EXCELLENT GAME - TERRIBLE SEQUEL

THE HISTORY

Warhawk is the game that caused me to rush out and spend $216 plus tax on the Playstation console when it went through its first price drop. I saw all of 8 seconds of gameplay footage on a Playstation commercial and was convinced that I must have the game.
Released in 1995, Warhawk revolved around a global conflict between the air forces of the world and a psychotic megalomaniac named Kreel, who was using an alien substance named Red Mercury to give him time warping capabilities - somehow giving him power to command a massive battle armada and declare war on several nations at once. In the game, you took over the duties of two pilots named Hatch and Walker, gunner and pilot of the XA-165 Warhawk attack craft.

The Warhawk was probably the most advanced fighter ever created for science fiction. Shaped like the dropship from Aliens, this craft had the ground attack capabilities of the A-10 Thunderbolt, the size of an F-16, yet, also had the VTOL capabilities of a Harrier Jet and the acrobatic abilities of a Grumman X-26. You could pull Immulman turns, spin on axis, and pitch or roll extremely tightly, yet stop on a dime to do close ground support strafing of enemy tanks. It carried typical heat seeking missiles but also had the ability to launch 6 missiles at once – called swarmers which would converge on a target delivering shocking devastation. If all that wasn’t enough, the craft had shields that could repel incoming attacks. The shields could recharge themselves if they were kept out of constant attack, but, if lost, the Warhawk would begin to take hull damage. If any of the Warhawk’s four hull quadrants were destroyed, the craft went down.


A demonstration of the game is provided on YOUTUBE (as well as full game run through video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJ9cqVWZuc


What was so great about the game was that it was designed perfectly for the Playstation controller – which had 4 top mounted shoulder buttons for handling multi-axis control and thrust. The game was a blast to play and is still the only game of its type to this day. This is mostly because the company that designed Warhawk, Singletrac, was acquired by GT Interactive, and later dissolved in 2000. This was a horrific move because it effectively ruined sequels of Singletrac’s A+ games such as Twisted Metal and Jet Moto. Because of this, PS2 never received a Warhawk sequel.





THE GAME

First of all, Warhawk has carried onto the console, the ability to deliver content purely via wire - which we all first saw on home gaming PC rigs. For just $39.99, you can go online at the Playstation store and download the entire game. The download is over 5 GB so you’ll only want to do this if your on a high speed LAN or have the best in Cable or ‘Fios’ connections.

The only possible reason why you would not want to download the game is because, you can actually buy the physical game disk in the Blu Ray packaging for $59.99 – a move some will prefer simply because you can move the game from system to system if you have friends. The collector’s version also comes with the Jabra BT125 Bluetooth headset – a headset I got free over a year ago when I purchased a Motorola Razor from Circuit City during a promotion.

The Jabra BT 125 to make a long story short, is a very good headset – at first. The sound quality is excellent and it has one-touch, one button operation. That single blinking button allows you to answer or end calls with a touch, or, allows you to quickly mute the mic. When you pair the headset to either the PS3 console or the cellular phone of your choice, all you need do is hold the button till it glows steady and once it is paired, it will blink 3 times representing a link.
The downside of the 125 however is that the ear pin is a little flimsy and can eventually bend till it breaks or allow the unit to fall off the face if it is worn. JABRA will replace ear hooks free of charge though – if you email them at their parts department, they will mail you 3 hooks free !

WARHAWK will work with any Bluetooth headset that the PS3 pairs with however.


THE STORYLINE – There really isn’t one

Warhawk presents a major challenge to me to review simply because, as a die hard fan of the original PS game, it falls far short of what I’d hoped the game would accomplish in terms of continuing the storyline of the Playstation’s game.

Imagine seeing Star Wars: Episode 4 and then going back to the theaters years later to see a Star Wars: Empire Strike Back that had nothing to do with Episode: 4
And now the X-Wings now look like Jedi Starfighters…

The thing is, Warhawk’s focus is on action and war - not a plot – as there is no Singleplayer.
The Red Mercury Missions are a thing of the past.
There is no Kreel now. The game is straightforwardly: "red vs. blue" and is about as deep as your typical match of counterstrike or Battlefield 2.

There is an enemy over there: kill him. Kill all of them. That is your mission.

The game quite simply will be either a Team Deathmatch foray or a CTF match. CTF matches are similar to conquest mode of Battlefield 2 or command point capturing of Star Wars: Battlefront.



GAMEPLAY

One side are the “Eucadians” and the other side is the “Chernovans”.
The Eucadians have the “Warhawk” and the Chernovans have “The Nemesis”.
The Eucadians forces are colored green, the Chernovans are colored grey.
There are also jeeps and tanks to control following a similar color scheme.

Fighters carry heat seeking missiles and machine guns but, they also have “TOW” missiles, chaff, and cluster bombs. The cluster bombs do exactly what you think – when dropped, they wait on the ground unexploded until some kid comes up and tinkers with one. If it explodes, CNN gets a story to broadcast.
The “TOW” missile can only be fired if the Warhawk is in hover mode. When fired it can be guided to the target in a first person view perspective. ”*BOOM* hahaha look at his face !!!”
Chaff protects you from the heat seekers fired by pilots on your butt trying to get achievements by shooting you down. If they keep chasing you, you may also drop aerial mines which just float there till someone makes contact.

The game focuses on aerial combat as most of the maps have plenty of jets lying and fewer rolling platforms. If you prefer tank combat, you’re gonna’ end up strafed and getting hit by cluster bombs – a lot. Its much in the same manner you’re tanks were severely exposed to Helicopters in Battlefield 2. You may also choose to fight on foot but, you are at your most vulnerable from vehicle attacks. Most people will probably opt to fly. If you do choose to fight on foot, you’ll have access to standard weapons such as flamethrowers, machine guns, rifles and grenades. You may also choose to run to the homing missile turret, the anti aircraft guns or the guns mounted on the back of jeeps. Yes – its just like what you saw in Battlefield 2. The only way to protect yourself from aerial assault is by spraying the air with lead and hoping no one in the cockpit will come after you. Of course, when flying, there is a feeling of superiority over ground targets and that in itself will entice pilots to make the attempt to bomb you.

Soldiers also have access to binoculars which allow them to request air strikes.



MULTIPLAYER

I remember reading on Engadget a week ago that SONY had rigged about 100 PS3's together to create its own server for WARHAWK. Considering there are so few titles for PS3, and each PS3 release is followed closely, many people will probably buy this game and SONY may need more servers.
Online games are virtually lag free which really helps keep you immersed in the game and sacrificing hour upon hour on your couch.

You must play on a SONY server in order to earn upgrades. This may be a problem as sometimes, finding a qualifying match may take longer than you'd like (upwards of 5 minutes even). You can earn options to adjust your player's uniform colors and decals - or the fighter's paint scheme similar to Rainbow 6: Vegas.
At a glance, a customized player skin on an opponent is evidence that the player is skilled.

Unfortunately, until SONY completes its online gamer web service - Playstation Home - PS3 games do not offer the same excitement of recieving achievements as the Xbox360 does. SONY doesn't have a sophisticated friend system like the 360, but, this game does offer CLAN match setups which helps PS3 owners play together.

32 players can simultaneously play Warhawk online (There is also 4-player split screen available). Large player games amount to spectacular action experiences, since if you are in a jet, you are always moving and blowing something up, or, if you’re a lowly foot soldier, you are humping around trying not to get blown up, while every now and then watching tanks shooting at each other or witnessing jets dogfighting overhead. It really is a feeling reminiscent of Battlefield 2, only now, there are more vehicles causing more destruction at any given time.

Alot of focus has been placed on making the new fighter a close support craft. Similar to Battlefield 2, you need to be able to land aircraft in order to get out and switch vehicles or capture flag points, therefore, the Warhawk can be easily landed in small spots. This is also cool because the Warhawk can assist tanks from less than 50 feet off the deck. Its cool supporting your friends on the ground, but, the closer you get to the ground, the more vulnerable you are to weak weapons and shoulder fired missiles.



GRAPHICS, SOUND and CONTROL

I ran the game in 1080i on my bigscreen HD Television. It is truly a sight to behold since the game’s graphics engine supports tremendous draw distances. No matter where you are, you can look far out into the horizon and see what is happening over there. I haven’t seen a draw distance like this since on a next-gen console yet. The game is also capable of running in 480p or 720p for your 42” and smaller tv’s.

The sound is excellent – the explosions, weapons fire and engine hums are of high fidelity and sound really good with a 5.1 audio setup. In fact 5.1 sound really helps because you can hear better where an attack is coming from. Someone might try and sneak up behind you to use their combat blade!

The control was a bit disappointing. While the SIXAXIS motion sensing allows for “show-&-tell” if someone is watching you fly the fighters by guiding it with arm sways, the SIXAXIS never feels tight enough for a situation where you are low on health and in danger of being blown away. The original Warhawk’s control scheme was impeccable but, as they changed the dynamics of the game, the new Warhawk feels just a bit bland in the control department. The standard control use is fine though, but, it makes you wonder why exactly SIXAXIS is so important for the system anyway. I’d have preferred Dual Shock so my controls would rumble as I launch weapons and strafe defenseless troops.

I’m also quite disappointed in the aircraft design. I wished the aircrafts were just updated versions of the original Warhawk fighter, but now, they look like WW2 aircraft with jet engines and aerodynamically ugly features. I believe they didn’t use the original design because it was owned by Singletrac but, I could be wrong.


OVERALL

Warhawk delivers graphic and violent action with a “T” rating which makes it a reasonable choice for a kid's gift.

The biggest problems I have with the game is due to the seemingly plot-less rebooting of the Warhawk franchise, and the lack of backstory elements. There truly needs to be a better manual for the game because lots of things go unexplained. “Why am I playing this game?” for example. “What role am I taking on and why?”.
The game is multiplayer only which was probably a good move for the developer but a bad move for the gamer. Battlefield 2 had a crappy Singleplayer experience when compared to most other FPS titles, but, at least it gave you something to work with out of the box before going online.
Warhawk drops you right into the battles and you will get killed within moments of beggining a match without really knowing what the hell just happened. The violence is relentless and getting started is more daunting than it should be. Keep in mind, if you download the game, you don't even get the basic manual.

I'd have liked to see an updated version of the 1995 title. That may not have been possible due to patents but, it would have been nice considering what PS2 did with Twisted Metal: Black. Come to think of it...when will PS3 see a Twisted Metal game?

I, as do many other owners of the original Playstation, see the SCEA games created for its launch as the symbols of Playstation itself. Without these key titles, the Playstation is basically just another system that plays ports of games available on 360 or the PC.

I'm bothered that the Warhawk itself has been removed from the game's main focul point as the fighter is suppossed to be the dominating star of the game - there shouldn't be more than one hero.

What I must say however, is despite the game’s shortcomings WARHAWK is a blast to play and can be entertaining for hours upon hours. This is probably the best Playstation3-only title to be released for the system since its launch and that signals that Playstion3 is now going toe to toe with the XBOX 360-only killer apts like Gears of War, Quake 4 and the upcoming Halo 3.

The game is solid and will make a worthy addition to the currently thirsty libraries of PS3 owners.