WARHAWK

@PS_2

Published in

Playstation

· 13 Dec 2019

If eyes could get cavities, Warhawk would send you running to your optometrist with a root canal. Simply put the game is visually stunning, and I consider it to be one of the first US released games that truly separates the PSX from the 3DO. Warhawk makes Shockwave look like a mere ripple in a puddle.

Since I don't have a great deal of free time and since much has already been said about this game, I'll just break it down to what I consider to be the good and the bad.

The Good:

As has already been mentioned the graphics and animation are superb, and are probably the best that I've ever seen on a home console. While the overall package in itself is enough to make any gamer drool, the little touches are what really make this game shine: from being able to see the superstructer of your splendidly textured light-sourced craft when you take damage to the brilliant reflections in the placid water of the canyon stage to the functioning navigation lights of your plane in Stormland.

Of course there has to be substance behind the glitz, and luckily Warhawk has the gameplay. Like many others I found the controls to be quite frustrating for the first several minutes, but quickly learned to master the multitude of contortions through which you can put your plane and really began to appreciate the advantages of the numerous buttons on the PSX's pad and SingleTrac's skillfull employment of them. Learning when to use the crafts "hover" mode versus its "flying" mode is key to success (especially in tight quarters such as the canyon or gauntlet stages.) Also the balance of difficulty versus challenge is well achieved with three levels of skill settings and codes to advance to any stage. (Of course you don't get the true/good ending if try to just skip directly to Stormland. Hehe, *nice* touch!)

The icing on the cake has to be the magnificently orchestrated music and sound effects that accompany the graphics. They add another dimension to the game lending to that final touch that gives you the feeling that you are that lone bad boy out there saving the world. The flame section of the gauntlet especially comes to mind where the eerie melodies truly give you the impression that at any moment your plane's wing tips could brush the flames casting you downards in a fatal spiral of burning death. (This, coming from someone who heads straight for the options to turn off the music.)

I could go on and on about what I like about this game, but I'd be merely repeating what others have eulogized. Suffice it to say that any game that rewards you for "needlessly excessive enemy destruction" gets an A in my book!

The Bad:

While I love this game, it does have room for improvement, or additions that I would have liked to see added. First of all I really wish all developers would allow you to configure the controller to your liking (i.e. all buttons should be assignable to the functions you wish.) and equally importantly allow us to *save* the configurations, difficulty level, etc. to the memory card. There is really no excuse for not utilizing the PSX's save features. While the graphics are stupendous there are occasional clipping problems and seams between polys. Also the airship, volcano and stormland levels have popup on the main enemy. (Not that I find it terribly distracting, I'm just refuting another post that claimed there was no popup whatsoever.) Another feature I would have liked added would be a compass on the radar. It would aid greatly in keeping your bearings and would somewhat eliminate the need for the artificial barriers (assuming that they were put in so that you wouldn't fly off to no man's land, and not due to technical limitations of the PSX ;) Finally I don't like the fact that you have to hit the reverse button twice to actually go into reverse. I find very little need to sit absolutely still (since you get pulverized quite rapidly in that position.) Even if the reverse button had a 1/4 second pause at zero velocity before you started to back up would have been preferable, IMHO.

Well actually I do have one more gripe, I wish the game had more stages. While I feel that I got more than my money's worth, the game is just so damn enticing that you want to play more and more. Hopefully they will come out with "mission" disks as the title implies.

But these complaints are the mere raindrops forming the rainbow that is called Warhawk! Really looking forward to future title's by Jay and SingleTrac.

Todd
--
{Net/Sys}Manager
Center for Innovative Computer Applications - Indiana University
Email: tagreen@cica.indiana.edu URL: http://www.cica.indiana.edu/~tagreen

Part2

Well, I haven't yet completed Warhawk (haven't had tons of playing time), but I can give you an overview of the game and comment on the game levels up to the Volcano zone...

Warhawk reminds me of parts of many other games..Shockwave being one...Cybermorph being another..and a little bit of Descent as well.

Reminds me of Shockwave in the cockpit view...graphics are much better tho' and you have a better (larger) game worlds to blast your way through.

Reminds me of Cybermorph, in being able to fly anywhere and collect canisters.

Reminds me of Descent when in hover mode or flying into the badboy airship.

Control: It must be *learned*..you will not just pick up the controller and fly like a top gun. There are four different configurations to choose from (precision, aggressive, hit & run, and arcade) so it should not be a problem finding a control scheme that best suits you (I prefer precision, which is the default). When discussing control, I believe that it's important to mention the different flight view options. You can choose (on the fly during combat) from 4 different views (cockpit, near-chase view, far chase view, and drop camera). You will probably find (as I have) that different views work better in different stages (for instance...the near-chase view makes navigating the canyon zone easier for me). Drop camera view is useless eye-candy, but neat to play with.

Graphics: The graphics are pure next-generation power. The lighting, shading etc. aid in providing a very fluid 3-D environment. Animation is smooth and there are a lot of nice touches added here and there to make this game feel like 100% pure class. The massive splash of the smaller airships plunging into the ocean is something to behold. Again, I have only gotten to the Volcano Zone so I can't comment on anything after that. The graphics are extremely well-done...period.

Levels: I've only been through four zones but so far they are varied, and on each level you can develop different strategies to get you to the last canister. On the Canyon Zone I fly fast and turn hard and lay on the afterburner like it was a hammock. On the Airship Zone I take out the guns on the big ship, and then circle the big airship and take out the small ones. Then I fly into the belly of the beast (that's where the Descent feel comes in). The levels are well designed and varied, I just wish there was more of them. Here is the level list from the manual.

1) Desert Zone
2) Canyon Zone
3) Airship Zone
4) Volcano Zone
5) Gauntlet Zone
6) Storm Zone

Difficulty: It's adjustable....Ace, Veteran, Normal, and Granny

Music: It's very dramatic,symphony type stuff...adjustable volume.

Storyline/setting: Well..the setting in the form of the levels is fantastic, the storyline in the form of the FMV cut scenes is a joke. The video is washed out, the actors are deplorable, and so boring that you have to have a pint or two in your belly just to sit through it. Fortunately you can button push and skip your way through it. There are some video cut scenes during combat that are CG with no actors that do add to the game, watching the pyramid rise, rotate, and fire in the desert zone was pretty cool. As far as the plot goes...I can summarize it like this "Blow up stuff and collect cannisters."

Weapons: Almost forgot to mention the different weapons. Most names are self-explanatory.

1) Machine guns (they can be powered up)
2) Rockets (not guided, but you get quite a few of them)
3) Swarm Missiles (clusters of missiles that take indepent paths to the same target..very cool!!)
4) Lock-on Missiles (can be powered up to Ultra Lockons)
5) Plasma Cannons (hold down the trigger to power up a massive energy blast)
6) Flash Bomb (temporarily disables most modern weaponry)
7) Doomsday Bomb (high-concussion omnidirectional bomb whose damage radious is enormous)

Improvements for the sequel: (I hope)...one word...networking.

Conclusion: I would recommend this game to anyone who likes flight-sim/shooter type games. It's a big success in my book, the only complaint I have being the FMV (and I've never *played* FMV anyway) ;-)

I hope that this is helpful.

Part 3

If I were writing for DHGF, I would be using words like glee, bliss, liquid joy, and *censored*. This is just a darn great looking, darn great sounding, and darn great playing game.

It has easily the most complete 3D environment I have ever seen in a game. There is one stage where after weakening the mother transport ship, you have to fly into the thing. While inside, there are turrets and doors. While you are in there, take the time to notice the stairs on the side of the walls. In the canyon stage, the bottom is covered with glass smooth water that makes perfect reflections of everything going around. I have noticed only two places where there is noticiable pixilization, 1) if you go right of to a wall and hover there, even then it isn't too noticable because of the motions of your hoverfighter 2) when you fly through a tree. Much to the embarassment of the coders over at Namco, I have not seen any pop-up, unlike in AirCombat. Also, embarassing the folks who programed BATSD, there is no cliping problems (polygon flickering, see Eiji's winning stance). It seems as if the programmers of Warhawk have concurrently overcome the two greatest problems of the modern 3D environment, while maintaing a very high frame rate. Words like silk, glass, Lexus, and baby's buttocks come to mind. Oh, nad while you're at it, feel free to peer around the cockpit. PS. the rendered CGI is crystal, and the digitized scenes look like you are watching an old VCR. Certainly well withing the range of acceptable. The explosions are nothing short of fantastic. Things flip over and burn. Flaming chuncks fall off leaving a smoke trail. There are huge splashes when stuff hits the water. Other hoverfighters spiral into the ground. Stupid pilots slam into structures.

The music is all with a full orchestra with some modern instruments peeking in and out. If you have a good stereo hooked up to your machine, then this is a good one to blast. I don't mean blast, I mean *BLAST*. Let your neighbors know that you are playing true power. Heck, let ME know you are playing it. The music is every bit as cool as Return Fire for 3DO, except it is modern and new.

Ahh gameplay, the true factor, for without it, everything else is worthless. Fourtunatly, all is well. There are so many fresh aspects to this game that nothing is ever trite. In the canyon stage, there are branches that go the right way, and other branches that lead you in circles. Simply follow the trees and all will be well.

I could go on for much longer, but I need to spare my fingers.

Later,
Paul D. Carlucci

"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence."
-Vivian

"I am Cornholio! I need capaccino for my bunghole!" -Beavis
"Ohhhh, that's gotta hurt!" -Bruce Campbell
"It doesn't matter, because you're already dead!"
-Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken

carlucci@suntan.eng.usf.edu
University of South Florida Engineering