"I didn't start this war, but it's on!"

Warhawk is an online-only game from Sony and Incognito, the developers of the Twisted Metal franchise. It is the first game of it's type on the PS3. It was also the first game to be sold in two different ways: downloaded from the PS store for $39.99, or bought at retail bundled with a bluetooth headset for $59.99. Either way you get the same game, which has you by yourself/on a team in different battlefields blowing the crap out of each other mostly by land and air. Is Warhawk going to be worth your precious "killing others all over the world" time?

WAR IS.........STORY

The Euchadians and Chernovans are at war, and guess who gets to fight that war?

*Points at you*

Great motivation, eh?

WAR IS……..GAMEPLAY

From the main menu, you can play an offline or LAN multiplayer game (no bots, unfortunately), or you can jump online to start your many hours of destruction. There is no single-player game, which may disappoint people who followed Warhawk's development since a single player game was originally planned. Incog. decided to shift the focus to creating a great multiplayer experience, and for the most part they got the job done. Hopping online and joining a game is easy as pie. Just log in, choose “join server”, and every available game shows up. Pick one that isn't full and start blowing things away. You even have filters you can use, so if you want a dogfight only game, a game with 8 players only, ranked game, just set it up and you'll get what you want in no time.

Warhawk combat in separated into two groups: ground and air. When you first spawn in a battlefield, you're a single soldier armed with only a pistol, a combat knife, and grenades. If you choose to stick to the ground on foot, you can pick up various weapons such as assault rifles, flamethrowers, mines, and other good stuff. So it's a nice, although generic, selection to keep you busy. Don't want to run around the battlefield? Well then hop into one of the many jeeps and tanks at a base (spawn point), go solo or grab a running crew of three other people, and proceed to wreak stuff up! Jeeps have mounted heavy guns and tanks are, well, tanks, and easily take out enemy turrets, ground troops, and even aircraft if you're good at aiming. Be careful though, ground troops can still use their rocket launchers and grenades to blow you up, and aircraft can rain down missiles and machine gun fire at you from the sky.

Ah, yes, air combat. If you want to take it to the not-so-friendly skies, just find an empty aircraft somewhere on the battlefield to jump into and your in business. The aircraft control is very good and very responsive. Use the left stick to move your plane while the right stick lets you do corkscrews and barrel rolls to shake enemy missiles. R1 fires your machine guns, L1 fires your selected weapons, which include swarm missiles, homing missiles, cluster bombs (for ground targets), cloaking devices, and other awesome and fun to use weaponry. There is even optional SIXAXIS plane control, but I didn't find it to be all that responsive and useful. I'm sure other will like it since it frees up your hands to aim, so it's a good thing Incog. made this an option.

The gameplay in Warhawk is extremely well balanced out. Aircraft can enter a hover mode by pressing triangle, which allows them to strafe ground targets with machine gun and missile fire. However, they will be more open to a ground troop's rocket launcher, tank shell or turret fire. Ground troops can hop into heavy turrets, but they can give their positions away pretty easily and are vulnerable from behind. Vehicles can get you around fast and have heavy weaponry, but can also be destroyed by aircraft barrages and foot soldier rocket launchers and grenades. Foot soldiers are small targets but can die pretty easily from anything. Warhawk's biggest strength is its gameplay variety, and there should be no shortage of ways to destroy your opponents. It should be pointed out that newcomers to the game are thrown into battle and pretty much have to wing it. There are help boxes that pop up to the left of the screen at time, but they don't really do much. If you buy the retail version, it comes with an instruction book, so you can at least read up on the controls. Those newcomers who download though will find a steep-learning curve to get over if they want to hang with the veterans.

As of right now, there are 5 different levels in Warhawk, and it's pretty much a gimme that Sony and Incog. will have more to download in the future. Maps of these levels are very easy to use and point out the locations of bases, vehicles, turrets, and aircraft very well. There are 4 modes of play: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and nodes (where you capture checkpoints to increase your territory and score). Up to 32 players can battle it out at a time, and if you want a smaller match, the levels resize themselves to accommodate. There will always be a fun and chaotic match to join. I have also yet to experience any lag in any game I joined.

WAR IS………GRAPHICS

Warhawk runs in 720p, 1080i and looks great throughout. The 5 environments (which include a huge desert with outposts surrounded by mountains, a floating war-torn city in the sky) are lush and colorful. Soldiers and vehicles look decent, but aircrafts look extremely detailed and cool. There are no jaggies to be found, and the entire game runs smoothly. The biggest accomplishment however is the incredible draw distances. You can go to one end of a map and see almost all the way across with no pop up whatsoever. I'm sure snipers are loving this game right now. I also liked how aircraft explode into little pieces when destroyed and those pieces then fall straight to the ground. A very solid package.

WAR IS………SOUND

Ah, I love the sound of THX-certified, 5.1 Dolby digital surround in the morning. Everything from explosions, gunfire, vehicles, and aircraft sound great and are well done. It's always cool having an aircraft fly over your head and hearing its engines from the back channels. There's not much music in the game itself, but the theme that plays when your navigating the menus is pretty rousing. Like graphics, very solid.

WAR IS…….HELL?

Warhawk includes all the basics you need for an online-eccentric game: leaderboards, clan support, and friends list are all present and accounted for. Playing in ranked games will allow you to unlock various accomplishments such as killing a number of people, killing people using certain weapons, capturing a flag for the first time, all that good stuff. Those accomplishments can then give you more logos, clothes, and colors to use when you customize your character and your aircraft (you can't customize vehicles, though). Dedicated players will definitely be hooked on this for many months. Others, however, may find the 5 environments and 4 gameplay modes to be shallow, and may move on to something else.

That's too bad, because Warhawk is chock full of massive amounts of fun. Those with a PS3, internet connection, a PSN account, and the strong desire to blow stuff up should not hesitate to pick up Warhawk………like right now!

KEWL
+Very fun and addicting gameplay
+Gameplay very well balanced
+Easy to navigate menus make it a snap to join and create matches.
+Aircraft is awesome to use and control
+Solid graphics and sound package
+Incredible draw distances
+Will keep you busy for months

LAME
-Steep learning curve with not much in-game help
-Foot soldier weapon selection is pretty generic.
-No bots in offline multiplayer
-No single player mode
-Some may find the levels and gameplay modes to be limited and shallow.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/07

Game Release: Warhawk (US, 08/28/07)