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Let me first off say that I was a huge fan of the first HAWX installment and an overall huge fan of anything Clancy. I was eager to get this game because I had seen some great in-game footage of the AC-130 mission and landings were now included. Before I start telling you why this game is a disappointment let me tell you what is good about it.
1) The graphics are just as good if not better than the first HAWX. The detail of the maps are great and give you an almost there feel. The planes seem better as well. The plane graphics seem more realistic with a more war worn look that's not as clean as before.
2) It's more realistic. Even though you still have a ton of missiles available it seems the designers spent more time making it tougher to hit the target.
3) The A.I. is a lot more difficult. Gone are the days of sending out 4 missiles at a time, every map, at every threat. I only remember one map where multi-target was available and that was for ground targets.
4) New technology. You not only get to control an AC-130 but there are drones and precision guided bombs that expand the gameplay.
Now for the not-so-good parts of the game. I really like tough games, they are a challenge and make for more fun but this game almost made me snap the disc in half. Here's why.
1) Your wingmen are absolute garbage. They don't seem to do anything other than warn you of incoming missiles, as if the red warning lights, picture in picture, and warning buzzers weren't enough.
2) You will spent 90% of your time dodging missiles and 10% of your time TRYING to have a decent dog fight. The MIG-29's are great they are extremely tough to get a lock on but as soon as you get any where close to missile lock you have to break off in order to escape incoming missiles.
3) The missions are scripted. You can't pick which targets to engage like you could in the first HAWX. If you are trying to protect a ground base from tanks you'll be forced to break off and take out incoming fighters. When you attempt to kill the fighters the ground forces practically destroy the base. Once you get rid of the fighters and try to take on the ground forces again you are taken to a cut-scene or the mission ends. That's what really gets me, the enemy doesn't retreat if you overwhelm them like the first, its just over.
4) The storyline is boring. Rebel forces take over some Russian nukes, WOW that hasn't been done to death. Thankfully you can skip the load-screens after about thirty seconds.
5) This isn't that big of a deal but the game is pretty sexist. There is a female pilot who talks quite a bit throughout the campaign and she is pretty much the only source of a "team" feel. When she talks she is almost instantly told to be quite by one of your wingmen. In the end she sacrifices herself trying to take out an enemy target and the game is like, "alright she's dead who's up next?".
6) No choices of what planes or missile packages you get to fight with. You are given some really bad planes to take into combat and don't expect to play with too many US aircraft, the game is set as a world conflict so you only get to play the F-22 and Warthog in a couple missions, otherwise your Russian, French or English.
The first game was great it had creative and fun missions like protecting the President of the United States and taking on wave after wave of ground targets. This game is intense but I would say its not very fun. There seems to have been a complete lack of imagination on this one. I have only played the multiplayer a few times and it seems to be a rank up as you go system so maybe that is worth the price of the game. All I can say is the campaign is a huge let down.
ALL FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED. THANKS AND GOOD GAMING.
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HAWX 2 puts you in the cockpit of a variety of fighters and in control of some drones in order to accomplish a variety of missions against a stiff opposition of anti-air fire and enemy aircraft. As a preface to this review, I own and enjoyed the first HAWX and I only play with the xbox controller (though I am thinking about investing in a flight stick).
HAWX 2 does some things very well. The AI aircraft in the single-player campaign are much smarter than in the first incarnation of the game. Dipping and diving and trying to lock on to enemy aircraft is the heart of HAWX 2. Moreover the backdrop of deserts, rugged mountain peaks, and other locations are beautifully done. Screaming through mountain passes at tree top levels has never looked more realistic on the 360. The take off and landing effects are also very cool (especially on aircraft carriers). The narrative cut scenes that propell the story are ok (but I don't really play for the story).
The multiplayer is tons of fun. There are co-op mission modes and team battle. Team battle is up to 4 on 4 fighter combat and has a number of customizable features. You can pick from a variety of maps (points can be scored hitting NPC targets as well as enemy players). But what I loved was that you can select an "era": korean war, vietnam conflict, cold war, modern, or open. This era selection restricts plane choices to those available during the selected conflict. Also a various realism factors can be engaged to make the multiplayer the shining area of HAWX2.
Finally the perks system is very well done. You rank up both in your experience level and with each plane. To unlock customizable loadouts, you must play with each plane. Also, as you rank up special effects that give your team brief bonuses can be unlocked (these include radar jamming, camoflage, no missile lock warning for the enemies, etc).
Some things that are exactly like HAWX 1. All the planes have a lot of missiles (sometimes 30 or 40 missiles) and machine guns even stealthy modern planes that do not have the old dog-fight standby. The "realistic" mode in multiplayer helps to correct this.
And HAWX 2 missed the mark completely in two places: 1) campaign aircraft selection & 2) "assistance off" mode. First, In trying to stick to some sort of story-plot the plane you pilot in the campaign is scripted. I did notice that the rewards for ranking up did not seem to include the great variety of planes from HAWX 1,but this may change as DLC becomes available. Secondly, The assistance off move your perspective from the standard 1st or 3rd person to a zoomed-out third person. The idea is so you can see more of the battlefield. In reality you have very little control of your plane and the camera angles are wonky so you mostly fly in circles and shoot wildly.
All-in-all, HAWX 2 is a good game for your flight combat fix. It has some shortcomings, and is not a revolutionary advance over HAWX 1, but I can see myself flying the unfriendly skies for a good number of hours.
Best Deals for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 2 - Xbox 360
I think it was clear when they released the game at 49.99 that they felt it wasn't a premier game. Over HAWX they improved the graphics and added a couple of neat features. The "neat features" I refer to are the ability to finally take off and land (also taxi) even on an aircraft carrier at times. The story mode isn't that great, it has nothing to do with the book (neither did HAWX for that matter). Here are my pros and cons:
Pros
-Better graphics
-Can now taxi and land aircraft
-Has more weapons to choose from
-Online is slightly better (more options)
Cons
-CANNOT CHOOSE YOUR AIRCRAFT OF PREFERENCE!!!! (I don't want to be stuck flying a mig or su during certain missions... stick me with an F16 for all I care...)
-I will say again for con #2 that I want to fly planes of my choice, not a random foreign fighter jet.
-Story lacks a bit
-They incorporated several levels similar to Call of Duty's AC130 levels. If I wanted to play that, I'd put in Call of Duty 4.
-If you play the game with an aviation stick (flight stick), you suffer in dogfights from regular controllers, especially in the assistance modes where you can "bend the laws of gravity".
Conclusion:
I went back to play HAWX 1 just to choose my aircraft and play more clarified missions after a couple of weeks of playing HAWX2. Aviation games have never reached the level of potential that I expect from them. WWII games have been done to death and modern airplane games lack in detail. Thus far HAWX1 or AC4 are your best choice. Maybe the new Ace Combat will be worth playing. I give it 3 stars just for the graphics, average gameplay, and the simple reason that they came out with a sequal.
Honest reviews on Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 2 - Xbox 360
This came takes all the great aspects of the first and throws them out the window with no regard. Plot, graphics & animations, computer controlled enemies and allies, and game play are seriously hindered, lacking, or not thought out at all. Please, do not purchase this game or pay full price, you will be wasting hard earned money.
The plot, oh the plot. They ripped off sections of popular games such as the AC-130 gunning, attempted to do the "multiple story lines that converge" method of plot, and clearly did not put much effort in telling a coherent story. As with most Clancy games, there is an overall story line that spans from EndWar to Ghost Recon. This game I guess is taking place in an alternative reality that ignored what happened in the previous game and all other games in this universe. Not to mention complete disregard for logic, in several parts of the game your fighter is not armed with missiles for no discernible reason, aircraft carriers double as landing craft, and its an acceptable choice to sink oil tankers. So, if story isn't such an issue for you, there are more reasons to not like this.
The graphics of this game are definitely lack luster and not on par for its generation of games. In cut scenes the lips of the characters don't sync up with speech, a really, really, dumb failure. This sort of characterizes the game, it just seemed like the design group didn't care. The maps are big but the models still look like they came out of a game years ago, small details I know but when you keep crashing into fuzzy poles, it gets annoying. The use of real maps is overhyped and a gimmick at best. The scales never seem right and I'm pretty sure they just threw the models in at random. But wait, there's more!
Your computer allies clearly take the "if I stay away from danger, someone else will deal with it" approach to combat. In HAWX 1, you could tell your wingmen to cover you or go out and engage. In this game, you are almost always a wingman and the only times you are a lead is when you are by yourself. So, don't count on your allies to watch out for you or help complete objectives or support craft to fire at anything. The enemies though take full advantage of the good old lazy programmer approach of infinite ammo. You will have portions of the game where you will endless circle, trying to lock on with the guns because missiles are ineffective against what seems to be flare infused fuel in your target's engine. The game's story was clearly balanced for multiplay with three of your friends (Assuming you have three friends with this game) being able to handle the vast number of enemies being thrown at you. This brings me to the last part of shortcomings.
You have no alternative control layouts, ability to change sensitives, or choice of aircraft. The game was meant to be played with a joystick. Like the mech game that required a giant $100 controller to play it properly, this game was designed for those of you who play lots of flight games and have put down the cash for a joystick. For the rest of us, deal with it. You will find yourself just flying in random loops, dodging endless missiles, and being thrown off by the very jumpy controls. Push the stick a little too hard and before you know it you are hugging a tree, hard. Then another "If it worked in the first game we shouldn't do it" moment was with the no choice of planes and loadouts. I can understand from a story point of view that Russians won't field US planes or when expecting flying CAS you won't have bombs. But by denying players the option of choosing to forgo the radar guided missiles (Good luck keeping those on target) for multi-AA missiles you just frustrate everyone. Oh and the landing/takeoff/mid-air-refuel stuff, it got old after the first time. Expect to spend minutes with the assistant thing (They also wrecked this system, its useless) trying land to end a mission. If I wanted to do those things, I would play a realistic fighter game.
Overall, this is a frustrating way to spend your time. If you're patient, more power to you. If your like me and would like the flow of the game uninterrupted by bad controls, allies, and such just play the original.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 2 - Xbox 360
Fantastic for all us would be sofa fighter pilots.
Great for dads and kids as there is no blood and gore which most teen onwards xbox games seem to be, just high speed and high flying fun. You get an f16 to start with so it can't be bad huh?
By the way, US ntsc format will work on UK xbox if you use HDMI connection.
