Flying High (Warhawk (PS3))

Member Name: butters

Product:	Warhawk (PS3)
Date:	08/10/07 (202 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Broad gameplay that varies drastically

Disadvantages: Only online-no practice

With the first Warhawk game back on the original Playstation this game, made by Incognito Entertainment has truly changed a lot, with it going from an offline only Warhawk game (a Warhawk is a plane) to it being a huge online-only Playstation 3 game with worldwide servers and a variety of combat.

~The Online~

Straight away I’d recommend going online, because if you don’t you’ll be stuck since this game is only online. You’re chucked into a worldwide server full of thousands of people to play with straight away with not even a tutorial. You just get a few helpful hints along the way such as how to fire a gun or how certain machinery works.

Now there are both custom and ranked games and I’d recommend custom games first because, unlike me, you will not want to mess up your rank until you get good. It’s really not a problem though because the servers are full of both games of every variety. The only difference between these games, other than the obvious-that the official ones mean whatever you do counts towards your score is that in custom games people make their own rules, which vary so normal, to stupid rules, which will be discussed later.

So there you are, respawning, and you’ll find that, unlike it’s predecessor, this game is not just about Warhawk planes, but also ground combat, something you’ll spend a lot of your time doing. Ground combat just means you’re not in a plane and there are loads of things to do. You start off with a weapon but you can find so many more, such as machine guns, rocket launchers and flamethrowers, all vital to stop you getting killed very fast. All work extremely well, with the bazooka being used mainly to take down vehicles and the only problem I found was that with the aiming system (3rd person) you’re aim goes with the camera angle so if you are used to an over head view you’ll be disappointed. This means that to aim your weapon at a ground target, the camera should be situated directly behind your character, something you get used to fast.
Ground combat is absolutely mad online, and you’ll see so many people in battles with so many weapons, throwing grenades at each other trying to get the kill. Once you get used to it, it is amazing. However if you’re not in a plane I’d suggest some form of vehicle anyway.
Ground vehicles are either jeeps or tanks. The first can sit 3 and the latter can sit 2, both have disadvantages and advantages relating to armour or speed but both are vital if you want to get to the other end of the map alive. They’re situated all over the place too so you’ll never go short.

However, the game is called Warhawk and this is the main part of the game, air combat. There are two teams, with one owning Warhawk’s and the other with Nemesis. Apart from looks both planes are the exact same. If you’re in one of these things you’re really there to take down as many people as possible whilst avoiding all other things thrown at you such as missiles from planes or mounted launchers, tanks, or bazookas. And the way you do this is by doing a series’ of tricks. Although you can control the plane through the SIXAXIS I would not recommend it and the default controls give you the left analogue stick to shoot throughout the skies, and the right allowing you to do a variety of tricks such as looping round and barrel rolls. Then there is always a nose dive to avoid the missiles.
Then there is the offensive. Planes have two settings, with the slow ‘hover’ setting allowing you to shoot down on the people form below who are maybe running with your flag, and then the fast mode which lets you shoot throughout the skies and shoot down planes, with many different weapons, involving a variety of missiles, allowing you to lock-on, or just a standard machine gun.

It all amounts to fantastic fun since this is all going on in the same server. The feeling you get for the first time when you are on the ground, with no vehicle, and see a plane just swoop right over you is excellent. In fact, both forms of combat are so good (ground and air) that if they were each separate games on their own they would still be decent enough.
It all makes a fantastic experience. One minute you could be in a mounted gun firing down planes, the next minute you could be in a plane, getting fired down by a mounted gun. Everything is that simple and it is made so it is easy to fire at a target (for a lock on you must keep a plane within your sites for a couple of seconds before firing) and yet also easy to dodge. When you’re up in the air some one on one fights can last ages, with each person shaking off from a missile, dodging it with some tight swerves and then trying to double back and get a shot at the guy who was doing it.

The environments themselves are also good. They’ve obviously been designed for both ground and air combat so you’ll see a series of roads with weapons across, with the bases filled with defences, and then up in the skies big pillars to swerve around in your plane. Also, since it is online only there is a great chance for updates over the PS3 such as extra maps and (the rumoured) upgrade from 32 people per map to 64 which would make a phenomenal game.

~Game Modes~

Well in such a vast game there has to be game modes.

Death Match is just a death match between all players, where the one with the most kills at the end wins. It can be quite fun though I personally stay away from it and prefer better modes, which are more strategic.

Team Death Match provides this to some extent, and I would say is better for new players to the game. It has no objectives, you are just allocated a team (red or blue) and fight until a score limit or time limit is reached.

Capture the Flag is my personal favourite. It’s a mode when you have to get to the other teams base, take their flag and run back to your own base with it. What makes this so fun is that although you can fly there, you can not get in a plane with a flag so you really have to get to the other side of the map using some skill, whether it is running as fast as you can or jumping in the nearest jeep. The maps are huge and you really feel a sense of achievement if you get one. One annoyance is that in a few custom games you can go with flag and plane, making the mode a little dull. This rarely happens though.

Zones are the next best. There are zones in all maps, which must be captured allowing you team to respawn there. But the objective of this is for one team to take all zones or get as many as they can. It’s a little easier than capture the flag but still great none-the-less.

Dogfight is a mode where you are just in planes. You can either have a death match or team death match and you just use planes to get your kills. For me I’m not a fan because I prefer fewer planes to be in the air since you can get shot down so easily but many people enjoy it. I prefer ground combat myself.

What makes the modes better is that the game is headset compatible meaning you can strategise with your team. No, the headset is not just used to shout out profanities and sing songs. In higher ranked games you can really use the headset to use. An example of this would be when I was left with no jeep or vehicle, but a flag. Using the headset I managed to get someone to pick me up and take me to the base in a decent amount of time. Success.

~Extra Information~

Name: Warhawk
Age: 16+
Developer: Incognito Entertainment
Publisher: Sony
Formats: PS3
HDD: 486KB minimum
HD: 720p and 1080i

Now the price differs. It can be downloaded from the Playstation 3 store for a mere £19.99. However, you can only use it on the account you purchase it on so if you have multiple users buy from the shops for RRP £40. You get with it a Jabra Bluetooth Headset which to me made it worth the purchase. I may have already got the PS2 headset but this was wireless completely and I have heard of people having problems with the wired one.

~Overall~

It’s a fantastic purchase for the Ps3 that will take away a good proportion of the day and is a fantastic exclusive for the PS3 to have. It will get you hooked right after you have gotten used to everything which does not take that long.

Although I love the fact that is it online only I would not have minded an offline-tutorial to get you going. Instead I was left with making a game over a local connection on my own just to practice. Unfortunately, unless you have a friend with you, there are no AI planes. You can have a 2-4 player offline battle though which is a good laugh (over a local connection or all in the same room split-screen). You can even do this online so you can have an online game (not ranked) with 2 people playing split-screen which is addictive.

The game may have a few faults, but it is definitely worth a purchase because of the amazingly varied gameplay, where both ground and air combat is unbelievable and I doubt there will be a better online game out for quite some time.

Summary: A great addition to any PS3 gamers collection