Before I begin, this review is based on an incomplete build of the game, and aspects of the game may have changed from the version i played, and the gold build.
Warhawk, the single player stripped online only title being offered on both PSN and retail. Both channels will give you the exact same game, but the retail version will also include a ton of behind the scenes and making of, and biggest of all a Bluetooth headset. A LOT of you dont have headsets, and this is a perfect excuse to finally get one.
Warhawk, let me ease your pain from the get go, sixaxis controls are OPTIONAL. Controls themselves in warhawk are completely customizable, and sectioned off. You can customize your controls for flying Warhawks and then have a completely different scheme from when your driving a tank to fit your comfort. My only real complaint with the completely customizable controls is Sixaxis control is either completely on or off, when my personal preference was flying in flight mode with the analog sticks, but i preferred being in hover mode with sixaxis control, customization did not allow it.
The games 25 maps claim was a little stretched. The game is comprised of 5 different zones, which can be sectioned 5 different ways depending on number of players and game type, making the total of 25. The game features 32 vs online play (rumors are going around that when retail starts, the sony server clusters will start 32vs32). Maps are huge, even letting off your afterburners in a Warhawk it will still take time to get across the entire map.
Lets start off with land combat. Your character is completely customizable. From his helmet, skintones, insignias. You win more and more character customization options as you collect badges and medals for achieveing certain objectives. Before you spawn, you get a full screen radar map showing off the entire battlefield and its happenings, from there you can choose a spawn point so long as your team controls the zone (not very different from many multiplayer games we've seen so far.) Once you spawn your human character has a handgun, a handfull of bullets, a knife, and a grenade.
Weapons are pick up and go like many multiplayer games. On foot combatants can pick up Grenades, Land Mines, Flame Throwers, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Rocket Launchers, and Binoculars (for Mortar fire), and al working how youd expect them. Like many weapons, Rocket Launchers have lock on ability, by holding the Primary Fire button and keeping the enemy in your sights, you can get a lock on for a for sure hit. Overall aiming if not lock on has a sticky cursor, although it will break off if you yourself dont follow and aim correctly. All the weapons work like they should, although in the build I played a big complaint of mine was when in scope on the sniper rifle, your image wasnt a rendered close up, but just a magnified picture. Instead of seeing players in full detail as if really magnified, you just saw the blurry figures as if you had just pressed zoom in on your TV, this is also developer confirmed fixed for Gold release.
Continuing with land combat, players can jump into a variety of vehicles and stationed weapons. Jeeps provide the quickest transportation on land, with seating for 3, along with 1 seat in the pack of the jeep controlling the machine gun. The most explosive through the land would be in tanks. They provide seating for 2. When just 1 person is driving the tank, he has control of both movement and aiming and shooting, when a second player joins the tank he has full control over the firepower. On top of that, he can pop out of the hatch and pull out a Rocket Launcher for example to take out a pesky warhawk flanking them from above.
Besides vehicles, stationary weapons add a lot to ground combat. Machine Gun turrets are sprinkled all over the maps, only getting into more heavy artillery. Flak guns provide excellent coverage from enemies in the sky and on the ground, and Warhawks tremble at the sound of Missile Launchers locking on and firing.
On to Warhawks. The ground is one fight, the sky is another. All warhawks spawn with the standards loaded. Unlimited machine gun fire, 5 sets of mini missiles, and 2 Chaff. Throughout the sky are weapons spread to catch to equip, including Air Mines, TOW Missiles, Lock-On Missiles, and Electric charges. Controls differ depending on your scheme. When sixaxis control is used, the motion of the sixaxis is followed by your warhawk. The Left analog stick controls your cursor to allow you to shoot anywhere on your screen in one direction while flying in another, and the right analog stick is to do loops and evasive moves. Without sixaxis controls, movement and aiming is consolidated into just the left analog stick, and right retains its evasive movements. The evasive movements can be either default predetermined movements (barrel rolls, and spins), or "Pro" control can be selected so you have full and complete control over evasive tactics. Besides dogfights and taking down other Warhawks, you must be very careful of the land artillery, Flak guns and Missile launchers are very unforgiving. Lastly, Warhawks can carry a passenger, who has a much more detailed map and radar, useful for needing scouts to survey the battle, and lasty can be dropped off anywhere by the warhawk for drop in and capture tactics (Sadly, although suggested, parachutes have not made the gold build).
One of my favorite (yet sadly exploitable) features of Warhawk is team damage is always preset as on unless otherwise turned off. I hate games where its nothing but constant blind fire with no consequences. If you launch a TOW Missile in the middle of a base where both sides are fighting desperately for, everyones going to die, not just the enemy. Very quickly into my play through, split screen players would be on separate teams. As one would report to his friends the actions of our team, he would also be taking us out out of nowhere when we were without a clue. In the build I played there was no Vote To Kick system present, so hopefully one has been put in place for the Gold release.
Game types are as usual in most multiplayer games. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Zones. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch need no real explaining. Capture the flag is exactly what it sounds like, but its easily one of the most fun modes in Warhawk. By default, flags CANNOT be carried on Warhawks, and flag capturers must jump on land vehicles and make a run for the complete opposite side of these gigantic maps. This is where the team chat and teamwork really comes into play, as land vehicles and stationary artillery provide cover fire and backup, and Warhawks battle it out in the sky for who gets to provide more cover, or who gets to bring hell from above.
Zones is probably the most fun and involved mode in the game. While each gametype does have a capture base component for more points and resources, Zones takes it a step further. On your radar in zones shows circles of influence. As you capture bases, the influence meter can only reach certain points depending on the circle of influence around it. If you were to capture a base right next to your main base, you would be able to gain a Level 4 influence on the base, where it would take longer for enemies to fully capture. Whereas if you took a Warhawk straight to a base surrounded by the enemies circle of influence, you can only gain influence to a max of Level 1. Once you capture more of their surrounding bases, all the bases can gain more and more influence to the max of Level 4.
On top of just having the bases to spawn to, you get more and quicker spawning vehicles and weaponry. Zones point system is completely dependent on the number of bases you've captured, the amount of influence on each base, and the length of it being captured, instead of minor add on points in the other game types.
Great thing about Warhawk is it fully supports XMB friendslist in game. Logging on and checking your buddy list is a quick button press away from jumping on to the same server as your friend. So far, no party system seems to be present in Warhawk, and the system expected to be on hiatus until the release of Home. Also a feature added after the build i played (and I'm looking at you Tiki-man CHUX), Warhawk supports 1080i upconvert, so you will still be able to play in high definition with the rest.
One of the greatest features of Warhawk is its ability to host your own matches, and use your PS3 as the server. From the build I played you could host for as much as 8 people with you being able to play along with them. Beyond that, your PS3 acts as a dedicated server for as many as 32 players to play on. The GREATEST feature in all of this, and the quality control for the game is connection tests. Every time you choose to host a match, your connection is tested, and according to the test, it will decide how many players your connection can reasonably support. No 32 player lagfests on someones $10 DSL. On top of all this, servers can be password protected, and options allow you to add certain servers to your favorites, so you and your friends can all log on, and log on to your favorite servers as you've chosen them.
EDIT::: I completely forgot one of the games features, instant split screen coop. Having a friend come over in the middle of the match and getting him in the game is as simple as press start. The game will instantly splitscreen and he gets right into the game. The game support 4 player split screen coop, all just press start and go.
With a good group of people, on a ranked or well connected player server, Warhawk is tons of near chaotic fun. While many multiplayer games offer much more deep specialized combat in either land or air, Warhawk has a good mix, making land and air a balanced battlefield in their own respects. My main problems with the game were the many exploits players quickly found in the game (which hopefully have been reviewed and tweaked, Land Mines will drive you mad), if the build I played is any representation of the final game, it is a just barely above average multiplayer game, good fun, and a good value when bundled with the bluetooth headset.
