Ubisoft is synonymous with Tom Clancy games, mainly because they have the exclusive license, and because they take full advantage of that license, year after year, every time. And while most games are standard and mediocre, some Tom Clancy games manage to rise above the rest, like Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. The original HAWX wasn’t one of those, which, while offering decent areal combat, had a completely unrealistic story. Does HAWX 2 build on top of the previous game? Read on to find out.

In HAWX 2, the story just as ridiculous and confusing as the last HAWX, and generally unrealistic, in good old Tom Clancy fashion. You play/follow three pilots, an American, a Russian and a British pilot, who run missions in order to stop World War 3. Or at least, that’s what we could get out of the campaign. Despite the vague story, the gameplay actually improves from last time.

Air combat games usually go like this: follow this waypoint to your mission. Win a dog fight. bomb the target. Then do it all over again. Luckily, HAWX 2 has a bit more variety — you’ll be doing your usual dog fights and bombing runs — where, for example, you’ll be able to control an unmanned recon drone over a city, gathering intel instead of bombing. On another mission, you’ll control a huge gunship in order to provide cover for ground troops, much like the mission in the first Modern Warfare game. These missions are a great break form the usual waypoint following stuff which most of the game consists of, but even that is actually okay, as you’ll be challenged quite a lot, especially since the AI has been vastly improved, both for friends and foes.

Controls are pretty responsive and have a great feel to them. Visually, the game looks great, and manages to render the world underneath you to great detail. The planes in particular are well made. For air combat nuts, HAWX offers what you need, especially if you like the unrealistic settings Tom Clancy usually provides. However, the story is quite muddled, and the missions can get frustrating at the end, where enemies tend to overwhelm you.

The Good:
Solid gameplay
Detailed visuals
Lots of jets to fly

The Bad:
Missions can get repetitive
Poor and unrealistic story
Gets frustrating, especially towards the end
Low replay value

Overall score: 6/10