Warhawk

It’s been almost a year, but we are once again getting into a genre we haven’t touched yet.

Flying games are a very, very niche genre, but I do consider them to be their own unique slice of the gaming pie.  They aren’t quite driving, aren’t quite vehicular combat and aren’t quite action.  I always want to like them more than I do.  I probably have as much of an enjoyment rate of flying games as I do racing games.  But whereas I generally recognize I am not a fan of racing titles, I just can’t stop having these things catch my eye.

Warhawk certainly did when I saw a demo of it on the “PlayStation Picks” disk that came with the original console in 1995.  It wasn’t quite a launch title (it came out about 2 months after the system did), but just the 2-3 minute, non-playable demo made me take notice of this new player in the market.  Remember, this is the early age of 3D gaming and stuff like this was absolutely mind blowing when compared to what the 16 bit consoles could do.  A lot of what we take for granted in gaming today was downright revolutionary back then.  Read the back of Warhawk’s box and you will see boasts of being able to “fly anywhere, at any time in any direction.”

While it certainly isn’t perfect, developer Singletrac did a great job with Warhawk.  A lot of the early PS1 games were choppy and stiff, but it plays very smoothly.  The graphics are incredible for their time and the levels are big and expansive.  Above all, they are interesting.  With the exception of the second level, there is always a ton to look at from a giant pyramid to a fleet of massive ships to an enormous sky base.  The fact that you were able to move in and around all of these things in full 3D really made them feel big and grandiose.  The game does a great job of making your enemies feel big and intimidating in subtle ways.  In the third level, for instance, you need to recover mercury from a massive enemy airship that kind of looks like an imperial star destroyer.  You actually fly inside the thing to meet your objective, establishing just how big it is supposed to be within the game’s virtual world.  

I should mention there is a story here, something about some guy named Kreel using a substance called red mercury to build an army or something.  Because it was a CD based game from the mid 90’s, this story is told through totally awesome cutscenes that most definitely weren’t shot in a random garage in Singletrac’s offices.  The acting is actually better than most of its contemporaries, but that isn’t saying much.  It’s good for a chuckle, especially when they try to get across how hi-tech the Warhawk is by fiddling with a bunch of random knobs and switches that didn’t even look advanced for 1995.  

Gameplay wise, the control is pretty tight.  You use the d-pad to move your aircraft up and down and also turn.  The other buttons allow you to accelerate or back up, use weapons and switch weapons.  The shoulder buttons allow for tilting and strafing.  I should mention that you can bring the Warhawk to a complete stop, which is really helpful for dealing with some of the bosses.  If you fire your jets, you will keep moving forward until you turn them off, so sometimes its better to stop and strafe.  This really could have used analog control, but the dual shock controller wasn’t a thing when it came out.  Movement can be a little stiff at times, but the controls are generally responsive.

It may just be my lack of experience with these kind of games, but I found Warhawk to be very difficult.  There is a lot going on at once and a lot of button inputs to stay on top of.  It can sometimes be hard to see enemies, especially those that are on the ground.  You get a generous supply of missiles and other weapons, but it can be hard to find the one you want in a pinch and enemies drain your shield very quickly.  Once your shields are drained, they can target your aircraft, which will cost you the use of weapons or radar before ultimately causing you to eject.  At least the shields regenerate and the glass shattering effect on the cockpit is pretty cool.  The game also starts you off in a spot where you are getting mobbed by enemies in half the levels, which probably wasn’t the best design choice.

There are only 6 levels here, but they are long and arduous. Each one throws new and unique challenges at you and there’s almost always a surprise, like the giant ship deploying its full weaponry or the pyramid popping out of the ground.  You get three lives and no continues, but you can return to completed levels with a password.  The game is pretty merciful in this regard, as each level has a few passwords that will place you at various checkpoints.  That was a good design decision, it shows that the developers really put some thought into the game.  You can also use passwords to enter cheats, which is always fun.  All of the levels have good pacing and while some of them drag in parts, most are a joy to complete.

There are plenty of flaws here though.  This game was just begging for analog control, a flying game on a D-pad just doesn’t feel right.  The challenge is a little unfair at times and while the levels are long, the game still feels very short.  While the bosses and mid-bosses are great, the normal enemies almost seem like an afterthought and sometimes, they are more difficult to kill than they need to be.  It may be a small gripe, but I also have to say the music is a little lacking.

For being such a heavily promoted early title, Warhawk never really took off as a series.  There was a multiplayer only PS3 game set in the same universe, but that was more than 10 years later and besides, its unplayable now because its servers were shut down.  It seems Singletrac decided instead to focus more on Warhawk’s more popular cousin, a little game called Twisted Metal.  TM came out a scant five days earlier and despite it being less polished, it ended up becoming more popular.  I can’t complain, Twisted Metal 2 is one of the greatest games of all time and one of the few I have ever rated a 10/10.  Singletrac isn’t in business anymore, but their core team stayed together for a long time and produced the more recent Twisted Metal games, as well as the aforementioned PS3 Warhawk and the loosely related Starhawk.

Twisted Metal itself has sort of fallen out of favor with the gaming community, it hasn’t been touched since 2012.  It has always seemed like the developers had a soft spot for Warhawk, as they continually make references to it in the TM games.  The biggest comes in Twisted Metal Black, where the Warhawk plane is the (damn near impossible) final boss.  The evil boss who forces Dollface into her mask is named Mr. Kreel, a reference to the villain and series stalwart Warthog’s special attack, the Patriot missiles, also come from Warhawk.  

But enough with the references, lets get us a proper, single player Warhawk Sequel.  This game wasn’t perfect and it isn’t always the most action packed experience.  There are times where it felt more like a tech demo of the PlayStation’s hardware than an actual game and it is going to keep me from giving it a really high score, but the foundation was there for a great gaming franchise.  I have heard the PS3 version was pretty good, but I tend to stay away from multiplayer only games and as I said, its now completely unplayable.   With a little more polish and a few more features, the developers could have had something great.  

7.25/10

Play this if:

You like flying games

You are a fan of both sci-if and war movies

You want the best of what early PS1 games could offer

Avoid if:

The control is too complex

You quickly lose attention in long levels

The thought of playing a flying game without a joystick sounds awful