Starhawk - Review

Debuting exclusively on PlayStation 3, Warhawk has become a very strong multiplayer title and one of the best releases of the first months of the Sony console's life, but one of the most important limitations was the absence of a single player campaign. With the aim of filling this gap and improving what has already been done previously, it arrives in stores Starhawk, the sequel that introduces a number of changes that significantly change the gameplay and experience in general. Here is ours review!

Ready for a star war?

Five years after the first chapter, Starhawk sees a change of developer, with LightBox Interactive which took the place of Incognito. There are many innovations that stand out in this second iteration, starting with the title that already makes it clear where this new war will take place: in the space; in addition, the game mechanics have been expanded that now see a particular but successful fusion between strategic in real time e tower defense. But let's see everything in detail.

This time there is a single player campaign

Although Starhawk is once again strongly oriented towards multiplayer, this time the developers have decided to propose one single player campaign, which expands the offer and which was created with the aim of gradually introducing the player to all the new features that characterize this new game. It lasts about six hours and will see us protagonists in space as Emmett Graves, a pioneer who set out to conquer during the Blue Gold rush, with obvious references to gold fever, told in a full western atmosphere. You will have to fight against the Beasts, that is humans corrupted by geonergy who have turned into murderous mutants. Emmett has personally experienced the consequences of the exploitation of geonergy, so he will have to make his way alone in this setting with very dark tones. Let's say the plot however, it has some interesting and original ideas but it ends up being taken for granted, also because there is a development without any twist and the player will constantly be waiting for something that amazes him. Which, however, will never come.

Between mining installations on asteroids and factories to defend, the main merit of these six hours of single player gameplay is to explain us how the new features of Starhawk work, which are really interesting. Also, it must be said that it is possible to play some in a cooperative mission, where together with a friend we will find ourselves in front of waves of enemies to be killed, bearing in mind that the main purpose will be to reach a certain goal. Playing in two will allow us to better plan the strategy to defeat the enemies: thanks to the large maps made specifically for these missions, the proposed battles both on land and by air will be able to offer a more than welcome addition. Starhawk supports split-screen, so you can play next to each other physically, but the cooperative mode can also be tackled via PlayStation Network, with a friend also far away. In this case, the progress made will be saved on the respective accounts.

In general, these two introductions we've talked about so far show both visually and at the level of the gameplay a clear leap compared to Warhawk: the developers have done a good job both from the point of view of the actual gameplay, and from the artistic one, with carefully designed graphic elements, in line with the typical atmosphere of a space clash. The peculiarity of Starhawk then lies in the possibility of using energy resources to call turrets, walls, garages and bunkers to the planet, so we will have to implement a good level of strategy and advance towards the goal by mowing down hordes of opponents through a good paraphernalia. at our disposal. So, in addition to building anti-aircraft turrets or guard posts to defend ourselves from enemies, we will have to be careful to always remain at the center of the action to standardize the effectiveness of our defensive line and not to see ourselves overwhelmed by the opponents. Also present are the air clashes, which will allow us to sail the skies in search of enemy fighters: between dodges and loops to avoid the bullets of others, we will have here various weaponry - to be recovered in the field - and in general a really fun experience.

Let's play multiplayer

So far we have highlighted the single player and cooperative aspects of Starhawk, which as we said are quite well developed and serve as a sort of extended tutorial to better prepare us for the true focus of the game: the competitive multiplayer. All the elements of the gameplay are also present in the multiplayer component but clearly have, here, a very different and more engaging flavor. The game map, really wide, now becomes dynamic and different with each game and is ready to accommodate the choices of 32 players who will compete with space shots.

Vary it mode proposals in multiplayer, among which Capture the flag stands out, where you will have to carefully study the assault on the enemy base, conquer the objective and prepare for escape, as well as the Zone mode, which commits us to control as many bases as possible in order to ideally connect them to each other to earn more points, the classic Deathmach for teams and not, and the option dedicated to matches exclusively to be faced by air.

A good game

Technically speaking, Starhawk is a well-structured title and certainly much more complete than its predecessor, both in terms of the part to be played on the ground and that to be faced in the sky. Good details and effects proposed by the developer, which offer a good level game even if it must be said that the quality of the most famous titles of the genre is not reached. In short, the impact is good, especially when there is a lot of chaos on the map, but there are some defects - such as details and cleanliness - that undermine its quality. The graphics engine is still much more powerful than that of Warhawk, so if you liked the first iteration you will surely be satisfied with this sequel. On the animation front there are no outstanding results, but in general the fluidity of the action is pretty good. Finally, we focus on dubbing español, which sometimes annoys due to sudden changes in tone that spoil the immersion in the game a bit.

Conclusions

Starhawk arrives his PlayStation 3 with the aim of improving what the predecessor, Warhawk did, and in fact it succeeds: it introduces a pretty good single-player campaign, even if there is nothing that stands out it manages well to make those added features understood and then launch us at best in multiplayer action; it is not a perfect game, there is in fact some element of confusion and technically it does not stand out, but lovers of the genre could appreciate it enough for the large amount of elements it offers, both in the sky and in flight. In short, if you like to play online, give it a chance, while those who are usually inclined to single player, it is better that I weigh the purchase well.

Rating: 8 / 10