Underrated
Let's focus on the game first though. First of all, if you played the first installment in the H.A.W.X franchise and you liked it for what it was, you will most definitely enjoy H.A.W.X 2! People tend to say that the game is bad cause it is so unrealistic. Those people simply miss the point of the game. True this game could get more unrealistic only if you could transform your plane into a truck (transformers style ;p ) but that's where all the fun of the game comes from. Even if you play hardcore flight Sims like Il2-Sturmovik and Lock On and you have some equipment which is meant for those games you can still easily enjoy HAWX2. I am a good example of this fact as I do play both games I just named and I do have the TrackIR5+Logitech G940 set just for those games.... but I still LOVE H.A.W.X. It's this kind of game which you want to play after work to relax and shoot a few bogies without carefully watching your radar and tens of other avionic instruments. To be perfectly honest, whenever I play H.A.W.X.2 I put the joystick away and I play on the keyboard ;P. But that's perfectly fine as that's what I'm expecting from the game.
Of course you can't expect too much originality when it comes to the storyline. It feels very much like Red Storm Rising from Tom Clancy... I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in the credits there was a line saying that the game is based on that book.
I gave the game 8.5 because it's great at what it's meant to be.
Pros:
- !!fast paced action!!
- many planes to choose from
- you get to fly all the newest planes without reading 5000 page long manual ;)
Cons:
- copy/paste story
- DRM (gotta mention the drm.... why ubisoft? why??)