Review: Warhawk (PS3. Incognito, Sony)

It's not often that you get a pleasant, unexpected surprise in the form of a game. You can usually gauge fairly early on whether a game is going to turn out to be a complete turkey or not. Warhawk initially appeared to be such a game. A flight-sim set in the near future? Pass. No thanks. It's been done a million times before and flight-sims tend to be stuffy, lifeless fare based entirely upon the player's ability to keep a crosshair steady for a couple of seconds to achieve a lock-on. Yawn. As console gamers our attention spans are inherently short and as such flight games normally don't fulfil our fast paced gaming needs unless you're talking about Namco's Ace Combat series which generally errs on the side of being pretty good. So, what makes Warhawk so special? Well quite a lot as it turns out.

Pitting the Eucadian armies against the malevolent Chernovian, the game is a bit like Star Wars in its set-up. The Eucadians even look like the Rebel Alliance with their battle scarred craft and khaki fatigues. And as you'll have guessed by now, the Chernovians look typically Darth Vader-esque in black garb and samurai helmets. It's the perfect excuse for two factions to blow each other to kingdom come and requires no further plot, exposition or any other pointless details. Hell, there's not even the back-story blather that you'd expect to find in the manual, it's just good versus evil and that's it. What else do you need to know?

Warhawk isn't just any old flight-sim as our first snap judgment had us assume. It's actually an insanely tooled up playground of weapons, vehicles and gun emplacements all for your delectation. Will it be the heavily armoured tank or the nippy jeep today, sir? Everything is tailored towards creating multiplayer destruction and mayhem on a huge scale. Whether you're manning a gun turret, tank or you're running along on foot, everything feels perfectly balanced and weapon pick-ups are littered all over the place so you're never without a formidable arsenal at your disposal. Sometimes on foot you can get stranded in the middle of nowhere, say if you happen to flip your jeep en-route to a fray, meaning you have to hoof your way to the nearest vehicle or area of activity, which can sometimes grate. This happens rarely, so doesn't really matter. Still, a sprint button or handy pushbike that you can grab from your backpack would have been a helpful addition.

All of the usual game modes are present and correct, as you'd expect. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag being the obvious suspects. Best of all though is Zones in which you attempt to capture as much enemy territory as possible. There are also straightforward, no nonsense dogfights where you begin at the controls of a warhawk and stay there for the duration, shooting down as many enemies as possible within the time limit. This is Warhawk at its purest.

The most fun to be had playing the game is in piloting the titular warhawks. Effortlessly manoeuvrable, quick, nimble and deadly the warhawks are the real stars of the show. You can hover mere feet from the ground raining minigun flavoured death down upon unfortunate soldiers, jeeps and tanks although you leave yourself vulnerable to being shot down. You can spin through the sky gracefully dodging missiles, navigating your way through narrow gaps and canyons (although you'll need to turn pro flight controls on to get the most out of your hawk) shooting down foes with aplomb. Get the hang of Warhawk and you're in for a treat. Hours will pass in what seem like minutes as you play just. one. more. game! It's fiendishly addictive and will have you hooked on its great, big candy shop of weapons and destruction.

Warhawk is a game so flawlessly executed that it's a compulsory purchase for anyone with a PS3 hooked up to the PlayStation Network and a penchant for blowing things up. Be warned, Warhawk is online multiplayer only and will consume hours of your life without you realising it. Unashamedly undemanding and unreservedly brilliant, Warhawk is completely and utterly indispensable.

Fuel: 9/10