Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. Review

And so the Tom Clancy universe expands to the skies.

My experience of flight simulators is relatively limited; I think the last one I played was Eagle One: Harrier Attack on the PlayStation after becoming completely indifferent to the so-called "Ace" Combat series.

However, with the Tom Clancy branding emblazoned all over the cover of H.A.W.X. (High Altitude Warfare Experimental squad, of course) it seemed that this could be a pretty solid game to set the standard of the genre.

I must admit, it does it pretty well to.

You're part of a crack team that flies jet fighters for mercenary organisation Artemis. It follows a fruitful contract with the US Air Force, which in its infinite wisdom decides to deactivate the contract with your character, David Crenshaw. Shortly after the contract falls through, you and your wingmen are snapped up by the group.



A law passed in the not-so-distant future allows such private military companies to exist and be contracted to battlefields in Afghanistan, Brazil, Mexico and the like, protecting the highest bidder from attackers whether they're legitimate or not. So far so unbelievable, although this job satisfaction inevitably takes a turn for the worse.

Given their contractual obligations, Artemis decides to become allied to a rogue organisation from South America and all hell breaks loose. As a moral powerhouse, Crenshaw and Co. decide their own country is probably the best bet and leave Artemis to halt their wicked ways.

So far, so Clancy. Still, those unconcerned with the storyline, or others who write it off as pretty paper-thin can still take solace in the gameplay, which is actually pretty fun.

The controls are pretty basic, which is nice. No landings or take-offs will complicate matters for the gamer, with a basic target-and-lock system taking care of the missiles. The machine gun is completely useless as per usual, although this didn't bother me in the slightest. Engaging with ground troops or fixed installations and other fighters works well.



The introduction of the Enhanced Reality System, ERS for short, brings a computer-generated triangular flight course for the gamer to attack complex targets on the floor (such as those surrounded by buildings on the ground), avoid missiles that are locked on to the plane fired by bogeys, or line up the perfect course to take out an engaged fighter.

However, as the foes become more adept, so does your fighting style. This is superbly, or luckily, timed to coincide with the player getting bored of the same old shoot-outs.

A quick double tap of the shoulder buttons puts you outside the plane in a fixed camera location, in turn disabling all major aids aside from missile lock. this allows you to see the chasing jets, first introduced through the use of basic drones in the storyline - they follow your every move. Through this, major dogfights are made much easier, allowing the player to perfect speed techniques, new lines of flight and missile avoidance in taking down targets.

This strikes up a balance in the game, effectively giving four choices of camera and allowing a more strategic element to gameplay. For instance, one of the latter missions requires you to take out radars, destroy anti-air frigates, protect bombers and halt the incoming jets from wiping out all and sundry. So, what do you do? Take out the fighters without ERS and hope the bombers can get past the water-based AA guns? It's hard to gauge. Still, if you get it wrong the first time, there's always another way for you to discover.



The fun train continues to chug along at a decent pace when you see that the game's developers have harnessed real mapping technology to give assaults on such cities as Rio de Janeiro a little added authenticity. This is largely great, especially if you feel the need to fly into O Cristo Redentor or soar over Estadio do Maracana while shooting baddies all over the place.

Still, fly that little bit too close and you'll discover that a lot of it is unforgivably pixellated, which is pretty ugly at times when playing in HD. Luckily, a lot of the levels take place in the desert, over the sea or very, very high in the air.

Unlockables are free flowing throughout the adventure too, including over 50 jets including all the weapons systems you could imagine. Not that it matters half the time; you usually unlock the one that's recommended for the next mission, with a weapons system that's only applicable to that mission, meaning the element of choice largely vanishes until the storyline's end.

It's not like it's the Gran Turismo of airfields either - they're all planes and very few people will care past the time-honoured five-star system of rating them and the fawning over how sexy they look.



So, in summary, the game's pretty decent. As with all flight sims, it's a flight sim - it can get pretty repetitive through its very nature. Still, it's gorgeous to look at for the most part, a new concept for the whole dogfighting scenario is much appreciated and the missions are varied and challenging. Tom Clancy fans will also likely get emotional over the brief inclusions of Scott Mitchell, the star of Ghost Recon.

If you want an aerial warfare game, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. will likely be the best option for you.

7.5/10

Matt Gardner