The one genre that next gen has not really conquered yet is flight sims. From FPS to RTS to fighting, there is at least one standout game in each type that you can hang your hat on. There are only a handful of flight sims out there and none have distinguished themselves as THE game to play to quench your dogfighting skills. H.A.W.X. 2 is the follow up installment to the “just okay” jump of Tom Clancy into air combat. The game succeeds as improving on its predecessor, but still does not qualify as the best in the skies. 

The immediate addition you will notice in H.A.W.X. 2 is the new flight sequences. I am referring to the take-offs, landings, and mid-air refueling. Using a guidance system, which actually really works, you can and will complete all of the above a few times in the campaign. They serve as a great way to break up the monotony that ensues in a lot of the missions. The controls are about as good as you can expect from a controller, but this game is really meant for a flight stick. Since so few games out there are really compatible with all the 3rd party peripherals, unless you are a flight sim fanatic, you don’t own one. I don’t either. They really need to package the game with a flight stick next time. Sure it might cost an extra $40, but the game really needs it.

A pitfall that a lot of flight sims fall into is the lack of mission variance. H.A.W.X. 2 really tries to break this trend with the AC-130 missions, using the A-10 Thunderblot, etc. Too often is each mission as follows: Take out all planes, don’t get killed, maybe shoot some ground targets and that is it. Some missions have you protect ground forces with the A.I. of a rhesus monkey. They will die over and over. Their damage meter really serves as a timer. These missions are almost half luck and half trial and error. It can get frustrating. I also would have like to seen some more weapon variations as well. Maybe some bombing runs where you carry a 2000 lbs bunker buster or something. Air and ground missiles are about it here. Again, a little stagnant.

There is a multiplayer portion to the game but it was not that fun. I guess I suck because I kept getting shot down over and over. Maybe because my controls were not as precise as with the aforementioned lack of flight stick. The co-op is fun as my brother and I did dominate the skies, but the split screen was annoying. The game is fun and is much better than the original, but it did get stale after awhile. I can’t fully blame the lack of flight stick on the game, but there needs to be a fix here. This game falls between 3 and 4 stars and would be a 7 if we had that sort of rating system. After we beat it, which we did, I don’t see myself going back. The lack of replay value knocks it down a notch. If you love dogfighting and have a flight stick, I would definitely rent this, if not buy if you fall in love. Otherwise, there are plenty of other games out there right now that will demand your attention,

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]