I actually just beat the game and figured that this was as good a time to review it as ever. I have to get this out of the way right now as I am going to be VERY critical of this game. The first game was fun, had a decent story with at least half-way believable characters. It had a decent length with a decent challenge (at least on the hard difficulty).
H.A.W.X. 2 starts out the exact same way (except for the character part) and then jumps off a cliff. This game has very good scenery, the maps are huge and well detailed and there are good varieties of enemies (both air and ground). The problems lie in the challenge, there is none. And I think the developers knew this, so instead of making the enemies better pilots they made them cheaper fighters and dumbed down your wingmen.
Your missiles with do about 50% damage against the enemies while you wingmen’s missile will only do about 5-15%. On top of this, they don't know how to dog fight so instead they just fly in circles until something happens to fly into their sights. The enemies, on the other hand, are such good pilots that they will literally fly circles around you in later levels that it will be a reason to celebrate every time you finish off a wave.
The cheapness really kicks into over drive in the last two missions. The second last mission has you taking out a ground assault over Red Square in Moscow. There are an endless amount of enemies. Very cheap considering that Russia is shown to be at war with Norway (at least I think it was Norway). Also you can’t fly in a straight line without having at least missiles on your back at all times. Also your wingmen must be very confident in your skills as they seem to be okay with just circling the building you are protecting and leaving the dozens of tanks, technical’s, flaks, and mobile SAMs to you. There is also an area that you cannot enter as the enemies have a very strong air defense set up, which is not the cheap part. The cheap part is at the end of the mission you need the get the other side of this area and magically you are able to do so.
The last mission takes place in Siberia (?) and you are assaulting the enemies’ home base. Again your wingmen do nothing but twiddle their thumbs. This time a twist (the first at least two) are thrown in here, the enemies all but completely ignore your wingmen. It is as if they have realized just how useless they really are and are focusing on you. This level is very much artificially lengthened in that it alternates between fighting air units and then fighting ground units. Every other level had both at the same time. This a bit of kick in the teeth, the ground units on your side actually kill bad guys. Not very well, but I probably made about 15 less kills in that level because of them (versus the 15 kills that your wing men steal from you throughout the game). The next twist in the level is a one-two punch. One: there is more than one nuke being launched in this level (it has been established that there is only one missing) but this can be overlooked if not for, two: the enemy has a SPACE LASER.
Yes, you read that right, a space laser. One that is also apparently accurate enough to shoot down planes flying at Mach 1-1.5. Why did they not use this earlier? In the war with Norway for instance, they could have blown up every aircraft carrier NATO was sending to aid the country, but no, they waited until four planes were attacking a nuclear base to use it. The best part is right at the end you have to fly your plane down a tunnel. Why? You have an entire army on your side, why is the best course of action considered to be flying down a tunnel made for oversized trucks?
I never had high hopes for this game, but I did expect to have at least some fun with it. For the first half of the game it was pretty fun, but the farther into the game I got the less and less fun I had. Rent it if you want, just remember that you have been warned.
Sony have announced that a few select titles from the Tom Clancy franchises are now discounted on the European PlayStation Store from today for two weeks, Wednesday 18th September 2013 until Wednesday 2nd September 2013.
The Tom Clancy titles that are discounted on the European PlayStation Store, include the digital versions of Endwar, H.A.W.X. 2, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.
Oltman writes:
"Calling Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 a flight simulator would be a lie. Yes, it has realistically recreated aircraft that the player steers through the air above accurately modeled landscapes. Yes, you get to enter into air-to-air combat and air-to-ground combat. But this is no simulator. No rogue terrorist cell would use this game for their devious flight training. Rather than slapping the simulator title on it, I would brand this game as an action shooter with wings. "
4News.it: HAWX2 is definitely a good game, fun and immediate, without a lot of manuals to study how to fly a chase millions of dollars. Those who love the genre to the Top Gun, the choice can be satisfied, even more if he can share with friends with the same passion. While occupying about 7 hours, the campaign is able to be lived alternately with high and low because of some feeling of already seen. Reaching the point of contact and start the firefight, however, turns on the taste of challenge that excites its completion. A required purchase for fans of the genre. The others may not be at ease.
Excellent, and funny, review. Will be tracking you. :)
Played the demo didn't like it (worse than the first) but I thought it could be better later on.....reading your review has firmly made me think not to get H.A.W.X 2 unless its on offer in a couple of months between big games. Thank you, you have saved me money
...that the only reason that I even bought this game was because it was ten dollars cheaper than Spiderman. I was going to buy this game anyways at some poing (because I can't find even one review that makes the same points that I do) but the price point just made the choice easier at the moment.