Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 2

The Tom Clancy series of games have been a rather mixed bag over the years. While a certain rainbow variant has brought a great deal of success for the series, other games haven’t had the same level of acclaim. One of which is the H.A.W.X series which provided a rather simplistic and bare bones flight situation title without any of the bells and whistles needed to make it a classic dogfighting romp. Well, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X 2 was supposed to be the answer to this, taking a few big swings in a hope of knocking it out of the park.

This game plays like a number of flight simulator games. Obviously, it plays like the original H.A.W.X title. However, it also plays similarly to games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, War Thunder, the Ace Combat series and Star Wars: Squadrons to name a few. This title aims to provide all the aerial action anyone could possibly need. However, does this game soar high or crash land without warning? We find out in our review of Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X 2.

Grounded Indefinitely

While the original title was a little bit underwhelming and stale for the most part, we have to point out that it was a decent effort at flight simulation. Sure it was wonky and didn’t exactly highlight what made flight sims fun but it did enough to warrant an average rating. This sequel does nothing to warrant an average or even slightly below par rating. The game is chocked full of bugs and does very little to push the series forward after a mediocre first outing.

On the positive side, the developers have clearly tried to do something different, which is abundantly clear in the early stages. Instead of pure flight and dogfight scenarios, there is more features and mechanics to contend with. You’ll have to refuel in the air, you’ll fight a new enemy with a variety of new air vehicles and you’ll have new tasks like guiding UAV’s or decimating villages with a mounted machine gun, you know, essential military business. It’s nice to have the variety but it does nothing to rescue the wreckage this game causes.

Let’s begin the criticism with the need for an internet connection just to play this game. A feature that was frustrating at the time of release and even more so now that this game is a relic. Players will only return to this game for a single or local multiplayer experience. Yet, if you aren’t connected to the Internet, you can wave goodbye to that notion of taking to the skies.

Then as for the game itself, the features included are still a little confusing. Its as if the developers haven’t learned from their mistakes and have once again produced a flight simulator that focuses on all the most mundane aspects of aerial warfare. Then when the game throws action the players way, it’s obnoxious, Jason Statham on crack levels of action that isn’t immersive and borders on unpalatable. However, don’t concern yourself too much because there is a feature that will ground you for failing mission that works, in real time. Truly incredible how someone thought that was a good idea.

The Verdict

Overall, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X 2 is a game that doesn’t learn from it’s mistakes and then doubles down by making some more. The constant internet connection, the sickening action and the grounding feature are more than enough reason to give this game a wide birth. The saving aspects of this game are the multiplayer functionality and the varied mission types and the reasonable graphics.

Pros:

• Varied mission types
• Reasonable visuals
• Multiplayer functionality

Cons:

• Unfocused flight sim with a severe lack of refinement
• Grounding feature is the epitome of stupidity
• Requires constant internet connection