With Hawx, the Tom Clancy series couldn't be further from tradition. Instead of ultra-realistic, tactical battles we're now flying a plane 30,000 feet in the air, firing 152 missiles at baddies we can't even see. War has changed.
The hallmarks of the franchise are there; the hi-tech mission briefings, rock soundtrack and rubbish CGI general chatting away in the top corner of the screen. Even the Ghost Recon team make a cameo appearance down on the ground. But the most Clancy thing about Ubisoft's unashamedly Ace Combat-esque flight sim is the Enhanced Reality System, or ERS, which crunches numbers to put all sorts of virtual reality mischief in the pilot's display.
It's Hawx's answer to the 'Advanced Warfighter' bit in Ghost Recon, only more interesting. With the ERS turned on the computer plugs you straight into Tom Cruise's brain, holding your hand and arrow-pointing you through the skies to make you a hardcore hotshot without going anywhere near the RAF.
With it on, virtual ERS 'hoop trails' guide you through routes you wouldn't usually take, mostly resulting in your plane arching up into the sky and then nose-diving back down at the exact point your targets swoop past your nozzle - exactly in time for you to give them the good news with your missiles.
The feature does a good job of making air combat flow, feel cinematic and actually become accessible to players outside of the Microsoft Flight Sim crowd. Unfortunately, because this view is hampered with a milk float-calibre turning circle, the clever ERS guides don't prevent you from feeling like you're consistently drawing village-sized trail circles in the sky trying to chase down a target.
Missions start off extremely sluggish - the usual 'protect this', 'kill these', 'fly around in circles trying to point yourself at a tank' mission clichés are queued up for too long, and the ERS system, beyond making shootdowns more accessible, isn't enough to wash off the feeling of 'Ace Combat-ness' and lack of real new ideas from the first hour of the game.
Tom Clancy's Hawx 2:09Dogfighting gameplay footage
The plot has you leading the marketing team-named H.A.W.X. team (High Altitude Warfare... erm, X) in its last mission under the US Airforce. After the finale your squad of ace pilots join a Private Military Company to make some real dollar. Then it's plot twists and it's big battles ahoy in a very forced Clancy plot... but then the brand's attraction has never been the story.
As soon as the game unlocks the ability to turn off the ERS, it picks up pace. Turning off your computer assistance with a double tap of the triggers whooshes the camera into a super-far out third-person (fourth-person?) view, and suddenly it feels like you're playing with tiny plastic toys.
Sluggish air pursuits with all the dexterity of a Tesco shopping trolley are replaced with more intense dogfights. Empty, flat fields make way for spectacular cityscapes and even the boring 'defend, kill' mission structure is mixed up eventually.
Playing with the ERS off feels almost like a different game entirely; dogfighting becomes a sport. Instead of endless turning circles and stat-filled, calculated swoops through hoops, ERS-off mode transforms air battles into vicious, third-person cat and mouse chases, where at any point you can slow down, turn on a dime and fire back in your opponent's face. Just like Top Gun.
The trade off in your new found manoeuvrability is that if you slow down too much during your 180 antics your plane will stall, sending you plummeting towards the ground unless you level up horizontally and hit the throttle.
Of course this means veteran players can pull off even more hotshot moves, flying above the clouds and then stalling down into the fight - an easy way of bursting into the action in multiplayer bouts.
As missions enter full swing you'll learn to use the two ERS modes to their advantages; with it on you're more precise, can navigate easier and perform bombing runs easier. With it off you're a sky dominating, dogfighting master.
The zoomed-out third-person camera angle (which cannot be turned off) will be controversial to many as it kills much of the immersion from peaking out from the confines of a dial-filled cockpit.
But it does offer a better perspective of the jet-dancing chaos - and at its best, provides an epic view of some of the most visually spectacular air combat battles we've ever seen - just watch the video on this page.
It's undoubtedly the best attribute Hawx has to offer the genre and Ace Combat would do well to nick it. But ultimately Hawx is not as polished or even as consistent in mission design as Ace Combat - flying through trees on the ground for example isn't even second-looked in Hawx.
Four-player drop in, drop out co-op feels like a missed opportunity. Instead of chucking four pilots at a single army of rock-hard baddies, arguing over who bagged which kill, Hawx simply multiplies the number of enemies on screen. While this might up the challenge this leaves campaign bouts feeling less like strategic and more like separate solo experiences.
Hawx could do with a fair bit of polish before it (inevitably) comes around for a second flight, then - and a sluggish start to the solo campaign doesn't help much either. It's far from perfect, but the ERS formula does provide a small but much needed fresh idea to the tired genre, which means many Clancy and Ace Combat fans alike will be glad they played it.
When I played the demo I couldn't deal with the ERS-off camera. It didn't point the way I wanted it to and I couldn't seem to get it in a position I found comfortable so I couldn't even complete the tutorial.
In the action with ERS-on it was alright. Some of the near-future features on the plane take up too much screen time in my opinion (the blue trails dominate everything meaning you can't even see the target) but it's okay.
Overall I prefer the feel of Ace Combat, but this has potential.
I really like the demo but I'm a lover of the old school space shooters and their full 360 movement. I liked the ERS off view as it gave you a better view of the battlefield. With the stardard view you aren't given the same visibility as a standard cockpit canopy, so the ERS off view does its best compensate for that and I think it works. Might be an idea to introduce the idea of having the right stick control the pilots head, that would be more realistic and more immersive.
As for having no idea where you are, it did cause a few ground crashes but that was usually cos I was trying some ridiculous flip/spin/stall manouvere.
The action is tight, if a little repetitive. The dogfights and chases give you a sense of speed and excitement (or at least thats how I felt). Dunno if I'll but it cos I'm eventually feeling the credit pinch but I am definately considering it.
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ERS system works well
