Sure we’ve seen other developers come out with their own dogfighting games but of course it ain’t over ’til we see Gameloft’s version.

Tom Clancy’s HAWX ($6.99; Free)

For everyone whining about Gameloft copying console game formats and IPs, you can all shut it since this is game is licensed. As you would assume, Gameloft nails everything right again from the game’s graphics, controls and overall gameplay.

Presentation

One of the things I enjoy most about HAWX is the scenery of the locations. HAWX takes place in various places (including Rio De Janeiro, Washington DC, and more), and the accuracy amazes me. If you look that up in Google Earth you’ll see it’s the same or nearly the same, and particularly in DC you see a lot of landmarks. Same goes for Rio De Janeiro, where I accidentally crashed into the Christ statue over there (whoops!). The coolest part for me personally was when I had to defend a shuttle launching from Cape Canaveral here in Florida, seeing the detail in the scenery was awesome.

The other cool thing about HAWX is that it includes a total of 25 licensed planes, which some of you will recognize immediately. As you play you unlock “weapon packs” that will give you more weapons (like Multi-AG missiles and free fall bombs). And the storyline is great as well (though I’ll keep my mouth shut not to spoil it for you).

Controls

HAWX has my vote for best controls in these plane dogfighting games. Though you can choose virtual joystick over accelerometer, I personally prefer accelerometer. Leaning forward / backward controls you pitch, while tilting left / right controls the roll of the plane. The left / right arrows on the bottom controls the actual direction of the plane, that’s what you use to turn.

For the shooting it’s kept mostly simple. There is a gun button, just press to fire. For missiles, it’s the button right under the gun button. Once you unlock / carry on multiple types of missiles you can swipe there to switch between them. By default the game automatically targets the enemies, so you just have to aim until square turns red then fire. To switch targets though, you press the toggle button (last under the pause button on the upper left corner). They might seem a bit complicated but once you get used to them you feel completely in control.

Game Play

HAWX follows the Tom Clancy universe from the console world. You are the captain of a HAWX group. I’d love to tell you about the story, but then it’d ruin the whole game for you, so I can’t. But what I can say is that the whole single player campaign is voiced over and is very good.

The missions vary, from patrolling the Mexican border to….other things. You will also fight a number of enemies, from battleships, to speed boats, bombers, fighter jets, and much more. A lot of the time you are providing support for the ground troops, who cannot suffer too much damage or they die, and thous you die as well. So it’s not just about dodging missiles coming at you, you also gotta be quick.

As you progress, the missions will go from “open world” missions where the goal is just to destroy the enemies in any way you want, to more specific missions, following a specific path though gates in the sky.

As to length, the game consists of about 13 missions, though they have kept me going for quite a while. And I still have to go back and unlock the rest of the weapon packs / planes. Maybe I’m biased because I love the storyline, but the single player campaign is amazing.

Suggestions

Gameloft, I’m on my knees here. Please add online multiplayer to this. Local multiplayer is nice, but online multiplayer would be just WOW. IMO this is already raising the bar over most of the other dogfighting games in the AppStore, so if there were multiplayer, it’d bury them.

Conclusion

I’m really digging HAWX, much more than the other dogfighting titles in the AppStore. The controls are very smooth (and calibrate to whatever angle you’re at at the beginning of each mission), and the graphics are very detailed and smooth. I’d say HAWX all the way. But if you want to compare with some of the other titles (specially the freemium ones) there’s a lite version you can try out. Happy flying .