Ugg, this game. So many things this game did wrong and so little it did right. I'm just going to rip into this game guns blazin', because I know that's what Tom would want.
This game is shit. There is one glaring problem that would have made this game shit all by itself, but unfortunately there are many other problems as well. The stupid "assist off" feature is garbage. It takes all the fun out of piloting a super maneuverable, state of the art jet fighter and replaces it with the frustrating feeling of trying to control a movie scene. Have you ever tried to control a movie scene? "Don't open that door!" Of course they open the door, you can't control a movie. In "assist off" mode the camera zooms way back and uses a dynamic cinematic camera angle to track your plane. Sounds cool! Well, it blows.
Example:
You are pulling a hard left. The camera swings around to show you the front of the plane. This is where things start to go down hill (more like fall off a cliff). As the camera swings to the front, your left and right switch. You are now pulling a hard right. For some reason the game does not fix your control input to the plane reference frame but rather the world reference frame. It makes flying very un-enjoyable, and it's unnecessarily painful to go after a target with any kind of thought out plan. Instead you just jerk the stick around a bunch to not get hit by stuff, and then shoot some missiles when you finally manage to get behind your target.
It should be noted that I fly R/C planes, so I am used to flying something with a different frame of reference. Perhaps this game was setup so you always fly from your frame of reference, but I never found it very intuitive. It was awful.
The next awful element to this game is that every plane feels exactly the same. Besides different planes and having different weapon loadouts, their flight characteristics felt identical. It made me a little sick. This was most likely amplified by the fact that I am an Aerospace Engineer. If every plane had the same flight properties, we wouldn't build so many different models. I will say that the 3D models look very nice, but that doesn't get you very far.
The last big problem is the story. Normally this would be at the top of my list, but I have a special place in my heart for flight games (sim and arcade). Neither of these games are known for their stories, but someday I would like this to change. It's a super generic ex-US military guy joins shady mercenary organization, the United States is the perfect noble nation, and you have to switch sides at the end because you have been duped. The US wins at the end and everything is perfect. Blah, Blah, Gag!
It wasn't all bad news though. The campaign was short and there was a cool navigation system that had you fly through gates to get on someone's tail or give you a good angle for bunker busting. There was also one cool stealth mission where you use an F-117 to navigate through a sky full of missiles and anti-air shells; any deviation from the gates and you get rocked.
The best part of this game is that I got it for free with my awesome flight stick that I bought to play Wings of Prey. Get Wings of Prey. It walks the line between simulator and arcade perfectly. It also offers complete customization so you can make it a more or less realistic simulator. Not to mention each plane feels different. They all have their little quirks. Back on topic, H.A.W.X. sucked. I'm mad there is a second one, but I will probably play it.
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