Starhawk Review

Starhawk’s Community Page

Being a fan of the original Warhawk for Playstation 3 gave me a lot of anticipation for the recent sequel Starhawk. I was one of the first to lay down my wad of £30 on the counter at Blockbuster and then hurried home to place the shiny disc into my console. What followed was a case of delight and mischief that I have never experienced in a game such as this before.

Starhawk sports an incredibly unique take to gaming that no other online game has done before. Sure you can drive tanks and flying clumsy jet fighters in EA’s Battlefield 3, but nothing gives you as much exhilaration as the easy to handle accessibility of Santa Monica’s multiplayer focused shooter.
The game gives you a wide range of guns and vehicles to use at your disposal and they all feel great to shoot and drive with, even the handgun. The thing about Starhawk is that while other games of its breed keep you in tightly enclosed environments, this one gives you an incredibly open space to cause havoc in. These consist of desert canyons, interplanetary space stations and even floating islands drifting in the atmosphere. They are all so greatly designed to promote clever ways of playing, especially when working in a team.

As mentioned the game is all about the guns and vehicles in this game. They all burst with a variety of personality, which allows you to instantly have your personal favourite for certain situations that may arise on the field of battle. Shotguns blast a wide spray of flack with a nail driving sound of death and destruction, while rocket launchers let off a booming explosion before your missile twirls epically in the air and connects with your target. It all just feels…right.

The vehicles play even better from speeder bikes to the almighty aerial Hawks, there is just so much to choose from and they all become useful in different ways. A clever example for instance is that even though the speeder bike lacks weapons, you can combine certain tactics in different ways to even use it to take out the incredibly dangerous tank drivers. This can be done by attaching remote mines onto your bike from one side and then kicking into overdrive as you skim past a tank and watch as your mines transfer from your bike onto the tank and destroy it in a blaze of glory which sometimes can even turn the tide of battle.

Hawks allow you to play are even better with the new option to transform into a mechanized transformer on the fly, or to switch back into space fighter mode once you are ready to move onto your next target. You feel get a sense of power from doing it and because of that you will probably end up humming the Top Gun theme tune in the back of your mind as you twirl through the air letting off multiple swarms of missiles in heart pounding aerial dog fights. It all feels great and it isn’t difficult to master either. Buddies have the opportunity to team up too in triple seated jeeps. There is no better feeling as you drive your friends into an enemy base, grab the flag and then make haste back to your base as your friend on the gunners seat sprays gatling rounds into hawk filled aired while bullets and missiles whiz passed your head only to realise your heart stopped beating when a lone rocket smacks your jeep and hurls it into the air only for it to land in your base in a burning mess as you step out and triumphantly walk towards the flag podium and claim the winning score for your team as the timer runs out.

People who prefer to stay on foot can also take advantage of the jet pack dispensers that give you a ground and aerial advantage during battles. The Russian roulette style gameplay of two players locking onto each either to see who gets blown up first from their rocket launcher is great experience in one on one fights and the jetpack can also prove advantageous to sniper lovers who want to sneak into tricky to get areas and lay down cover fire with the scoped railgun.

The game also takes base building to a whole new level as well. Instead of teams getting inplaced bases that cannot be grazed, you now must build your own structures and use them to equip your team if you ever stand a chance of winning the game. The “Build and Battle” system consists of a large construction wheel that all players can access and use their own gained resources to build structures from tank depots, hawk air pads, and even flak turrets to take down those pesky fighter pilots. The ability to place any structure on the field also gives teams the chance to create other bases on the field and create siege locations when attempting to take the enemy flag. Better yet it is just as easy to use as the weapons and vehicles, allowing even better accessibility than before.

The game is also gorgeous as well and you will be surprised at how the game is able to keep such a sharp level of quality with so much destruction and building going on at the same time. Everything within the game is a thing of beauty even down to the small forests of trees in certain sections of multiplayer maps. You can tell a lot of love was put into the textures and performance of the overall package in the games presentation. Character models are even sexier with the two warlike factions having an array of cool appearances from the western inspired Rifters with their checkered shirts and futuristic cowboy boots to the flesh ridden Outcast who pulse with glowing blue energy. All these little details show up great within the game itself and the level of quality never faulters one bit.

Even though it is a small complaint I would say that the game’s explosions are missing that touch of explosiveness to them. An example is the tank’s shells as they hit targets, instead of seeing a massive explosive they kind of just shatter into streams of small white pieces on contact with their target. It isn’t game breaking but the lack of a kaboom in certain effects makes you wonder why the left such a needed asphetic out.

It is great to know that the sound lives up to the originals standard with an epic soundtrack and gritty weapon sounds to keep you coming back for. The experience of driving your hawk is taken one step further thanks to the effects placed on to every single individual move it makes like barrel rolling and scrubbing off enemy missiles. Everything has the bells and whistles they need and in no way could I find a fault with the great sound design that made you feel like you were this galactic space miner on the hunt for glower space wind.

While the game is gorgeous to look at and a triple-A experience to play, the same can’t be said for the games separate underwhelming campaign mode. Players take control of the cold hearted Emmet Grave, a rifter who goes from planet to planet seeking the fortune of the solar systems high value resource known as “rift energy”. You see Emmet has a dark secret and a grotesque pulsing arm to prove it. The problem is that the story rushes along too quickly and you aren’t given enough time to care about the protagonist or what makes him such an asshole in the first place.

To make matters worse the whole concept of a sci-fi westerner is wasted on the set up of what is ultimately a tutorial campaign for the epic multiplayer that comes with it. That isn’t saying the story is bad, but it isn’t great either and there is a lot of wasted potential that comes with the story’s lead role. That and the lack of an interesting villain forces gamers to shuffle along through it as fast as possible in hopes of gaining some quick trophies and allowing them to get back to the awesome multiplayer madness.

This is a shame because Santa Monica originally had a story planned for the original Warhawk and scrapped it, so this was ultimately their time to shine with an outstanding breakthrough story in the much beloved franchise. It feels like maybe the game could have stayed a little long in the oven before been plated up for digging into.

Starhawk is available to purchase now on Sony’s Playstation 3.

The multiplayer community is thriving with aspiring pilots and jet packers who are just waiting to put your skills to the test in insane dog fights and a variety of exciting multiplayer modes. You will sadly only play the campaign once but it doesn’t matter as you will be too busy doing black flips on your jet bikes across sand dunes to care.

For more information, click here.