Andrew Weymes of The Nightly Gamer writes: The demo for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X hit Xbox Live a couple of days ago and it's surprisingly good, especially for a game that hasn't garnered much hype. For those that haven't heard of the game, be sure to give the demo a shot. It may even entice gamers who aren't into flight simulation games. Read the full article to get a more detailed explanation of what The Nightly Gamer thought about the demo.
Flight simulations games are kind of the niche' genre in the world of video games. Many of them feature very difficult control schemes that tend to turn off the average gamer. H.A.W.X certainly has a difficult control scheme to master if the setting is on expert, but the normal setting is quite easy to get accustomed to.
The demo consists of two missions, one of which is a training mission and both can be played online. As explained in the first mission, there are two ways of controlling your jet. When assistance is on, the camera angle is either directly behind the jet or looking through the cockpit. With assistance on, the game feels like almost any other flight simulation game. However, with assistance off, the game feels entirely different. Many manoeuvres become available without the assistance on such as breaking quickly and swinging your jet around behind pursuers. The camera is much different without the assistance on and settles very far from the jet itself. Both ways of playing are enjoyable, but having the assistance on seems to make the combat feel a little more exciting despite not having as many moves available at your disposal.
The graphics are similar to every other Tom Clancy game released. They get the job done, but aren't anything to be awestruck from. The jets are nicely detailed, but the cityscape is relatively unimpressive. It's a pity that Tom Clancy games all seem to share these graphical traits, because the gameplay is almost always solid.
The sound in the demo is probably its weakest aspect. The voice acting is decent, but the jets had a very poor sound quality to them. At times they would crackle through the speakers and it was quite unpleasant. Hopefully, this problem will be fixed in the retail version of this game.
The H.A.W.X demo was a pleasant surprise. The gameplay is certainly fun and exciting, the graphics are above average, but the sound quality was pretty bad. Flight simulation fans should certainly give the demo a shot. For gamers that aren't big fans of the genre, H.A.W.X may help change their minds. Being able to play each mission online is going to add a lot of replayability to the retail game and there are other multiplayer modes that weren't available in the demo. H.A.W.X may get lost in the shuffle of the stellar games coming out in February and March, but the demo certainly wasn't bad. In fact, it was much better than expected of a game with little to no hype.
Written by Andrew Patrick Weymes
H.A.W.X Demo is Surprisingly Good