Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X Preview

E3 2008 Preview

Tom Clancy’s myriad videogame series have covered a lot of ground, putting players in control of a tactical unit of soldiers in Rainbow Six, dropping them into foreign lands in Ghost Recon, and putting them in the shoes of a superspy in Splinter Cell. Now, the house that Tom built is getting ready to take off to new heights, quite literally. H.A.W.X. is an action flight-sim game that allows players to take to the skies in one of fifty different planes other huge sprawling environments. H.A.W.X. is a unique departure from Tom Clancy’s series of games, but should be a fun excursion for fans of aerial combat.

While H.A.W.X. plays a lot differently from other Tom Clancy games, its storyline is still firmly rooted in the universe of the existing games. You’ll do things from help out the soldiers in GRAW, as well as help lay the groundwork for the events that unfold in Tom Clancy’s End\War.

H.A.W.X. lets you fly in one of 50 different aircraft from various types, including Russian craft, Swedish, US, and older planes. The developers have had close conversations with the manufacturers in order to get the planes as accurate as possible.

One element that H.A.W.X. does very differently is the use of electronic assistance. With electronic assistance on your plane cannot stall, you cannot perform any risky maneuvers, and you cannot have full control nor a full view around your aircraft. However, electronic assistance can be turned off, making the experience a lot more difficult, catering to hardcore flight sim gamers.

The environments in H.A.W.X. are impressively huge. The Cape Canaveral level looks like a more detailed version on Google Earth, with every element of the area painstakingly recreated and up to military snuff.

Online, you’ll be able to get into 8-player 4-on-4 matches, with an XP-system that you build up in single-player mode and will net you more ships and support units. H.A.W.X. is turning out to be a pretty impressive action flight-sim with great online features, making for a unique and interesting franchise starter for the Tom Clancy universe.

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