Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Innovative"

I only found out about this game a few days prior to its release, ign.com posted their review scoring it a 9.0/10. The whole premise of the game interested me, I had never really been into third person shooters, but I love competitive online multiplayer and I love RTS games that have base building mechanics. So here we have a game which throws both into the mix, it could have gone either way but thankfully it went the right way and we're left with a game that provides one of the most unique multiplayer experiences this side of Battlefield 3.

Call of Duty kids should stay clear, this is NOT an arena run around shooter. This is a tactical game where teamwork is essential, what awaits you are huge open maps, land + air combat, and a base building mechanic which means no game plays out the same. A classic game of Capture the Flag completely changes in Starhawk. Structures can be called down from space and can be placed just about anywhere on the battlefield, to balance this each team gets a 32 structure limit and must gather 'rift energy' in order to build new items, be they buildings, vehicles or defensive structures. The setting is of the futuristic kind and offers some of the most diverse and beautiful settings ive ever seen in a video game. The graphics for a console title are among the best out there, and the frame-rate remains smooth even when things get chaotic, which they frequently do.

Starhawk has an initial steep learning curve, however once you have played a bit and gotten used to how everything works it becomes much easier. There is a full single player campaign which whilst not being of the same caliber as say Gears of War does a good job of easing you into the various aspects of the game, from base building to flying the games namesake 'Hawks'. Hawks are basically Mechs which can either walk around on the ground or transform into flying death machines. Practice is definitely needed to take on the more skilled of pilots.

Besides the Capture the flag mode I mentioned the game also has a standard Team Deathmatch mode, Zones (which involves fighting for control of different areas of the map) and a Deathmatch mode dedicated solely to Hawk dog-fighting.

While I do love this game it certainly isnt perfect, at the time of this review the Hawks and tanks are quite overpowered and occasional bugs sometimes hamper the experience. However the developers are taking player feedback and have not only promised to support this game with balance updates + bug fixes but have also announced that all DLC maps for Starhawk will be released free of charge. In this day and age this comes as a huge surprise and a definite selling point in my opinion.

In summary if you are after a diverse multiplayer experience that requires teamwork to get the job done I cant recommend this game enough. The Hawk dogfights are thrilling, the setting is beautiful, and no game ever plays out the same. However the most important thing is its fun as hell to play, and I guess that's whats important. The lack of buzz and media talk about this game is disgraceful, it is definitely just as high caliber as a big title like Battlefield 3 and deserves much more recognition, which I hope in the coming months is what it gets.