HAWX Review:
The Tom Clancy bandwagon continues to roll in 2009, but this year Ubisoft has abandoned the ground-battles of Mexico and close-quarters combat of Las Vegas for the franchise’s first foray into the flight combat genre. Taking to the war-torn skies over the likes of Rio De Janeiro, Afghanistan and the Middle East, HAWX tasks you with jumping into the cockpit of a variety of realistically-designed planes and partaking in 19 deadly missions in the guise of former U.S. Air Force pilot, David Crenshaw. Crenshaw stepped out of retirement to work for a private security firm that is motivated by cold, hard cash.HAWX boasts a wide variety of mission types, including Infiltration, Recon, Interception and Escort objectives. 
Inevitably, they all involve navigating the skies, keeping your eyes glued to the radar for incoming enemies, and using the various strengths and weaponry of the 54 planes on offer in order to see off a mixture of naval and ground forces, as well as dealing with aerial threats from the likes of bombers, fighters and helicopters. HAWX has a steady learning curve that gives players ample time to get to grips with controlling the planes and their weapons. The action builds nicely, starting you off with defending the U.S border against Mexican troops, where you simply need to fly over the targets and execute covert airstrikes. Later, you're given missions like the manic and exciting air, ground and sea assault on Rio De Janerio where you need to juggle weapons and change tactics depending on the current threat. 
HAWX is at its most enjoyable when you’re kept on your toes by a mixture of ground and air-based enemies, rather than one particular threat. If you need to take out a tank that's parked up in the tightly cramped city streets of Rio, for example, you’ll need to dive bomb toward it and use an air-to-ground firepower weapon to destroy it. To take out the SAMs, you'll have to glide over them, dropping your freefall bombs at precisely the right time. Alternatively, you may want to switch to the AA multi-target missile to strike down four fighters simultaneously. There’s a good variety of weapons on offer, including radar and joint strike missiles, rocket pod units, cluster bombs and the devastating EMP strike, which causes all enemy planes to stall. It’s juggling with the ground, air and naval units and switching between these various threats and adapting your tactics accordingly that provides the most challenge and the most fun. HAWX certainly has its exciting moments, especially when you're attacked from all angles and multiple threats, or your mission is set against the clock.
As mentioned earlier, the much shouted about Enhanced Reality System (ERS) does make things a whole lot easier. ERS gives you a small window of opportunity to gain an attacking advantage over your enemy or to make a defensive maneuver to get out of the way of an incoming missile. You simply press ‘X’ when the prompt appears on screen and then you need to follow a set pathway, which lights up on screen and is accompanied by a timer that ticks down to zero. If you follow that pathway for the required amount of time then you get a free strike on your enemy, or you're able to evade a locked-on missile. ERS is a handy tool that’s obviously there to broaden the appeal of HAWX for those seeking an accessible experience, but it’s very tempting to use it at every opportunity. If you do that, it does feel like you’re just following tunnels on the screen for the majority of the campaign and therefore not getting the full game experience, but instead just taking part in a shallow, and rather insignificant experience, rather than one that relies on you using your piloting skills to actually earn your EXP and ranking.
Inevitably, they all involve navigating the skies, keeping your eyes glued to the radar for incoming enemies, and using the various strengths and weaponry of the 54 planes on offer in order to see off a mixture of naval and ground forces, as well as dealing with aerial threats from the likes of bombers, fighters and helicopters. HAWX has a steady learning curve that gives players ample time to get to grips with controlling the planes and their weapons. The action builds nicely, starting you off with defending the U.S border against Mexican troops, where you simply need to fly over the targets and execute covert airstrikes. Later, you're given missions like the manic and exciting air, ground and sea assault on Rio De Janerio where you need to juggle weapons and change tactics depending on the current threat. HAWX is at its most enjoyable when you’re kept on your toes by a mixture of ground and air-based enemies, rather than one particular threat. If you need to take out a tank that's parked up in the tightly cramped city streets of Rio, for example, you’ll need to dive bomb toward it and use an air-to-ground firepower weapon to destroy it. To take out the SAMs, you'll have to glide over them, dropping your freefall bombs at precisely the right time. Alternatively, you may want to switch to the AA multi-target missile to strike down four fighters simultaneously. There’s a good variety of weapons on offer, including radar and joint strike missiles, rocket pod units, cluster bombs and the devastating EMP strike, which causes all enemy planes to stall. It’s juggling with the ground, air and naval units and switching between these various threats and adapting your tactics accordingly that provides the most challenge and the most fun. HAWX certainly has its exciting moments, especially when you're attacked from all angles and multiple threats, or your mission is set against the clock.
As mentioned earlier, the much shouted about Enhanced Reality System (ERS) does make things a whole lot easier. ERS gives you a small window of opportunity to gain an attacking advantage over your enemy or to make a defensive maneuver to get out of the way of an incoming missile. You simply press ‘X’ when the prompt appears on screen and then you need to follow a set pathway, which lights up on screen and is accompanied by a timer that ticks down to zero. If you follow that pathway for the required amount of time then you get a free strike on your enemy, or you're able to evade a locked-on missile. ERS is a handy tool that’s obviously there to broaden the appeal of HAWX for those seeking an accessible experience, but it’s very tempting to use it at every opportunity. If you do that, it does feel like you’re just following tunnels on the screen for the majority of the campaign and therefore not getting the full game experience, but instead just taking part in a shallow, and rather insignificant experience, rather than one that relies on you using your piloting skills to actually earn your EXP and ranking.
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