Issue 9
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Demo Impressions
The Tom Clancy series is back with another installment, and this time it takes to the skies. A demo for Tom Clancy’s HAWX was recently released on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace with PS3 and PC versions coming out later this month. I got my hands on the demo to give you a look at how Tom Clancy’s HAWX shapes up prior to its launch next month.
The Tom Clancy series has made a recognizable name for itself with its Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell series, although the past year they have branched out into new genres. Last fall, Ubisoft released EndWar, and next month HAWX will be released.
The demo consists of two parts. The first is a tutorial showing off the basics of the game; the second is a mission from the campaign. The tutorial introduces you to some of the features of HAWX. The ERS (Enhanced Reality System) shows you the optimum angle needed to intercept enemy units or to avoid incoming missiles. Basically it’s a feature for the casual player - that way even an amateur can feel like a Top Gun.
The other feature is the Assistance Mode. When you disable Assistance Mode, the camera goes to a third-person angle, which looks fantastic. This mode allows you to control your plane more effectively in dogfighting situations - and it looks awesome too. The only problem I had was that sometimes the camera wasn’t using the best angle, but it only seemed to do this when you are not in battle.
In the second mission you use everything you learned in the tutorial and apply it in a campaign mission. You take out enemy aircraft, ground targets and amphibious vehicles. The voice acting in the campaign mission was annoying as hell. One second he’s hollering about tanks - then when you get over there, he starts yelling about enemy planes. It gets ridiculous, but there is an option to turn it off.
In the final part of the mission you’re pitted against “aces.” Maybe it was just the demo, but these so-called “aces” were just as easy to kill as all the other enemy pilots in the mission. One of the best features of the demo is the 4 player co-op. I see co-op being a major selling point because gamers love playing co-op with their buddies. The whole single-player campaign will have 4 player co-op support. The full game will also support multiplayer modes with up to 16 players.
Graphically the game looks good. It runs at 60 frames per second and the planes and the ground terrain looks great. One of the coolest effects is watching your plane go supersonic. Another nice effect is the missile cam. Music and sound are what you would expect from a Tom Clancy game - both rock.
Overall, I thought the demo was good. In a genre that barely sees any games besides the Ace Combat series, Tom Clancy’s HAWX is a decent addition to it. HAWX will be released next month for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
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