Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2
How does the flight combat sequel stack up?
Posted September 8, 2010
From the folks at Ubisoft Romania that brought the first HAWX game to the 360 and PS3, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 rolled out on store shelves this week, much to the delight of modern, flight combat gamers. The narrative is typical Clancy style, bunny hopping around to pilots from different nationalities (Russian, British, American). The story revolves around missing nuclear warheads and the missions that are required to keep them out of enemy hands. Also typical to Clancy books, there’s enough military lingo in the game to make your head spin. The story isn’t terribly captivating, but more due to the source material rather than the presentation.
The core of the game is obviously flight combat and Ubisoft has definitely taken some strides since the first HAWX title. Opposite from the previous game, you can now takeoff and land on runways opposed to starting the missions in mid-air. Taking off is pretty simple, but landing requires slightly more skill. They also added mid-air refueling, complete with a silly mini-game. Combat is pretty similar to the last title, locking onto targets and unloading missiles. The majority of the missions either require defense of territory or simply chasing down some enemies for a little dog-fighting.
The enemy A.I. has improved dramatically over the last game, most noticeably in the way that enemies can evade you. Playing on the harder difficulties can be trouble for anyone that doesn’t know what they are doing. Enemy planes have no problem using countermeasures to make your rockets blow up or performing dramatic changes in direction to circle back around you.
Unfortunately, the friendly A.I. doesn’t offer the same amount of depth. While you do gain the ability to specifically target enemies for different planes in your squadron, they have terrible targeting ability. All they are really good for is causing a diversion while you complete the mission objectives. However, the developer did include a four player online co-op mode that allows you to take 3 competent buddies into battle with you. This is really the way to play. Missions become actual team exercises rather than the zombie A.I. Plus you can call people Goose and Iceman over the Xbox Live communicator.
The multiplayer versus mode is fairly similar to the first HAWX title, but with a few extras like increasing stats and unlocking new planes. I found my play sessions to be pretty entertaining and tense at times. I ran into more than a few players that knew how to handle their plane and I paid dearly. It’s also interesting to see who was using a flight controller and who was on the regular Xbox 360 controller. More often than not, the flight controllers came out on top due to a better layout of the controls. I didn’t experience any lag during multiplayer and the matchmaking system worked really well most of the time.
Beyond standard multiplayer, there’s also an Arcade and Survival mode to play though. These supplementary modes offer a slightly tougher challenge to the gameplay, but aren’t as entertaining as the 4 player co-op mode. The achievement set is split fairly evenly between tasks for the single player campaign, co-op play, regular multiplayer, arcade mode and survival mode. There’s nothing overly creative in this set beyond taking down a F22 with a Mig-23 or perhaps flying with assistance off in the main story mode.
There’s a large amount of content here that’s going to get flight fanatics really buzzing, especially if they already own a flight yoke or other plane specific controller. The single player campaign clocks in at about 18 hours and there’s plenty of fun to be had in multiplayer. On the flip side, the narrative doesn’t do the game any favors and those using a regular controller are going to be at a true disadvantage over someone with a flight controller. Tomy Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 is definitely recommended for gamers that enjoy a quality flight combat game. For those simply looking for an action game, the convoluted story isn’t worth the purchase price.
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The core of the game is obviously flight combat and Ubisoft has definitely taken some strides since the first HAWX title. Opposite from the previous game, you can now takeoff and land on runways opposed to starting the missions in mid-air. Taking off is pretty simple, but landing requires slightly more skill. They also added mid-air refueling, complete with a silly mini-game. Combat is pretty similar to the last title, locking onto targets and unloading missiles. The majority of the missions either require defense of territory or simply chasing down some enemies for a little dog-fighting.
The enemy A.I. has improved dramatically over the last game, most noticeably in the way that enemies can evade you. Playing on the harder difficulties can be trouble for anyone that doesn’t know what they are doing. Enemy planes have no problem using countermeasures to make your rockets blow up or performing dramatic changes in direction to circle back around you.
Unfortunately, the friendly A.I. doesn’t offer the same amount of depth. While you do gain the ability to specifically target enemies for different planes in your squadron, they have terrible targeting ability. All they are really good for is causing a diversion while you complete the mission objectives. However, the developer did include a four player online co-op mode that allows you to take 3 competent buddies into battle with you. This is really the way to play. Missions become actual team exercises rather than the zombie A.I. Plus you can call people Goose and Iceman over the Xbox Live communicator.
The multiplayer versus mode is fairly similar to the first HAWX title, but with a few extras like increasing stats and unlocking new planes. I found my play sessions to be pretty entertaining and tense at times. I ran into more than a few players that knew how to handle their plane and I paid dearly. It’s also interesting to see who was using a flight controller and who was on the regular Xbox 360 controller. More often than not, the flight controllers came out on top due to a better layout of the controls. I didn’t experience any lag during multiplayer and the matchmaking system worked really well most of the time.
Beyond standard multiplayer, there’s also an Arcade and Survival mode to play though. These supplementary modes offer a slightly tougher challenge to the gameplay, but aren’t as entertaining as the 4 player co-op mode. The achievement set is split fairly evenly between tasks for the single player campaign, co-op play, regular multiplayer, arcade mode and survival mode. There’s nothing overly creative in this set beyond taking down a F22 with a Mig-23 or perhaps flying with assistance off in the main story mode.
Graphics
- The graphics in HAWX 2 can be quite stunning at times, particularly taking off and watching the heat blister the air around the jet engines. The jets are sharply detailed and the texture work on the environment is top notch. There are no slowdown issues to speak of in the actual gameplay, but there’s an occasional hiccup in the cutscenes. That being said, the graphics engine is a definite step up from the last HAWX title.
Audio
If your plane is being targeted by an enemy or you are in danger of hurtiling to the ground due to a stall, the audio cues are going to alert you immediately. Ubisoft did a good job of keeping the player alerted to the plane’s main electronic panel. I didn’t care much for the music, a smattering of action-infused songs that really aren’t that memorable.
Conclusion
There’s a large amount of content here that’s going to get flight fanatics really buzzing, especially if they already own a flight yoke or other plane specific controller. The single player campaign clocks in at about 18 hours and there’s plenty of fun to be had in multiplayer. On the flip side, the narrative doesn’t do the game any favors and those using a regular controller are going to be at a true disadvantage over someone with a flight controller. Tomy Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 is definitely recommended for gamers that enjoy a quality flight combat game. For those simply looking for an action game, the convoluted story isn’t worth the purchase price.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum