Fun game similar flying controls to GTA V's flying controls, I enjoyed the campaign solo, played through on hardest diff, although I didn't really pay too much attention to the story because I felt its more about the gameplay than the storyline, the gameplay is fun but kinda easyish, I mean it's not super simple but no walk in the park either, once you grasp the controls you'll be flying in no time (pun intended)
Had a few run ins with players since I put it on public for the last few campaign missions and they were decent players too, I did want to get all trophies in this but the versus online mode is dead, like completely dead, not a soul in sight, I even bought a second copy to try and boost with myself but found it boring and tedious. It's a shame the versus mode is dead, it seems like it could've been fun at launch. Oh well.

HAWX appears to try to blend realism and arcade gaming within a single game. But does it really succeed? A short review to find out:

The combat component is a fair amount of fun. It's very satisfying to get a lock on an enemy aircraft and then watch as your missiles blow it to smithereens in mid-air in a very satisfying explosion. The graphics are really good, and if you get to fly through the black smoke that moments ago was an enemy plane, well, that's just a lot more fun. The negative is that locking on to the most ideal target is a pain in the ass. It's not as intuitive as one would have liked. It's not fair to expect that the AI would select the best target that's right in front of you. Yet, multiple times, while I feel like there's an obvious target in front of me, I hit the change target button to find that the computer's locked on to something else, and those brief milli-seconds of confusion will cause you to miss your target, forcing you to fly around a second time.

The AI also fails in directing you to the most important targets. So you get to hear on the radio that a certain "bogey" is high priority, but in some missions, there are so many enemy aircraft (or ground units) in the fray that it becomes difficult trying to figure out which ones is high priority. This is especially annoying when you have to escort certain slower and less armed aircraft (such as bombers or carriers), and the oncoming wall of enemies gets so high that you just don't realise that an enemy aircraft has slipped through and is attacking your bomber. Oh, and it's not a major help that the wingmen do not branch out and attack very effectively, even if you ask them to. The "Assistance Off" feature allows camera to pan out to an external view, letting you see your plane (and your target) from the sky. It can be fun when you get the hang of it, albeit quite simplistic. Just my opinion, though, but I felt that the simplicity was for the better.

The missions are quite varied, some requiring low altitude flying, others requiring precision flying to avoid enemy radar zones. Almost no mission goes according to plan, and just when you thought you had completed it, something new will happen and will require further action from you. There's a storyline in the background that, to be fair, does a good job of giving you a reason to fly from one mission to the next. But with the lack of character models, with nothing to really bring a "human" element into the picture, it kind of falls flat and you just want to hit the "Continue" button to start the mission already. For those who are interested, the storyline involves Private Military Corporations (PMC), which are supposedly the future or armed forces.

Graphics are good, to put it succinctly. Watching your plane's wings change as you change speed or altitude is fun and the third-person view is satisfying in that it allows you to see the machine you're flying.

All in all, HAWX is a good game that does a good job of balancing arcade style gaming with some elements of realism, but its biggest failing is that it's just not immersive enough. The missions, at least initially, can be quite slow (before a sudden ratcheting up of pressure and offensive), and the storyline is bland without a character to relate to it. After a couple of missions, I just felt like taking a break.

So here we have Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. An interesting title for a variety of reasons. For one, it's one of two series I can think of that use the strange acronym name hybrid title, along with the FEAR series. Also, its , along with End War, one of the forgotten about, and quite random entry in the Tom Clancy's series. Finally, it's one of the few flight games on the console set in modern times. This is another one of those titles that I find hard to review, as I'm not really a big flight sim fan. That being said, this seems like a fairly serviceable one, if a little repetitive. The missions are your standard fair of dog fights against a bunch of enemies, and bombing an area. If you are into this time of game, you will know what I'm talking about an probably enjoy it. One cool feature is that the game will give you flight paths to avoid missiles or follow enemies in the form of gates, and missing one will mean you need to start again. It's a simple but cool little mechanic. One major issue I have with this game is it is ugly. It's very green/brown/gray, and i really think it could have been improved by having some cool cities or landscapes to fly over. That being said, I had a bit of fun with it and its still pretty playable in 2023.

I think this was my second time through the campaign. I don't really have a lot to say about this one. The ways they tie it into the Tom Clancy game universe are kind of neat. They try to play up the notion that you're in an experimental/fancy squadron with the latest kit, and what that often boils down to is sections of missions where you have to fly through gates displayed by your ERS system, which the sequel mercifully cuts down on. The ERS sections are kind of janky and not altogether fun.

What is not janky and is extremely fun is the assistance off flight mode, which zooms out the camera, fixes it right-side up, and increases the maneuverability of your aircraft in order to better attack and defend yourself. Truly, flying in assistance off mode is the pinnacle of console flight combat games, in my opinion. It feels the most nimble and rewarding for talented pilots, even if it is at times a little tricky to steer with the camera not following you around! It's still tops though, and it also looks awwwwwesome when you do it.

I recall the story being kind of goofy and not memorable or particularly well executed, but it's probably Fine™. The graphics look pretty solid, but they also seem kind of flat to me. Ace Combat 6, a game three years its junior, continues to look better, but in a way I can't explain. Maybe if I compared them side by side.

Anyway, a good play for flight combat fans, but it's not going to win any converts. Worth playing for assistance off mode alone.