Whilst this variety is a good thing, it’s in this mission that I realise that something is missing from H.A.W.X.2. I have no connection to it. The story-line and the characters haven’t drawn me into their world. It’s just a video game that I’m playing. This is an oddly depressing feeling after playing so many games where the developers go to great lengths to lure you in to their world. I put this uneasy feeling aside and continue with the game. A couple of dogfighting missions later and we come to a mission where I have to support an invasion force. There are so many targets that have to be destroyed to make way for the invasion force, and more are added along the way that you’re forced to continually re-start the mission as you fail time and time again to protect the invasion force. It’s a mind-numbingly huge step up in the difficulty stakes, and with a game that doesn’t offer any suggestions as to what to do – it take a kind of sink or swim mentality in shark infested waters – it quickly gets to the point of frustration. Maybe I’m just not cut out to be a fighter pilot, maybe I just can’t grasp how the controls work and maybe I’m missing something obvious, but when I get to the point in a game where I keep on loosing no matter what I do, I tend to retire the game. Which is a damned annoying thing because despite not having an emotional connection to the game, I was looking forward to playing through the campaign to see how my dogfighting skills may have improved. However, H.A.W.X.2 does seem like a good, solid game. Had I had some previous experience in this genre, maybe I wouldn’t be struggling the same. It certainly looks the part, and the story-line combined with the several different online modes give H.A.W.X.2 the feeling that it would have a long life in the hands of an experienced combat flight sim gamer. So if you’ve already had experience in this genre, and enjoyed it, I’m pretty sure you’ll get into H.A.W.X.2.

Related

H.A.W.X.2 is obviously the sequel to Ubisoft’s initial foray into the combat flight sim arena. It’s also handily set in the same Tom Clancy universe as Ghost Recon Future Soldier. This is all nice and well, but essentially means little to me, as I never played the original H.A.W.X., nor have I played any combat flight sim on my XBox. But new experiences are something I try and embrace, and the Tom Clancy brand is usually pretty solid, so I approach H.A.W.X.2 with a degree of eager expectation. It delivers on my expectations, at least initially. The graphics an cut scenes are all beautifully relaised, and the introductory mission is a walk in the park. Even the later training mission isn’t too hard for this rookie. Then Ubisoft decide to mix things up a bit and you get to fly a spy drone looking for a downed US pilot. This leads to a mission reminiscent of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare where you get to man the guns on a flying fortress and rain terror down upon your enemy as the pilot and his rescue team hoof it overland, being chased by the nasty terrorists.

Whilst this variety is a good thing, it’s in this mission that I realise that something is missing from H.A.W.X.2. I have no connection to it. The story-line and the characters haven’t drawn me into their world. It’s just a video game that I’m playing. This is an oddly depressing feeling after playing so many games where the developers go to great lengths to lure you in to their world. I put this uneasy feeling aside and continue with the game. A couple of dogfighting missions later and we come to a mission where I have to support an invasion force. There are so many targets that have to be destroyed to make way for the invasion force, and more are added along the way that you’re forced to continually re-start the mission as you fail time and time again to protect the invasion force. It’s a mind-numbingly huge step up in the difficulty stakes, and with a game that doesn’t offer any suggestions as to what to do – it take a kind of sink or swim mentality in shark infested waters – it quickly gets to the point of frustration. Maybe I’m just not cut out to be a fighter pilot, maybe I just can’t grasp how the controls work and maybe I’m missing something obvious, but when I get to the point in a game where I keep on loosing no matter what I do, I tend to retire the game. Which is a damned annoying thing because despite not having an emotional connection to the game, I was looking forward to playing through the campaign to see how my dogfighting skills may have improved. However, H.A.W.X.2 does seem like a good, solid game. Had I had some previous experience in this genre, maybe I wouldn’t be struggling the same. It certainly looks the part, and the story-line combined with the several different online modes give H.A.W.X.2 the feeling that it would have a long life in the hands of an experienced combat flight sim gamer. So if you’ve already had experience in this genre, and enjoyed it, I’m pretty sure you’ll get into H.A.W.X.2.