WARHAWK HANDS ON PREVIEW

Regular contributor Tom Eccles has been taking Warhawk through its paces for ThreeSpeech, here’s what he had to say:

For those who haven’t yet heard of, or don’t know much about Warhawk – it’s a fast, online multiplayer game – fighting team or deathmatch based battles over the gigantic maps in vehicles, on foot or using pre-built equipment (i.e. anti aircraft guns). It’s set for release via the PlayStation Store and on Blu-ray disc (which includes a Bluetooth headset) this month. We’ve got our hands on the final version, so keep reading if you want to find out more!

Warhawk started out as a full single player game – first shown off at E3 2006 to demonstrate the motion sensing abilities of the Sixaxis controller. Since then, Dylan Jobe and his team at Incognito Entertainment have decided to ditch the single player to concentrate on producing a top class online multiplayer experience, set to rival champions like the Battlefield series – and right from the start, Warhawk aims to impress.

You can choose to either host your own server, join one that somebody has already made – or join a dedicated one run by Incognito. There are vast amounts of customisable options for your game – server name, type, max players; going onto more advanced options such as team switch settings and voice communications. You can also choose your map rotation schedule – so when the game finishes, it switches to your designated map. Of course, if you can’t be bothered with all this then simply join a game already in progress.

So, onto the gameplay. In Warhawk, you have four ways of getting around. First, you stay on foot where you can pick up weapons (sniper rifles, assault rifles, rocket launchers) and take out any enemy infantry. If walking isn’t your thing, jump in a Jeep – or a tank. The Jeep can hold 3 people – driver, passenger and one manning the gun mounted on the back. This can be particularly lethal when you come across a group of soldiers on foot – however bump into a tank and it’s a different story. One direct cannon hit and it bursts into flames, another and its blown into smithereens.

Last but in no means least, the Warhawk itself. In the Warhawk you can use one of two modes – hover or fly, the functions of which are pretty self-explanatory. You can also pick up a variety of weapons which are placed in various places around the map – including different kinds of missiles, bombs, air mines, and a cruise missile which you control and steer into its target.

There are numerous game modes in Warhawk: Team and every man for himself Deathmatch Capture the Flag and Zones. Zones, the least common of the five, is similar to “King of the Hill” – basically, after your team takes a checkpoint, the longer you stay there the bigger your ‘zone’ gets. However, two opposing team’s zones can’t overlap - so if a nearby enemy’s zone is large you’ll need to reduce the size of theirs before you can expand yours. The modes aren’t really anything new – but they do comprise of the classic tried and tested gameplay that keeps gamers playing for years.

Warhawk’s graphics are a mix of stylistic realism – such as the sky, clouds, water and scenery – and cartoon style animation, like the characters running and vehicles exploding. The mix works really well – and while its no Killzone, the skies and water look astonishing and the cartoon style character animation gives it style and getting blown into pieces is quite humorous. The controls are fairly customisable – and while you can’t change buttons you can change settings like inverting up and down. The Sixaxis motion control works really well – I found it was actually better using the motion sensing control rather than the analogue sticks.

Finally, the local multiplayer aspect of the game. If your mates come round, there’s more than one way to enjoy Warhawk together. Firstly, you can have a local split screen multiplayer battle against each other. If you don’t fancy that, then you can have an online game against others – and there’s no passing the controller round every round, you can actually play 4 player split screen online. Then there’s the LAN option. If you’re lucky enough to have a few friends who own PS3’s then set up a local network and connect them all together. A great feature of the disc based version is the ability to play the game on a number of PS3s at the same time using only one disc – perfect for LAN parties.

Warhawk is extremely easy to get into and you’ll be addicted in minutes. The gameplay has the aspects that keep PC gamers playing the same game for years; the graphics are great; and for me, it will be a must buy when it comes out later this month.

By Tom Eccles
www.absoluteblog.co.uk