Warhawk

Developer - Singletrac
Publisher - Sony
Players - 1
Extras - None

The bit on the box

"Experience total control with the airborne gunship of tomorrow. The ultimate in military technology clashes with an unstoppable war machine on the apocalyptic battlefields of the future."

Graphics

Graphically Warhawk looks like an airborne version of Twisted Metal. This means that while the environments are quite impressive, the enemies, guns and other craft featured in the game are not as detailed or as well animated as they could have been. Being a first generation PlayStation title the lack of graphical prowess can almost be forgiven, as what is there is very functional and doesn't detract from the game in any real sense (in fact it kind of enhances the whole 80s sci-fi feel that the game creates). The player has the option to either fly in third person or cockpit mode, both of which work quite well and give good views of the action. The amount of fighting going on can clutter the screen at times, but there is no slowdown and the idea is that if there is something in your way, shoot it!

Sounds

Warhawk's sound effects are certainly nothing startling, and do their job adequately at best. Effects are made up mainly of machine gun chatter, the whooshing of rockets and of course, explosions. There is a sort of orchestral soundtrack going on during the levels, which does feel part of the action (even though most flight games use rock themes instead). The acting in the cut scenes is some of the cheesiest you will ever see in a video game, with your pilots being a couple of smart asses and constantly annoying their commanding officer. They are very humourous however and once again help create an 80s science fiction feel throughout the game.

Gameplay

The playability of Warhawk is a fairly mixed bag, as even though the play mechanics work well enough the player will spend most of his or her time evading the unlimited multitude of enemies bearing down on them at all times, taking potshots when you can rather than constructing a decent battle strategy found in most flight simulations. Usually there is so much going on that you tend to try and ignore it while looking to complete the mission objective, and this can get you killed fairly quickly in some of the later missions. The level design is quite well done (especially the airship level) and there is a good progression of difficulty through the game from mission to mission.

I feel a verdict coming on

Though it definitely looks dated these days I can say that I still enjoy playing Warhawk from time to time. It is one of those games that you can go back and play again and still have fun, because it never takes itself too seriously. It all comes together like some science fiction movie from the 80s with the terrible acting and over explosive action scenes, but overall the control and camera views are good and the game isn't hard to get to grips with. One major criticism is that the game does lack a decent amount of levels, and so does fall into the "rental" category somewhat, but at least it is miles ahead of other flight combat titles such as ID4. Fans of Twisted Metal may want to take a look at this one, and may get the most enjoyment out of it.

Review by D.R.T.Barrett