Flight simulators were
among the first games to be
introduced to computer
users. The introduction of
these games molded the
imaginations of those who
wanted to learn how to fly,
but were too afraid.
In recent years flight simulators
have been appearing
more often on consoles rather
than traditional PCs. The
games are often combat flight
simulators, reenacting some
of history’s greatest dogfights.
But what about the aerial
battles of the future? What
will those be like and where
will they happen? Well
thanks to developer Ubisoft
and the creative mind of
acclaimed writer Tom
Clancy, we all get a glimpse
in Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.
The demo that was recently
released on Xbox Live
allowed players a glimpse
into the high flying, missile
firing, dogfighting future that
Tom Clancy envisions.
The demo allows players to
take control of U.S. Air Force
pilot David Crenshaw, who
also appeared in another of
Tom Clancy’s games, Ghost
Recon: Advanced Warfighter
2. Apparently sometime after
the events of GRAW2,
Crenshaw left the U.S.
Airforce and began working
for a private military company
(PMC) known as Artemis,
which is working out of Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil with the
Brazilian government.
The only actual mission in
the demo is to protect the
capital city from invading
forces, however only when
you actually take control of
the plane does this game
truly shine.
The combat is spectacular in
this game. The smoke trails
of the missiles to the anti-aircraft
fire from the ground to
the gentle ripples of the ocean
as you tear by give you a
sense of realism, especially
from the first-person perspective.
Now like all other games in
this genre, you snap in and
out of first-person and thirdperson
perspective. The difference
in this game is that
these views are the ones that
will give you assistance in
fighting. If you really want a
combat experience, you need
to play the game with assistance
off.
The assistance off mode
takes you not only to the
third-person perspective but
an outside third-person perspective.
This makes finding
targets and engaging them far
more difficult but at the same
time adds a whole new viewpoint
to the game. It also
probably makes the game a
whole lot more fun.
To top off the whole experience,
the game also lets you
make use of your online
headset. You can actually
issue commands to your two
wingmen to do various
actions. This could be anything
from having them both
attack targets to having one
fly defense and the other
attacking. You can even issue
commands to your plane. For
example, the command
“DOUBLE” makes the plane
fire two missiles in rapid succession.
Overall, the presentation
and the graphics coupled
with the vast array of aircraft
that will be made available
plus the inclusion of an
online mode, which could not
be accessed in the demo,
probably could make this
game a real winner.