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jp's Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 (PS3)

[December 22, 2014 07:19:16 PM]

Wow, this game has really impressed me on a number of levels and for a number of reasons I was not expecting. I'm really one to playing flying sims/airplane games, or whatever they're called. I've played a few of the Ace Combat games and I guess that's what I was expecting here?

It's not.

I guess the easiest way for me to describe this game is as a complement to Call of Duty. Same style and general aesthetic - lots of technical readout type graphics in the transitions, different characters from different parts of the world, and an overarching plot that ties them all together (terrorists that must be stopped sort of thing). So, while CoD takes place (mostly) on the ground - HAWX2 is in the air, but it's like their the same game from a different angle. The overlap is actually quite remarkable (the gunship levels in CoD also exist here in different forms)! All this makes me think how interesting it would be if Activision (HAWX is Ubisoft) figured out some way to get all of the military aspects of a single narrative over several games - so, the flying sim, the FPS for boots on the ground, maybe a naval sim? Maybe also a covert/spy game? I dunno, it might be too much?

I played twice for a few hours each time and only really quit because the game hard crashed on me (had to unplug the PS3, restart button was locked out)... but here are some of the smaller things I thought were neat...

a. You have to take off (easy), but it's a neat part of each mission.

b. In some missions you have to land - this was a huge pain for me, I'm really bad at it.

c. There's a mission (at least one), where you have to refuel your plane in the air (from a flying tanker thing or whatever they're called). This was also really hard, harder because there's a time limit, and it requires really precise controls! When I finally nailed it though, I felt like a superace!

So, this game definitely veers closer to the sim-side of things, which I thought was curious based on the bombastic storyline and all that. It's not entirely a hardcore sim either, based on the fact that I could play it, mostly. :-)