Close your eyes, and imagine the scene in Independence Day where the F-16s are readying a counter-strike against the Aliens after it had blown Los Angeles to ashes. Imagine the scene where both sides collided against one another, and all you see are just explosions and guns and missiles flying everywhere. Imagine how intense it would be if you were able to play and experience such adrenaline first hand.

Now open your eyes. Welcome to the World of Warcrack. Yes, Warcrack isn’t the name for Blizzard’s MMORPG anymore. It is now also the name for Sony’s and Incognito’s Warhawk.

Story

Because this is a multiplayer-only game, there is no story. Although, I can make up one for you guys. There are two sides. The Eucadian and the Chernovan. One day, their God, called Incognito, bestowed upon them technologies to make angels. These angels are called Warhawks. Capable of inhuman maneuverability, and the payloads of mass destruction, it was a joyous occasion for the world. Unfortunately, power in the hand of man is misplaced power, and soon, both Eucadian and Chernovan battled against one another for supremacy on both land and air. The calls went out for new recruits to enlist upon the war. This is where you show up.

Okay, so I just made up that myself, but hey, as long as it drives the soldiers to war.

Presentation

Warhawk is a new one for Sony. First, it’s a multiplayer game only. Meaning, there is no single player mission. Meaning, if you don’t have internet, you shouldn’t buy this game because you won’t be able to play it. Second, it’s Sony’s first game where it’s distributed through both the PSN as a download, as well as Blue-Ray as a disc. Could this be a sign of a future business model? Who’s to tell but the head honchos at Sony.

The Blue-Ray version of Warhawk has an instruction manual, and some extra trailers for other games as well as the option to play it in LAN Mode. The PSN version costs $40, while the Blue-Ray costs $60 and comes with a Jabra Bluetooth Headset (which is pretty good quality), and it was recently announced that a $40 Blue-Ray version is going to be released without the headset.

Logging into Warhawk is very simple. Go to Online. Accept the Terms. Read the updates, and you’re on. At the main page, you’re presented with the Community Tab, which is where you check your stats, your buddies, and your clans. There’s the Join Game tab, which is self-explanatory. You can create your own game as well. And then there’s the customize tab where you can customize your characters and Warhawks with options (more options are unlocked as you progressed in rank).

Overall, everything is pretty simple, although some things are pretty lacking. There’s no matchmaking. There are official Sony servers (which is highlighted in blue), and you can filter out what kind of games, and map and connections you want to join, but there’s no Resistance or Halo-like matchmaking where all you have to do is click on it, and the game will automatically put you in a game of someone your rank.

Second, there’s no party feature, which means playing with your friends (or clans) makes it near impossible as you guys try to join a game, and have it either be filled up before the other person could enter. That would be fine if you guys could talk to one another. Nope. There’s no in-game chat system either. If you’re in a clan, there’s a clan message page, but if you just want to play with a buddies, best way is to either use a forum, or an instant message system on your computer.

In the first 30 days of Warhawk, the game was plagued with innumerable counts of bugs, the biggest being the servers not saving the players stats, as well as awarding higher ranks for lesser-deserved player. This was probably due to the unexpected amount of players who bought the game. As of the moment of this review, the stats bug is all but gone. The ranking bug is still there; however, its cases are more isolated than widespread like before.

Graphic + Sound

Warhawk runs natively on 720p, and is capable of upconverting to 1080i for those with 1080i TV only. Its graphic will not win it any award, but it is far from ugly. The Warhawk are nicely detailed as well as the character model. It is a funny site to see a Warhawk blow up and see the ragdoll of the pilot being flung around. There are a lot of subtleties that you can miss too in this fast-fighting game. For example, the grasses on the hills actually bend and move to the wind. Box-cars are destructible. Warhawk gives off wind-trail whenever it banks (making it useful to track your opponent from behind).

The sound is decent. There’s nothing subpar, or excellent about them besides that they do their job to immerse you in the game. Machine guns sounds like machine guns and missiles sound like missiles. The music only plays when you die, or is about to die, or just kill someone in an awesome way, but for most of the time, there is no music.

Gameplay

And this is where I shall turn Super Saiyan. Warhawk, as of this moment, has 5 maps to it. No matter what people tell you about how the map size changes depending on the number of people playing them, it’s still 5 maps. It just gets bigger or smaller, and the weapon placement might be different, but it’s still the same geographical buildings and crevices. There are 4 different types of gameplay, which I shall highlight below.

Deathmatch

This deathmatch is just like every other deathmatch. It’s a FFA where you shot or stab the enemies closest to you, and winner is the one with the highest points at the end. For people who don’t like teamwork, and just want to think of themselves, you’ll find yourself at home here.

Team Deathmatch

Like the title insisted, it’s the same as deathmatch, except now you’re in a team, and the team with the highest score at the end wins (or the ones that reached the score requirement first). There’s regular TDM, and dogfight TDM. Regular TDM is when you’re in control of your ragdoll character, and can either do ground battles or air. Dogfight TDM is exclusive fighting in Warhawks in the 5 maps.

Zones

Game is split between two sides. The objective here is simple. The first team to reach the score requirement at the end wins (or has the highest score). How do you get scores? You control zones, which are basically spawn points spread throughout the map that you have to stand next to, and “claim” it for your team. When you have zones right next to one another, you get more points. Zones go from level 1 to 3. Homebase is always at 3 (unless an opponent is always next to it, which makes it stay at 1). Each zone level means a certain radius of control. The higher your zone level is, the higher its radius is.

The higher radius does two things. One, it gives you more points over a period of time. Two, it stops your opponent’s zone from getting bigger. So for example, if you managed to capture a zone, and get it to level 3, and its radius intercedes your opponent’s level 3 zone before it was able to fill up that much, which means the highest your opponent zone can go to is 2. Now, if your opponent however, goes to your zone, and reduces it to 2 or less, that will allow your opponent’s zone to go up to 3, which thereby limits your zone to 3.

The more interconnected zones you have the faster the scores will rise. Get all the zones besides your opponent’s home base and you achieve a world victory ribbon.

Capture the Flag

Another team game, this one is self-explanatory. Your opponent has a flag at their base. To win, you need to go there, get it, and either drive, run, or fly it back to your base. If your flag managed to get taken at the same time, you have to kill the flag bearer, stand at the flag while a bar countdown at the bottom, until your flag is returned back to your base before you’re able to capture your opponents.

The weapons

It ain’t a shooter unless there are weapons. There are 8 weapons for combat troops, and each one has its own used. Knife is a one-hit kill, but you need to be right next to your opponent to hit them. Pistols are short-range destroyers, where if you click fast enough, it can shoot faster than machine guns (and more accurate). Machine guns are medium-long range weapon. Flamethrower is short-range troop, anti-air, and tank busters. Rocker launchers are air, AA, and tank busters. Sniper rifle kills them from afar. Land-mine kills them from up close. And binocular kills them in groups from afar.

For the Warhawks, there are 8 weapons as well. Swarm missiles are quick to lock, but easy to dodge missiles that can be fired up to 8 missiles at once. Homing missiles are long to long, but long-distance and extremely powerful. Air-mine is there to annoy. Lightning gun is used for pesty opponents that keep dodging your missiles as well as those AA that always lock onto you before you’re even in the air. Tow missiles is guide-able missiles that’s godly in CTF. Chaffs are used to dodge missiles. Cluster bomb is for the flag campers. And Stealth is for scouting and annoying.

Along with the aforementioned troops, AA, and aircrafts, there are also the 4 x 4 jeep and the powerful tanks. As you can see, gameplay is not lacking in Warhawk. I can say almost every weapon and every vehicle is perfectly balanced in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

See someone coming at you with a flame thrower? Keep backing away and shoot your pistols and you won’t get a scratch. That annoying troop keep rocket launching you in your pristine Warhawk when you’re at his base? Get a tow missile and guide up his…well, where the sun don’t shine.

By playing in ranked matches, you can earn points as well as various medals, badges, and ribbon awards. Each one has their own preconditions to it. Usually, medals are the hardest to achieve, then badges, and then ribbons. Ribbons you can earn in a single round. Badges can take a few rounds. While medals can take a week or so. They don’t much except just give you bragging rights. Points however, allow you to rank up and earn new ranks. New ranks allow you to unlock customization feature that can make your Warhawk and character even more unique.

Unfortunately, and it’s been happening more lately, is that the game tends to freeze on you. I’ve had it happened to me twice in a day. Hopefully this is just a fluke, and not a sign of things to come.

My favorite gamemode, which unfortunately does not exist anymore, was the 32-player (highest now is 24. Bring it back Sony!) Dogfight room. When you have 16 Warhawks going at one another with all the missiles and guns shooting going around, you can only believe that you’re playing a game and not in an actual war. One of the greatest moments I felt was when I was going through the clouds, and all I see is the blue and red tagmarks of my enemies and friends. As I slowly come out of the clouds from above, I’m immediately hit with Warhawk dodging and shooting and exploding all at once. Rockets trail with smokes. Machine gun bullets blazed in the air. The only way I can described that moment was Beautiful.

Replayability

It’s an online game. It’s always replayable! Okay, slight that, it’s replayable most of the time. Of course, you can think that with only 5 maps, it will get boring after awhile, and there is some truth in that. However, with the game only its sophomore month, and the devs hard at work to destroy all the bugs, I don’t think there’ll be new DLC until probably November at the earliest.

But for those who do not mind the 5 maps, there’s a wealth of replayability for the trophy-fantastic. As mentioned above, playing earn you points, and points earn you ranks, and ranks earn you new customization options. Wouldn’t you want to fly around with a Warhawk barring teeth and fangs?

In any case, you can never “beat” Warhawks because there will always be rooms to play on, and people to play with and against. Teamwork is a beautiful thing to see in Warhawk. Join a clan. Communicate. Those that say Warhawk is lacking in replayability fails to see the majestic core of the game from the rough (but getting smoother) exterior.

The Good: Warhawk dog fighting is the closest you’ll get to relive an Independent Day moment. The almost perfect balances of all weapons and vehicles. Superior gameplay and replayability. How addicting it is to just go…1 more round. Warhawk models and slight details in environment. Warhawk dog fighting…oh wait, I mentioned that already.

The Bad: 5 maps. Yes. It’s still only 5 maps. 2 vehicles…3 if you count the Warhawks. Lack of inspiration fighting music. Actually, just lack of overall game music. Game sometime freezes or just goes black.

The Ugly: Stats bug on launch day. Rank bugs that’s still not fixed (and probably only fixable through a rank and stat resets). People who camp the flags in CTF to get the points instead of actually trying to win. Points-whores who create their own rank server, only lets friend play on it, and farm points to be number 1 in global ranking. Hackers who exploit known bugs in Warhawk.

Final Score: 17/20