Warhawk
Review
This re-imagined version is a blast to play
by Chris Scott
reviewed on PS3
Remake
For those that don’t remember, Warhawk was a game originally released on the Playstation back in 1995. It was an arcade styled flight combat game where you would fly around destroying various points on the game map to achieve your objectives. The game itself garnered a fair following, big enough to get a release on the Greatest Hits line.
When Sony was looking for something for Incognito Games to work on for the Playstation 3, they pulled this title out of their hat. The original Warhawk was a single player experience but instead of following in its footsteps Incognito took a completely new approach. They decided that instead of one player they would put you in a ring with 32 other players in large team based battles that involved ground and air battles. While fans of the original may be a bit disappointed that there is absolutely no single player component to the Playstation 3 Warhawk, they should take heart that this re-imagined version is a blast to play.
The lack of a single player game means that Warhawk has to fly on the strength of its one and only component, multiplayer. Fortunately for Playstation 3 owners, it does. At first glance you may mistake the game for Sony’s other multiplayer shooter SOCOM because of the camera perspective (third person, over the shoulder) but the similarities pretty much end there. While SOCOM is designed to play as a tactical shooter, Warhawk is more designed for fast paced, large scale, arcade style shooter battles. It’s not that you can’t play it tactically, you can, but the game does not punish players for not playing it that way.
Maps
The game has five maps, each which have numerous size variants. The overall lack of additional maps is actually a big drawback from the game, as much fun as the game can get if you are playing the big team based game types you will most likely be playing on the large map variant over and over. The good news is that while you may be playing on the same maps, the large map variants are extra large and offer plenty of play space and variety for different battle types. Still some additional content in the form of a map pack would go a long way into extending the life of the game.
Different Game Types
There are a few different game types and everyone should be able to find a variant that suits them just fine. From my personal favorite Zones (territory control battles) to Capture the Flag to Team Deathmatch to Team Dogfighting you should be able to keep yourself more than occupied. If you are not a fan of team based gameplay or objective gameplay for that matter, you can go it alone in regular single player deathmatch or single player dogfighting.
You can have all the maps and game variants in the world but if the game controls poorly the game itself will fail miserably. Fortunately Warhawk handles well. Ground based troops maneuver and aim as expected and ground based vehicles handle nicely, if a tad bit loose. Warhawks are a mixed bag. It’s not that the Warhawks handle poorly but rather there is a steep learning curve as well as some customization that needs to be completed to get the most out of the birds.
7.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
