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If you are a gamer, then you must have played at least one of the Tom Clancy’s game like Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Endwar. Clancy’s game have always been famous for future warfare, futuristic weapons, top notch gameplay etc. The Air Combat genre has always been a bit ignored by many of the game companies. HAWX, a new member of the Tom Clancy series tries to bring the genre into mainstream and if the Clancy name is associated with the game, it already becomes famous.

HAWX has already become one of the most anticipated games and when the PC demo was released, I immediately downloaded it and took it for a spin. And it is the game which I am eagerly waiting for. The game takes place in 2021 and instead of Middle East, Gulf, the game takes place in South America this time. Private military organization are now being hired to help the government forces and you play as David Crenshaw, pilot for the Artemis private security organization. The game takes place over the skies of Rio De Janeiro and you will be able to play two missions, a training mission and mission involving battle with Bombers, Fighter planes, Tanks, Landing Aircrafts where you will have to neutralize the threat and protect the city.

The graphics of the game are truly stunning and well detailed. There is no doubt that Ubisoft has done a lot of hard work in rendering the game. The game makes use of the GeoEye satellite imagery and you will be amazed to see the effect. Instead of green or brown patches or blocks that was used to depict the land in the earlier air combat games, you will see a full fledged real city with tall buildings and bridges. Even at high speed and fighting’s, the city will retain its look. The jets have been realistically rendered and even the weather effects are amazing. The game is very much realistic and you will get the impression that you are flying over a real city. You can even fly over sky scrapers or under a bridge.

For those of you thought that flight games are too hard for an average player, this game removes all such doubt. The control system is so easy that even new players will have no difficulty in getting the hang of it. The first training mission will tell you all the basic. There is an assistance mode which you can turn on/off by the press of a button. In the Assistance mode, you get a first person view of the aircraft from behind with all the information getting displayed in the HUD. You will be helped in controlling the aircraft and you can also activate the ERS ( Enhanced Reality System ). You can activate the ERS when you lock onto a target and you will see a series of triangles and they will guide you to the target. Such a thing is quite useful when bombing tanks and ground targets. But the action will seem a bit slow and you won’t be able to stall easily in this mode.

If you turn off the assistance mode, you will get a third person view of the plane. This mode is quite useful and gives you greater control over the plane and you can perform some really cool air maneuvers. But for controlling the plane, you can simple use the left, right array keys to turn, up key to glide up etc. The ‘W’ key can be used for thrust and ‘S’ key is used for breaking and stalling which is quite necessary if you are involved in a dogfight. Even I am not comfortable with many flight sim games but had no difficulty in mastering this. In the game you will get to fly the F-16 plane and you can also unlock AV-8B Harrier II and the SU-35 SuperFlanker if you get more experience. Each plane will be equipped with missiles ranging from simple missiles to multiple AA missiles to laser guided missiles and bombs. The weapons will depend on the type of plane but each will have Flare in order to avoid the incoming missiles. You will have to battle Enemy Migs, F-16, Bombers, tanks, landing aircraft in order to protect the city.

The game does have a few drawbacks. When a full fledged battle is going on, you will have difficulty in deciding who to take out as there will be tanks, aircrafts flying everywhere. You will be asked on the radio to take out the Bombers which are approaching but it is difficult in finding them when there are so many targets to lock on too. You can switch targets but you are always directed to nearby targets and your camera angle adjusts according to that. Then if you are playing in the third person perspective, sometime it might become difficult to spot your own plane in the heat of the battle and clouds and smoke everywhere. But still it is fun none the less.

You will enjoy the game and the action it provides. The controls are easy and you will have no difficulty in getting started. And the action does make you feel that you are part of the real battle. The game doesn’t need a very high system specification and i it ran fine in the high settings in my not so high end system.

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