Most of the playable displays at Ubisoft’s recent Ubiday event were suitably themed and set. Despite the attention to casual game’s stand, HAWX probably had the most impressive setup of the day. Basically, there were two mock cockpits set up with TVs and game controllers inside. One developer joked that they tried to push the cockpit as an extra purchase.
It’s all good and well to have impressive stands, but just how well did the game hold up? Well, a lot of flight games are weak on story. Often players lose track of the reason why they’re out dogfighting a never ending horde of enemies. Given the Tom Clancy franchise's penchant for strong stories, we’re expecting something better than decent. However, the only real tidbit of information that we have is that you’ll be playing in the year 2014 as a former US pilot who joins a private military operations company and flies missions for them.
Aren't we a tad close?
The gameplay in HAWX doesn’t look to stray too far from the conventions of most flight games. Still, where other titles have allowed players to switch between arcade and simulation control schemes, it seems that HAWX has tried to combine the two. For an arcade buff such as myself, thankfully it didn’t take long to get used to. Whether or not simulation fans will warm to it is another story.
Locking on to enemies and targeting them with missiles was a fairly standard procedure, though you had to be much more vigilant with your aiming, as you’d need to actively redirect a lot. The enemies were just as aware of you firing missiles on to them, as you are with them firing on you. While a lot of the things that we’ve covered so far seem fairly elementary, HAWX looks to distinguish itself by means of the in-flight technology.
Destruction is imminent.
It’s this emphasis on your plane's technical abilities that looks to set the game apart. Basically, pressing the right buttons at the right time would map a path of triangles in front of you. These will either assist you in fighting enemies by keeping up either their manoeuvres or give you the best path for avoiding enemy missiles. It was certainly an interesting feature and we’d like to learn more about when we can and can’t use it.
The result of this, as well as the likely Ubisoft and Tom Clancy influence, is a HUD that looks like it has been taken out of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. And by that we mean a lot of yellow diamonds and hexagons on screen at any one time. Furthermore, we weren’t exactly sure at which stage the game was set but we got the impression that the screen and objective list was quite cluttered. One area that these kinds of games can struggle with at times is just by how well the game is able handle hectic situations.
Gives new meaning to lighting up the sky.
So just how well the game handles these situations remains to be seen. There was radio chatter in the game so we’re assuming that there will be some squad elements as well. While we weren’t explicitly told, the game seems to have a standard objective driven structure, segmented by chapters or the like. Both the Xbox and PS3 versions of the game will have a form of online multiplayer, as will most likely the PC version, but those players will have the option of purchasing playing with joysticks.
In terms of the visual presentation, HAWX looks absolutely phenomenal from a macro perspective. When you’re high up above some form of land, both the land and air visuals are breathtaking. Things get somewhat less impressive close up though, particularly when flying in between. We’re sceptical as to whether we’ll see an improvement in this, as most flight games suffer from this issue.
Despite holes in the information of what we know about Tom Clancy’s HAWX, it is shaping up the right way. Our gut tells us that it has at least Blazing Angels covered, but there are still aspects that concern us. In particular, how well will the game hold up in tight situations and whether it really does bring anything new or endearing to the table. So if you’re a fan yearning for something outside of Ace Combat, HAWX just might have something for you.
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