The first one was okay-ish, good for a day or two of campaign and maybe 3 months of multiplayer. But only having one multiplayer mode killed it. that, along with the simplicity of the controls and a few cheap-ass weapons (That pesky All-Aspect missile is gone!!!) made it was too predictable. Leveling up got too slow once you hit the rank of Major, and for a game that goes all the way up General of the Air Force, that really hurt it. Unlocking the best planes would take hundreds upon hundreds of hours, if you were a top player every match you did. and I only saw two or three Level 40's the entire time I played. The joystick was alright if you had never touched an Ace Edge before, and I still have mine for HAWX 2, even though I gave Hawx 1 back to gamestop.
Overall, it was valid attempt at a great game, far better than IL-2, in my humble objective opinion. It was a welcome refresher for the flight combat genre, and kept it alive for another year. although that's not saying much, because the genre was already in a vegitative state. it's mostly dead now, but maybe Hawx 2 will be the defibrillator it needs. Maybe it will bring back the golden days of XBLA, back when we had tourneys, flame wars, actual active squadrons, team battles, and who knows? we may even see the re-incarnation of Sinners aka Blarney F***stick. maybe another guy will come in and he'll be just as full of BS, just as annoying, and just as fun to piss off as our old buddy.
I'm just glad that someone is putting SOMETHING out instead of letting us flyboys hang there with nothing but mainstream FPS titles to pass the time. I'm willing to say AC7 just isn't going to happen at this point. It has been nearly 3 years since a real Ace Combat title, and NO, that dinky iPhone app does not count. I'm not sure Joint assault will count, because you can only put so much online multiplayer action in a hand-held and it certainly won't revive the genre.
