Ace Combat was THE king of the jet fighter shooters on the consoles… Wait, ok, it was the ONLY jet fighter shooter on the consoles.  How does the H.A.W.X. demo stand up?

Impressions after the jump.

At first glance, there’s very little to distinguish H.A.W.X. from any Ace Combat game.  After the initial impression fades as you dig into the details of the game, stark differences surface.

First off, it’s set in the real world.  The Demo has you flying around a fairly detailed Rio De Janero in Brazil. I’ve never been there, but clear Rio landmarks stand out, such as the Christ the Redeemer statue atop the Corcovado Mountain overlooking the city. It’s one of the first things you’ll see in the demo and it’s spectacular.

Secondly, it has voice controls, which didn’t seem to work for me at all.  There are a list of commands you can give through your headset, but it either didn’t work half the time or caused me to shoot random missiles for no reason, so I shut it off.

Third, it has four player, drop-in, drop-out cooperative play. This works really well and for the two player co-op that I did play, thanks Kiljoy, the game worked flawlessly.

Fourth, it has an isometric perspective.  This is one of the biggest differences with H.A.W.X. and a “love it” or “hate it” kind of thing.  The positives of using this perspective when you fly is that you get a much, much wider view of your surroundings, making it easier to track down targets.  On the negative side, it takes a TON of practice to fly at lower elevations and is very imprecise.  If you’re remotely interested in the game, try it out.  Really give it a shot. I get the feeling that this feature, along with some of the other features such as the E.R.S. feature that will give you a set path to follow when dog fighting or evading an enemy missile, is for the newbs.  Not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s totally extraneous to the experience, at least it was for me.

The leveling system and my final thoughts, on page 2.

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