I did some extensive research on the game (Gamespot, IGN, you players,etc) and decided this may not be such a bad purchase. I thought $60 (BD version with Bluetooth headset) dollars is small change so I won't feel too upset if I didn't like it.
After putting a good amount of time into the game (12 hours over the past three or so days), I can admit that the game is actually not that bad, pretty addictive, but it isn't that great either. The concept of battling other players online using land and air (would have been an epic title if they included sea combat but I won't complain) is great. It's a pretty balanced game as there are counters for every kind of attack.This was done well. Everything blows up well, whether it's the Warhawk/Nemisis planes, tanks, etc. With all that's going on, surprisingly there is no lag. I was concerned about the game freezing and in fact did freeze on me once but it wasn't frequent. I can truly see why this game was so highly anticipated. However, there are a few problems I do have with that can't go unnoticed.
Only five maps-For an online only game you would think that there should be more than five maps. The maps have different sizes ranging from small, medium, to a full size map, which totals 15. That is fine, but what I don't like is when you have 20-32 players on any of the smaller maps, it can get pretty chaotic to plan an attack and will result in a not so fun experience. Which leads to my questioning of certain weapons like the sniper rifle. Why is that in this game when there is practially no way of sniping anyone? This is a run and gun kind of game with no tactical or stealth approaches since you know where everyone is located. There should be a set limit of players that matches the size of maps. I am sure there will be more maps for this game with an update.
Lack of ranked games-Virtually every dedicated server (blue highlighted ones) is full. It's a bit annoying to wait to join a ranked game when practically everyone of them is full. Open up more servers or have players with very strong connections create ranked games with similar settings of the dedicated servers.
Lack of unity-This was my first Massive Multiplayer Online game so I didn't know what to expect. I found that playing with other players in team modes was more frustrating than fun. Every player on my team had their own agenda and didn't want to work as team to get the wins. Surprisingly, I won some awards for Team Bandit (I don't remember). Obviously, the best way to remedy this is joining clans (I am interested in joining one). Even with headsets, players do their own thing to rank up by any means, which includes turning on their own teammates to steal points in capture the flag mode. Or crashing their warhawks killing everyone in site with no regard. None of this happened to me but it got annoying to hear teammates in my headset/ear complaining about getting screwed over when another teammate kills them. I was just as frustrated when I played the capture the flag mode and everyone decided to go get the opponents flag while I and maybe two other players at most defended the base. They wondered why they lost the game. You can't take the chance to leave the game because you will find yourself spending at least ten minutes or more to connect to another dedicated server. I am not to bad on the sticks and am sure there are clans/players out there that don't mind working with an unselfish team player, so hit me up if you are a player.
There are other concerns like a lack of messaging to keep in contact with potential friends you meet during the games but I am sure Incognito will work on this with a simple update.
I am too used to tactical games like Vegas and Recon where players actually work as a unit (not in clans BTW) to take out enemies. But, I have to admit that Warhawk is fun to play if you can put up with the problems mentioned earlier.
Overall score 8.5