So, H.A.W.X. 2 then... first up, context is all. There are quite a number of H.A.W.X. fans in the world; and quite rightly so – Ubisoft's interactive Tom Clancy adaptation took the military air combat genre and spiced it up with an engaging story and plenty of accessibility for the casual player. Flight Simulator, it most definitely wasn't.
For all it achieved, however, there remained a few bugbears that prevented it from being a worthwhile purchase to anyone but the most avid militarists out there. It's something that Creative Director Edward Douglas admits to as he talks to me about the incoming sequel.
Douglas explains that the main focus for the development team was to include more intense action for those that just want to shoot things in the air, while improving the cockpit experience for the warplane-spotters.
That's an ambitious challenge for sure, but after spending some time with the game I'm inclined to say that Ubisoft is indeed onto something here. In-air combat is more heavily hinged on close-quarters assault rather than locking onto Tangos three miles away and watching your missile chase them. That's quite exciting to be involved in – swooping just close enough to enemies to spatter bullets at them, before elegantly curling away from their sights makes you feel like a real pro. Well, it would for me, if I wasn't so pathetically bad at it.
The controls, to be fair, are quite accessible and simple to figure out. The analogue stick controls the plane and performs all kinds of evasive manoeuvres, while the triggers are your throttle controls. Movement using the left stick is quite smooth – you can quite actually glide your plane left and right, do a loop-the-loop and angle your cockpit upside down using that stick alone.
That ease of use initially comes at a price for me, whose past experience in air combat games basically amounts to
Lylat Wars on the Nintendo 64. Getting up close and personal with my foes was no problem, but knowing when to pull up and avoid suicide-running the sucker was another matter entirely. Like all games, it's a matter of discipline; knowing the basics of air combat and applying certain tactics to different kinds of enemy.
After several missions in the single-player campaign mode though, I was effortlessly in control of my craft as if I was flying through the Danger Zone (I'm sorry). Despite the emphasis on close combat, there are times when other tactics have to come into play. The campaign's training stage involves taking care of enemy ground units, which are best dealt with by zooming in on targets and using precision bombing. Various dogfighters are too quick for you to get up close to, so the traditional lock-on missiles work wonders in those situations too.
It's not just the combat that has added variety either, and this is where it leans towards the desires of the more hardcore military air combat fan. Rather than starting missions in the air and ending them in a similar fashion, you control almost every aspect of the craft's command, from the moment you're assigned the mission to initial take-off, and even the landing too.
At certain points, you will need to land on aircraft carriers to stock up on weapons and refuel. One stage even involves calling reinforcements to provide mid-air refuelling. The first mission asks you to take on a simple recon assignment, while a later stage set in the ocean sees you taking part in full-on dogfighting involving vast numbers of enemies. One mission, Seek & Destroy, is a two-part affair where you begin using stealth, and then finish using tactical air strikes.
