No single player campaign? Really? No biggie! because multilayer is quite distracting/addictive. (Revised: 04/16/08)

User Rating: 9 | Warhawk (w/Headset) PS3
By Latinbro1 | Review Date:
Many were in an uproar for this gaming scrapping everything single player and focusing exclusively on online. Though one could argue that it does feel like an incomplete game in that regards, the online game really does stand out and makes a point to stand up for itself. I will say that there is still no tutorial mode. There are little pop-up boxes that give you info but it is during game play. So, if you buy this game down the road, and join a game, chances are you will get whooped a lot! It would have been nice to give people the option for at least a 20 minute tutorial or something since it does feel like you are just being fed to the lions. However, you could always join up locally with four friends and practice? if you bought the disc copy you get a manual that goes over the basic controls, the vehicle descriptions, and the weapons. if you downloaded it you can visit the official warhawk site for the same info. I have tweaked with the options and the customization, and it seems deep enough (granted, my character is leveling up slowly). You can change character attributes, vehicle basic looks, and you can create your own server. There really is no need for a help tab for doing any of these things because they are quite simplistic to grasp. Choose, your map, number of players, if it's locked or open, etc (you've seen it in many other multilayer games)

So, instead of going in detail about the different game modes (since they've been explained in many different sites multiple times), I'll just focus on how it plays. And yes, it plays fast, it can feel intense, and it can feel desolate too. The maps are really huge and if it's just 4-8 of you playing (and you choose not to travel by ground or air vehicle) it can take you forever to get from one side to the other side of the maps. Have 15+ people and it just reels right for big open areas. The more people the more intense (this holds especially true for the omegadawn and the broken mirror map add-ons that give you ridiculously big areas to travel). And there is something surreal about seeing people just hop on jets or tanks and go . Likewise, it is awesome to take down a warhawk with an RPG, kill an enemy with a frag grenade, or just snipe your way through an area. You can hide behind mountains, in bunkers, beside or under bridges. In sum it feels like the game really gives you freedom to play.

How does it control? Basic character movement is done with the L3 (moving up/down, left/right) and R3 (moving your aim up/down, left/right). D-pad controls your weapon selection whether on foot or on certain vehicles. The face button and shoulder buttons control everything else. Your shooting is by default on R1 (on foot and on warhawks your L1 controls additional weapons like missiles or grenades). They are very simplistic but can feel overwhelming when initially learning what each button does for what situation. Add the motion-sensing abilities and the learning curve can increase slightly (depending on your taste it can enhance or hinder your play). Sound and graphics are great. You really get a sense of speed on the air and a good amount of explosions and physics that just add fun to the whole experience. You'll see tanks just be obliterated, guys fly do to grenades, and planes smash beautify. So, is it easy to pick up? Yes! ...after several deaths (give it anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour to adjust... unless you want to master air combat with the sixaxis, which will take more practice and quite some patience). So, will it get old? Most likely but that'll take a while and DL content has surely kept things fresh; at least for me. The Omegadawn pack was released near the holidays and added a huge factor map with an added vehicle (the dropship). Two firmware updates to the games (or patches) have stabilized rankings, smoothed out server issues, added two weapons (wrench and a bio-field generator=life replenishing bomb-thing). the 2nd map pack brought yet another huge map, glacial fields, and a new ground vehicle. Is it for everyone? Well, if you like ground and/or air combat then you should give it a try. Does it hold on its own without single players? I ABSOLUTELY think so. If you have a PS3 and want silly, yet engaging fun that seems to get better and better with patches and expansion packs then this game delivers 100%!

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