And to all of you who didn't buy it, please... please cherish that 60 dollars. I guarantee that you'll enjoy sitting that money on a desk and staring at it for 6 hours WAY more than if you played this game.

I know how many of you despised HAWX... but let me tell you, this makes HAWX look like a masterpiece. This game is a study in how a redesign, and very poor game design can ruin a game. A few examples perhaps?

So for one, the dogfight modes. They pretty much glue your ass to the enemy fighter. You can be shaken, but it's rare. The problem is, some of these dogfight modes are meant for big explosive set pieces, however, you don't know which ones are meant for this and which ones aren't. What does this mean? You could empty 12 missiles into the ass of a fighter, and if it hasn't reached it's predesignated "run into this building for maximum cinematic effect" spot, then it will not die. Yup, you can continue to waste missiles on a fighter that's technically already dead, and the game won't tell you. And of course, you always have the choice of aircraft. Problem is, that some are just completely incapable of performing to the level they need to in order to initiate the dogfight modes. In one of the first levels of the game, I decided to fly the beautiful F-4 Phantom, problem is, with eveyrone else flying like tie fighters I was unable to get close enough, and turn fast enough to initiate the dogfight mode. Essentially, the Phantom, the Mig-21, and a few others are nearly useless. This isn't a game where you fly the plane you want, it's a game where you fly the most maneuverable jet or you're screwed.

Secondly, some enemies CANNOT be defeated without this dogfight mode. Mainly the big baddy, and most of the TGT_LEAD aircraft. Another huge annoyance.

Thirdly, did you know the airforce has switched to NERF brand missiles? It's true! Whailing on an aircraft just doesn't have that same badass impact unless you have to spend 6 of them to blow up an enemy... DRAMATIC!!

Dogfight modes... for bombers! Yes, there are even "bombing runs" where you get glued into a little corridor to bomb targets along a straight path. The best part? Sometimes the game will switch to a cinematic camera mode where you watch the building explode! Problem? It doesn't stop your aircraft. Because of this, I've overrun several mission crucial objectives, ONLY because the camera decided to show off an exploding building.

There's also a mission where you're attacking a boat for one reason or another, and suddenly, it's time for your buddies to have a in combat discussion on how to attack this ship! So, they lock out the targets on the boat, so you can't shoot at them. Oh okay, fly around and talk about how to take the ship down, that's cool. But do they stop the ship from firing at you? Nope! You gotta bob and weeve to keep from getting your ass handed to you! I died several times just waiting for the arseholes to get done chatting about how to blow up the ship.

Sometimes, the missions jump instantaneously to another mission, with no briefing whatsoever! Tossed into a mission, and suddenly told "Ambassadors boat's been captured!" Great... why? Who's the ambassador? Why should I care? Think you'd like an answer to that? Well, too bad. Accept it as a mission and go! This was so confusing and dissorienting that I thought the game was glitched at first, but despite resetting, etc, nothing fixed it.

Lastly, the QTE's. Yes, this game has quite a few! Most are the worst implementation of QTE's I've ever seen. Care for an example? Check out this one from the end of the game (not really a spoiler...)

http://youtu.be/WY9NO4GQJRk

Yep... now, I don't know whether the music played or now, because as soon as I saw this, I got up and started running around the appartment yelling my stupifaction to all who would listen.

Simply put, this game is trash.

thanks for the info/mini-review... glad I skipped it, after that demo.

Gamefly just sent my copy today.

At least I didn't buy it.

This series used to be pretty fun. A shame it's gone down hill.


From what I saw in the demo, I'd say your review is on the money.

I think you're my brother from another mother. That couldn't have echoed my own thoughts any better than if I wrote this myself. I'm struggling through it. Want to beat it and then probably trade it towards something else. Maybe Batman or Modern Warfare 3.