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Tom Clancy’s game has always been associated with tactical shooter games like Rainbow Six but this time the series ventures into the skies with some cool aerial combat. The gamers have always been deprived of some Aerial combat games but when you have the “Tom Clancy” name associated, you know you can expect good stuff. The game is not a flight simulator but more of an arcade like game full of fast paced action. Hardcore flight sim players might be disappointed but an average user will like it as it involves very little learning curve and is fun to play such a fast paced game.

HAWX has the usual Tom Clancy setting with the game taking place in not so distant future where Private Military corporations are being used to help the government. You play as David Crenshaw, a US Air Force Pilot with the HAWX division which is dismantled for some reason. So you join Artemis, a private company who provides air protection to its client on contractual basis. Things go wrong when Artemis is given a contract to protect Brazil and they have to support the USA on that mission. But Artemis gets a large money contract from the enemy and you are asked to attack the US forces in between a mission. But loyal as you are to the country, you revolt against Artemis and join the US force again and this time your job is to take down Artemis, the company that you once worked for. The story is not the major point here as you will be busy fighting jets or destroying tanks to worry about that.

As this is not a flight sim, you won’t have to worry about Fuel or other things that can go wrong in high altitude. All the planes that you have can carry more than 100 missiles so that also is not a problem in the game. You mainly have to concentrate on all the action without worrying about other things. You will get a variety of missions like protecting a refinery in the middle east, protecting the bombers, escorting them, infiltrating the enemy SAM sites, taking down terrorist camps etc. Your missions will take you over places like Los Angeles, Tokyo, Middle East, Brazil etc and they all look realistic thanks to the GeoEye imagery being used. Night missions are a lot of fun.

There are 19 missions in the campaign and they are unlocked one after the other. You will also unlock a lot of planes and other goodies and you complete missions and gain experience. You will gain experience by killing ground as well as Air targets. You planes will carry different type of missiles and bombs. There are missiles which you can fire upto 4 at once. Then there is the laser guided missiles which are long ranged but you have to guide them. Then there are cluster bombs which you can drop on the ground targets. The plane also has a cannon which you can fire but you will hardly be making any use of it.

Each Aircraft in the game will have its plus and minus points. Some will be fast and better for Air to Air fight while some can carry more ammunition. You will be recommended which fighter plane you can choose for a mission. The combat is not very engaging in HAWX. You will be quickly changing targets and firing at the oncoming planes or destroying tanks and SAM sites. There are missions where your RADAR will not work and you will have to follow the signal strength to destroy the becon device.

There are two ways to fly a plane, the Assistance on and the Assistance Off mode. In the first few missions, you will be playing without the Assistance off mode. In the Assistance On mode, you don’t have a very deeper control of the plane and its movement but you have access to the ERS. ERS or the Enhanced Reality System is a nice addition to HAWX game. It can be activated when you are locked on too a target and it will show a series of gates which you will have to follow if you want to intercept the target. This comes very useful if you want to target some ground unites like tank or vehicles as they will mostly be obstructed by buildings and other things. It is also helpful when you have to dodge the missile as it will guide you on how to dodge it. It definitely takes bit of a fun away from the dog fights so do use it on fewer occasions. Dodging is missile is also quite easy thanks to ERS. You can also use Flares which are provided and they will certainly take them away.

In the assistance Off mode, you will be presented with a more distant third person view of the plane. You have greater control of the plane in this mode and can perform more steeper turns or drifts here. But one issue with this is the camera as it will automatically fix on a target and will change. So if you switch the target, the camera will suddenly rotate and this can be quite irritating at times. This might take time getting used but once you do that, it will be a lot fun to do dog fights and escape from missiles in this mode. You will have two Wingman’s with you on various missions and you can instruct them to attack your target or defend you. They will be helpful in many situation when there are a lot of targets to aim at.

You will gain experience from bringing down planes and making X number of kills. More experience will unlock more planes and goodies. The game has a good replay ability value. You can complete a mission with various planes or you can opt for free flight where you can just fly around and enjoy the scenery. The graphics of the game are just great. Planes look and feel real. The terrain is the best you will see in any flight sim game so far. Since it uses the GeoEye technology, what you see below you is real. So you can even fly your plane below a bridge. You will see a lot of landmarks as you fly over America or other cities. The missile and explosion effects are very nice.

Soundwise, it is just brilliant. The sound of the plane, your commander giving you instruction, explosions are work well to create a brilliant atmosphere. Multiplayer of the game is also good and you can challenge up to 8 friends in a death match mode or play in the versus mode. Or you can play with your friend in the Co-Op mode.

Overall, the game does feel like a great game although it has some issues but as there are not many similar games around, it does a good job of providing some arcade style action. It is actually a lot of fun to fly above 30000 feet and killing enemy planes and targets.

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