Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Overview

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X is an arcade-style combat flight game developed by Ubisoft Bucharest and published by Ubisoft. It came out for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in North America on 3 March 2009, then for Windows on 17 March, and later for phones. H.A.W.X stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron.

The story is set in the near future, in the same universe as Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, between Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and EndWar. Private military companies have replaced government armies in many countries. You play Major David Crenshaw, a US Air Force pilot who leads the H.A.W.X squadron, is recruited by the private military corporation Artemis Global Security, then turns on it when Artemis invades the United States.

Flying is closer to Ace Combat and After Burner than to a simulator. There are more than fifty aircraft, every plane carries guns with infinite ammo plus Joint Strike missiles and flares, and missions take place over real-world locations built from commercial satellite imagery. You can pick cockpit, first-person or third-person views.

An Enhanced Reality System shows radar, incoming missile warnings, a tactical map, aircraft interception paths and weapon trajectories, and lets you give orders to your squadron. It can be switched off piece by piece to make the game harder and give you more freedom to move.

Campaign missions can be played in co-op, and there is a Team Deathmatch mode where winners earn experience to unlock weapons and planes. Ubisoft announced the game at E3 on 15 July 2008 under the working title Tom Clancy's Air Combat. Demos came out on Xbox 360 on 11 February 2009 and on PS3 on 27 February 2009.

Reviews were mixed to positive. The satellite mapping was praised for realism but criticised for pixelation at low altitude, and some reviewers called the game stale or the multiplayer shallow. A sequel, H.A.W.X 2, came out in September 2010.

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Combat flight simulation

Developer

Ubisoft Bucharest

Publisher

Ubisoft

Series

Tom Clancy

Composers

Tom Salta

Designers

Thomas Simon

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

Yes

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Trophies

Trophies51

Platinum possibleYes

Platinum

1

Gold

2

Silver

8

Bronze

40

Total

51

Points

1320

• Validated aspirations Acquire all the Bronze, Silver and Gold trophies. Platinum 1.36% of players
• Operation Ghost Rider Finish the 1st mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite difficulty setting. Bronze 87.33% of players
• Team player Complete a mission on coop mode. Bronze Needs online 33% of players
• Operation Adder Unlock and finish the 2nd mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 75.69% of players
• Operation Cobalt Unlock and finish the 3rd mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 72.16% of players
• Operation Blacklight Unlock and finish the 4th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 66.76% of players
• OFF certification Unlock and finish the 5th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 65.29% of players
• Operation Glass Hammer Unlock and finish the 6th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 62.88% of players
• Operation Backfire Unlock and finish the 7th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 60.54% of players
• Operation Ulysses Unlock and finish the 8th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 58.39% of players
• Operation Stiletto Unlock and finish the 9th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 52.94% of players
• Operation Red Eagle Unlock and finish the 10th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 51.99% of players
• Operation Torchlight Unlock and finish the 11th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 49.88% of players
• Operation Iron Arrow Unlock and finish the 12th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 48.67% of players
• Operation Backhand Unlock and finish the 14th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 44.13% of players
• Operation Thunderbolt Unlock and finish the 15th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 41.49% of players
• Operation Wildhorse Unlock and finish the 16th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 40.88% of players
• Operation Javelin Unlock and finish the 17th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 40.23% of players
• Operation Twilight Unlock and finish the 18th mission of the Campaign on Normal, Hard, or Elite. Bronze 39.18% of players
• Practice makes perfect Spend 1 hour flying in Assistance OFF mode. Bronze 21.12% of players
• Afterburner Fly faster than Mach 2 for 1 hour in campaign. Silver 5.07% of players
• Campaign Complete: Normal Complete all the campaign missions on Normal difficulty. Bronze 38.79% of players
• General of the Airforce Become "General of the Airforce" (level 40). Silver 1.72% of players
• The hard way Complete all the campaign missions on Hard difficulty. Silver 14.1% of players
• Extreme challenge Complete all the campaign missions on Elite difficulty. Gold 10.88% of players
• TDM rookie Win a Team Deathmatch game. Bronze Needs online 20.7% of players
• Support ace Call in every support element at least once. Bronze 10.08% of players
• Cannon ace Destroy 50 enemies with the cannon in multiplayer matches. Bronze Needs online 3.92% of players
• Joint Strike missile ace Score 135 kills with Joint Strike missiles in multiplayer matches. Bronze Needs online 4.65% of players
• Multi Target AA missile ace Score 100 kills with Multi Target AA missiles in multiplayer matches. Bronze Needs online 5.03% of players
• Radar-Guided missile ace Score 75 kills with Radar Guided missiles in multiplayer matches. Bronze Needs online 3.5% of players
• All Aspect missile ace Score 75 kills with All Aspect missiles in multiplayer matches. Bronze Needs online 4.26% of players
• Deflector ace Deflect 150 missiles from friendly planes. Bronze 2.9% of players
• Wing ace pilot Remain the Team Ace for a total time of 20 minutes. Bronze Needs online 8.4% of players
• Wing leader Be the Match Leader for a total time of 20 minutes. Bronze Needs online 7.41% of players
• Versatile pilot Obtain an end-match award 20 times. Bronze Needs online 10.97% of players
• Christine Kill 100 opponents using the same plane in multiplayer matches. Bronze Needs online 5.83% of players
• Gladiator Participate in 100 Team Deathmatch games. Bronze Needs online 2.71% of players
• Not safe enough Kill an enemy with a missile while being jammed in a multiplayer match. Bronze Needs online 15.99% of players
• Ambush! Score a cannon kill while having Radar Suppression active in a multiplayer match. Bronze Needs online 3.75% of players
• Medic Repair 90 hp by using a single Repair Drone support. Bronze 6.17% of players
• Unimpressed Score a kill with the Cannon while the enemy has Missile Suppression active. Bronze 6.46% of players
• Avoidance ace Dodge a total of 100 missiles without using flares in multiplayer matches. Bronze Needs online 18.79% of players
• Counter support ace Complete all counter support challenges. Bronze 2.17% of players
• Predator Score 5 kills on an enemy Team Ace using Radar Guided missiles. Bronze Needs online 4.59% of players
• Veteran Win 25 Team Deathmatch games. Silver Needs online 3.79% of players
• Sitting ducks Kill 2 enemies with Multi Target AA missiles while they are affected by your EMP strike. Silver 1.7% of players
• Point blank shot Hit a target that's closer than 3000m with a Radar Guided missile in multiplayer. Silver Needs online 12.06% of players
• Test pilot Play Team Deathmatch games using 30 different planes. Silver Needs online 2.73% of players
• Risky stuff Recover from stall at an altitude of 30 meters or lower in Team Deathmatch. Silver Needs online 4.91% of players
• Evasion ace Dodge 10 Radar-Guided missiles without using flares in multiplayer matches. Gold Needs online 9.84% of players

Space and patches

Update patch01.02

These are the patches Sony still hosts for this disc ID. The game's real history can be longer.

Playable today

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	PS3	74	100

Critics

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
IGN	PS3	6.8	10
GameSpot	PS3	7.5	10
Game Informer	PS3	8.75	10
Official PlayStation Magazine (US)	PS3	3.5	5

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Designer	Thomas Simon
Composer	Tom Salta

Notes for collectors

• A Wii version was announced and then cancelled.
• The game was first announced as Tom Clancy's Air Combat before it became H.A.W.X.
• The mission maps use GeoEye satellite imagery of real places, which is why low flying looks pixelated.
• The 01.02 patch is the only one Sony lists for the US and European discs, and it needs system software 2.40.
• The trophy list skips the 13th mission (no trophy for it) and has 51 trophies in all, and about half of them are tied to multiplayer.
• Japan got the PS3 version on 28 May 2009, about three months after North America.

Credits

Region

US

Time to beat

about 7.5 hours