For some reason, just about every battle seems to take place at sunset.Decades after Maverick ruled the skies in Top Gun, a new generation of elite flight-school graduates heads to the Persian Gulf. An unnamed ally’s regime has been overthrown, so our Navy swoops in to blow things up.
You needn’t be a fighter ace to zip around in licensed aircraft like the F-14A Tomcat or F-22 Raptor: auto-stabilization kicks in any time you find yourself upside-down, and you’ll never stall. That frees you to focus on getting squirrely enemies to linger in your sights long enough for you to acquire a missile lock. You’ll tap a button to tailgate your target, chase it around the screen, then execute quick-time events (using the analog sticks) to make your reticule grow until your quarry can’t escape.
Taking out heavily defended aircraft carriers takes some finesse.Hard Lock relies on these barely interactive sequences to the point of absurdity. Watching spiral dives and Immelmann maneuvers is fun the first dozen times; after that, you’ll sigh and check your watch during every lingering slow-motion spin. That’s assuming you can tolerate a campaign stuffed with fuzzy scenery, aggravating difficulty spikes, and some truly ridiculous gaps between checkpoints.
Online multiplayer is marginally better, as you spend more time in direct control of your maneuvers. You can tackle the two maps cooperatively — escorting transport planes, attacking aircraft carriers, and defending a base against aggressors — or just blast away in deathmatch sorties. With only the two battlegrounds, though, it’s no surprise the lobbies are already deserted.
PUBLISHER: 505 Games • DEVELOPER: Headstrong Games • ESRB: Teen • MULTIPLAYER: 2–4 in co-op, 2–16 in versus (both on Xbox Live only) • ACHIEVEMENTS: Easy • COST: $40
+ Arcade accessibility; 14 licensed aircraft; some easy Achievements.
– Flicking joysticks back and forth during constant quick-time events gets boring fast.
– Poor difficulty balance; increasingly punishing checkpoint placement; unappealing scenery; limited multiplayer.
? Why so many lame “lovin’ feeling” jokes?
