Tom Clancy's HAWX Review

HAWX not only represents Ubisoft's first Tom Clancy game to utilise air forces for its gameplay, but also the first Clancy title to come out of the publisher's Bucharest studio. Less a flight sim and more an arcade experience of aerial warfare, HAWX is certainly closer to the likes of After Burner than it is F-15 Strike Eagle across the traditional dividing line of air combat games. Perhaps a more suitable comparison in modern times, however, is Namco Bandai's Ace Combat 6, which was released on Xbox 360 late in 2007.

In fact, the similarities between the two games are uncanny in parts. The mission structures of each pull you through a seemingly open battle map, although in reality it's cordoned off at an altitude of a few thousand metres and straying off the tactical map horizontally will lead to your plane inexplicably exploding. Within these confines, various checkpoints and targets are introduced to you in a scripted manner, with the general aim being to blow them up in one way or another before moving on to the next objective.

Fly-By-Wire

With that in mind, the key element in games such as these is having enough gameplay variation in their missions that the experience remains interesting throughout and doesn't become repetitive. It's a rule that applies to all games really, but one that's particularly relevant in this case as these types of flying game (because of their sprawling environments and often static targets) have had an annoying tendency to fall into tedious routines in the past. On the whole, avoiding these pitfalls is a job that HAWX does well - not exceptionally well by any stretch of the imagination - but well nonetheless.

Throughout the main campaign, Ubisoft Bucharest pulls enough tricks out of the bag to make the experience stimulating. You'll rarely feel like your endlessly trawling through wave after wave of faceless ground and air targets. Instead, there are escort missions where you'll have to protect bombers en-route to their destination - at one point you even have to assist in protecting Air Force One just outside of Washington DC. Streams of fighter jets will descend on your position and you'll have to dispense with them swiftly before they can get to the escorted plane. One of the early missions also has you defending ground troops (of the GRAW variety), while the voice-overs of radio traffic between each squad is enough to get your imagination flowing.

But away from these dogfight missions there is also plenty of fun to be had on the odd bombing run (utilising a neat targeting reticule on the ground), while other missions challenge you to take out ground targets while staying out of the range of multiple surface to air missile silos. Weapons are also suitably ranged and go far beyond the basic bombing, missile, and machine gun packages. You'll find variations within each weapon type, from cluster bombs to EMP blasts, and Multi AA missiles that let you take out four aerial targets at a time to other missiles that you can travel on-board with using a nifty missile cam.

Perhaps the most original features in HAWX, though, are the ERS (Enhanced Reality System) and Assistance modes. These are what take the game from being merely a competent title, to one that throws something exciting into the mix like Moroccan spices in a barbecue chicken marinade. While HAWX's three default camera views are pretty plain (pun not intended), boasting an entirely uninteresting cockpit view, another that displays the cockpit HUD, and a third that roles from just behind the afterburner, an exhilarating fourth option is introduced about five missions into the main campaign to knock things up a notch.

This option, which allows players to toggle an Assistance Mode on and off by double-tapping the trigger buttons, presents a camera view from a couple of hundred metres off the plane's wingtips. The camera angle then revolves automatically around the plane (albeit sometimes rather awkwardly), but does allow you to pull off some of the most ridiculous aerial manoeuvres we've seen in a flying game. This is particularly evident in some of the fly-by-wire planes (e.g. the Typhoon or F-35), which you can very literally get to hover a few metres above the ground, with the nose pointing skywards and the afterburners burning a hole into the ground, if you have the skill and precision to do so.

This is obviously particularly useful for dogfights, which are turned from a fairly drab and predictable affair into something with a bit more bite to it (it's amazing what the application of some anti-gravity will do). As a counterpoint, Ubisoft Bucharest has also developed an ERS feature to help less frequent game flyers. Designed to aid players as they seek out dug-in targets like tanks and anti-aircraft emplacements, the ERS projects a series of hoops into the sky in front of you that lead you on the correct flight path for a successful bombing run.

Likewise, the ERS can also be used to evade missiles that enemy fighters have fired at you. Flares are pretty useful for this as well and can be ejected with a click of the left thumbstick. Generally speaking, Ubisoft Bucharest has designed a well balanced cat and mouse mechanic for dogfights, which can have their tables turned in a split-second of quick thinking and also play-out differently depending on the plane model you are using. Quicker and more modern planes (which are unlocked later in the game) can evade missiles more easily using speed and agility, while older planes are quite literally cannon fodder and lack the missile load-outs to challenge faster jet fighters (in the game's early stages at least).

There is a downside to this though, which becomes painfully evident in the multiplayer deathmatches and is due to the XP system that HAWX employs. Ubisoft Bucharest has opted for an XP system that is consistent throughout all areas of the multiplayer and single-player game. The more you play either on or offline, the more XP you gain, allowing you to unlock better planes and weapons. The fact that these unlockables are consistent throughout the single and multiplayer games is troublesome though, as it means that you simply won't be competitive in the multiplayer games for the first few hours of gaming. On the other hand, it's not as if Clancy games haven't employed XP systems like this in the past, but there's no escaping the fact that it's particularly crippling for noobs in HAWX.

Terrainical Environments

The multiplayer options aren't particularly deep either, offering only an 8 player team deathmatch and co-op missions from the main campaign for up to 4 players online. This can be added to a single-player campaign that's certainly on the short side, boasting little more than six hours of gameplay for a single run-through of the story. The lack of sleek production in the main campaign is also telling. Despite a promising near-future storyline which investigates the role of private military contractors in a globalised age, this storyline consistently fails to pack any punch and is mostly told through simplistic mission briefings. Occasionally you're treated to data screens that show webcam style communiqués from key characters in the story, but these are less than impressive visually and fail to drag gamers into a tangible or convincing game world, resulting in little if any sense of immersion for most of the game.

Graphically, HAWX is noticeably less impressive than 2007's Ace Combat 6. Plane models lack the detail and stunning impact of Namco Bandai's attempts. There are next-gen effects like High Dynamic Range lighting darting off the fuselage's of HAWX's jets, but the lack of anti-aliasing makes for aircraft that are a bit jagged looking around the edges. HAWX does equal Ace Combat 6 in some visual areas though - unfortunately, they are the most unimpressive areas of Namco Bandai's game. Where 3D textures do appear on HAWX's terrains, they are revoltingly square and pixelated at close range, while the vast majority of ground level objects are merely sprites - it's all a bit 2002 for our liking.           
                     
Sound is pretty good, demonstrating good voice-over work between members of your squad that's rarely repetitive, while the sound effects are equally pleasing. Switching on the afterburner results in a pleasing roar and our particular favourite - the shockwave that's let out as you pass through the sound barrier - is exactly as thunderous as it should be.