too eager to snap you up and make use of you and your squad's elite skill set.
Players want to shred entire platoons of enemy tanks, gunboats, and attack choppers while turning, burning, and juking their way through the skies.
This shift from the government to private sector sets off a chain reaction of political and military intrigue, as the game explores the muddy and morally ambiguous world of PMC forces. In terms of gameplay, Artemis accepts contracts from all over the world, so you will rain down support and death across South America, Central Asia, and even the United States of America, among many other exotic and familiar locations.
Arcade Realism
While grounded in Tom Clancy-approved reality, H.A.W.X treads the fine line between simulation and arcade shooters. After all, no one wants to fly with a realistic payload, only able to tackle a small handful of targets and enemy fighters for an entire mission.
Instead, players want to shred entire platoons of enemy tanks, gunboats, and attack choppers while turning, burning, and juking their way through the skies to create the perfect intercept angle and line up missile-locks and gunfire on enemy planes. H.A.W.X allows you to do precisely this as you take on epic, tense engagements at every turn.
Dogfighting Mechanics
While your plane's payloads are stretched beyond realism, the handling and capabilities of your fighters are firmly grounded in realistic physics. Planes pitch (Left Thumbstick), yaw (LB, RB), accelerate and decelerate (Left Trigger, Right Trigger) much as you would expect, allowing you to combine your own internal sense of logic and the game's well refined mechanics to inform your quick-witted strategies.
Perhaps most interesting though in terms of the controls are the Assistance On/Off and ERS mechanics. Here's how they work:
Assistance On/Off: In keeping with the arcade/realism balance, Assistance On curtails your control of the plane in favor of keeping you from endangering the aircraft with ill-conceived maneuvers. Or, you can enable Assistance Off to gain more subtle control of the jet to pull off daring and precise maneuvers. This puts the plane at greater risk; for example, stalling is a very real danger with Assistance Off.
ERS:This remarkable addition to fighter-jet UI takes the form of virtual, glowing gates showcasing an easy path for both evasion and interception. If an enemy fires off a missile at you, enabling ERS will show you how best to dodge the missile without having to employ flares.
Hands Free
Also worthy of special consideration is Ubisoft's use of voice commands during gameplay. Don your Xbox 360 Headset and use your voice for greater combat efficiency. Want to let loose a missile? Say "Fire." Likewise, "double" fires two missiles, "radar" brings up your TACMAP, and "decoy" launches flairs.
Level Up
Every kill you notch and special objective you complete earns experience points toward increasing your level from lowly Private First Class all the way to General. New levels unlock access to new fighter jets and even different weapon payloads with which to outfit your fighter. Kitting your jet properly is particularly important as each pre-mission briefing breaks down the percentage of air, ground, air defense, or naval forces you'll likely encounter.
Cooperative Aces
Your A.I. squad mates are valuable commodities, and they can and will outperform you if you're not on the ball. But nothing quite replaces the thrill and camaraderie found when playing cooperatively with a friend or fellow gamer. When you're focusing on ground targets only to have a bogey tuck in on your six and start lining you up for missile lock, there are few things as satisfying as having your wingman light them up before they let one fly. Every single mission can be played cooperatively in the game.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X for Xbox 360® brings to bear one of gaming's most powerful and respected franchises on a genre that has seen too little fanfare in recent years. Daring air combat awaits, so buckle up, soldier.
PMC Squadron
Your training and initial mission finds you in the comfortably familiar confines of the U.S. Air Force, but it's not long before your squadron is decommissioned, a casualty of the Air Force's increased reliance on unmanned fighter planes. While Uncle Sam might have moved on to cold, calculating computer-powered fighters, the Private Military Corporation (PMC) Artemis Global Security is only too eager to snap you up and make use of you and your squad's elite skill set.
Players want to shred entire platoons of enemy tanks, gunboats, and attack choppers while turning, burning, and juking their way through the skies.
This shift from the government to private sector sets off a chain reaction of political and military intrigue, as the game explores the muddy and morally ambiguous world of PMC forces. In terms of gameplay, Artemis accepts contracts from all over the world, so you will rain down support and death across South America, Central Asia, and even the United States of America, among many other exotic and familiar locations.
Arcade Realism
While grounded in Tom Clancy-approved reality, H.A.W.X treads the fine line between simulation and arcade shooters. After all, no one wants to fly with a realistic payload, only able to tackle a small handful of targets and enemy fighters for an entire mission.
Instead, players want to shred entire platoons of enemy tanks, gunboats, and attack choppers while turning, burning, and juking their way through the skies to create the perfect intercept angle and line up missile-locks and gunfire on enemy planes. H.A.W.X allows you to do precisely this as you take on epic, tense engagements at every turn.
Dogfighting Mechanics
While your plane's payloads are stretched beyond realism, the handling and capabilities of your fighters are firmly grounded in realistic physics. Planes pitch (Left Thumbstick), yaw (LB, RB), accelerate and decelerate (Left Trigger, Right Trigger) much as you would expect, allowing you to combine your own internal sense of logic and the game's well refined mechanics to inform your quick-witted strategies.
Perhaps most interesting though in terms of the controls are the Assistance On/Off and ERS mechanics. Here's how they work:
Assistance On/Off: In keeping with the arcade/realism balance, Assistance On curtails your control of the plane in favor of keeping you from endangering the aircraft with ill-conceived maneuvers. Or, you can enable Assistance Off to gain more subtle control of the jet to pull off daring and precise maneuvers. This puts the plane at greater risk; for example, stalling is a very real danger with Assistance Off.
ERS:This remarkable addition to fighter-jet UI takes the form of virtual, glowing gates showcasing an easy path for both evasion and interception. If an enemy fires off a missile at you, enabling ERS will show you how best to dodge the missile without having to employ flares.
Hands Free
Also worthy of special consideration is Ubisoft's use of voice commands during gameplay. Don your Xbox 360 Headset and use your voice for greater combat efficiency. Want to let loose a missile? Say "Fire." Likewise, "double" fires two missiles, "radar" brings up your TACMAP, and "decoy" launches flairs.
Level Up
Every kill you notch and special objective you complete earns experience points toward increasing your level from lowly Private First Class all the way to General. New levels unlock access to new fighter jets and even different weapon payloads with which to outfit your fighter. Kitting your jet properly is particularly important as each pre-mission briefing breaks down the percentage of air, ground, air defense, or naval forces you'll likely encounter.
Cooperative Aces
Your A.I. squad mates are valuable commodities, and they can and will outperform you if you're not on the ball. But nothing quite replaces the thrill and camaraderie found when playing cooperatively with a friend or fellow gamer. When you're focusing on ground targets only to have a bogey tuck in on your six and start lining you up for missile lock, there are few things as satisfying as having your wingman light them up before they let one fly. Every single mission can be played cooperatively in the game.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X for Xbox 360® brings to bear one of gaming's most powerful and respected franchises on a genre that has seen too little fanfare in recent years. Daring air combat awaits, so buckle up, soldier.
XBOX game reviews
02.44
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