KMGR of "Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X"

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Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. is basically an aerial equivalent of the "Ghosts", the elite of the elite U.S. Special Forces. When the world is basically overran by Private Military Corporations (i.e. Mercenaries) and they eventually got too big for their britches, it is the job of H.A.W.X. and the Ghosts to put them back in their place... But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is the mobile version. Does it capture some of the feel of the other versions? Unfortunately, no. This is basically a vertical shooter like 1942, albeit with jets.

There are total of 10 missions that outlines the adventures of one of the pilots... Who was let go from HAWX, hired by Artemis, one of the PMCs, went on a few missions... You get to choose among four planes at the beginning. As you shoot enemies, if you destroy a whole "squad", they may drop gun pods which allows you to upgrade the gun firepower. Sometimes you can also pick up missiles, extra life, 2 squadron mates to assist in firepower, forcefield, and so on as powerups.

Each level ends with a "boss", could be a humongous mobile fortress (spewing shots all over the place, and move faster than you can fly!) an extra large stealth bomber with rear turrets, and so on. You also get to fly through a city (don't hit the buildings!) and a river valley (River Raid?)

You get a few planes to choose from initially... balanced, heavy ground-attack, or high-maneuverability. When you finish the campaing, you'll unlock the Berkut Russian superfighter. The game from there plays like 1942... Shoot happens automatically. Hit BOMB if you need to clear the map, until the level finishes or you ran out of lives. There are both ground and air threats. There are even bosses, some sort of superplane or a supertank, complete with huge laser, guns that scatter shots all over, and spawns little tanks and whatnot. And it won't go down until you pump bazillion shots into them. Ha.

So, is it fun? Only if you like that sort of game. Personally, I don't like twitch games that much, so this one is a bit low on my list. This game basically completely misses that HAWX is all about. The game designers at Gameloft gave us a 1942 remake instead, and that is simply ANCIENT news. Sound isn't bad, and graphics, well, okay. There are occasional bits where you need to fly through narrow spaces (hints of River Raid, if you remember that far back!) and even THROUGH a building or two. Cute, but those moments are few and far in between.

Overall, the game is a disappointment. I was expecting HAWX lite. I got 1942 painted up as HAWX.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: nice arcade action, if you like 1942 / UN Squadron type of gameplay
Cons: and that's all this game really is, complete with bosses, has little to do with HAWX at all