Started as a sequel to the PS1’s original, Warhawk on the PS3 went gold as an ambitious online-only title.  Combining fast, simple combat with a complex network setup, the developers at Sony’s Santa Monica studio dropped the solo campaign in order to concentrate on multiplayer, drawing criticism from around the industry.

The result, offered for download on the PSN and in a Blu-ray version bundled with a Bluetooth headset, is a polished title with plenty to offer all varieties of gamers.  For casual gamers, Warhawk offers the ability to host your own game or play on someone else’s; for your average gamer, the easy-to-grasp control scheme and game types will get them playing and enjoying themselves soon after picking up the controls.  For hardcore types, a great ranking system paired with basic clan support (and I emphasize ‘basic,’ as a slew of improvement is needed before real clan support is realized) and worldwide leader boards adds room for intense competition and enormous replay value.

When either looking for hosted games or setting up your own, you’re given a choice between four game modes:  deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and zones.  The first three are typical shooter fare:  deathmatches make every man for himself, team deathmatch pits two teams in a race to gather points, and capture the flag requires one team to grab the other’s flag while protecting their own.  Zones, a third team game, is another race to gather points:  to gather points, a team much capture a region (done by standing next to the region’s central node to take it from the opposing team or increase its size), and the more area a team controls, the faster their point total increases.  There’s a great variety of play found in each map/game combination, so it’s rare to find yourself bored.

Staying mobile is important in all team matches, and a variety of vehicles are at a player’s disposal.  On the ground, the 4x4 is lightly armored and armed with a mounted gun turret, but travels very quickly from point to point, making it key to most successful flag captures; the 4x4 seats three, including the driver, passenger, and gunner.  The tank moves slowly, but can give/take a beating to anything, and with a second player riding shotgun in the hatch, it can quickly become a mobile harbinger of death and node capturing.  Euchadian Warhawks and Chernovan Nemesis craft are fast and agile, but have less armor than even the 4x4.  Though armed to the teeth with a variety of spawnable weapons, the air craft in Warhawk are far from invincible when paired against turret systems, troops carrying rocket launchers, or tank sharpshooters.  Because of the vehicles found in each map, the game plays at several levels, whether it is troop v. tank or tank v. Warhawk, and each plays very differently.