Richard Leadbetter of Eurogamer writes, after Super Stardust HD and the astonishing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Incognito Inc's Warhawk was probably my favourite PS3 title of 2007.
However, anyone downloading Operation Omega Dawn expecting a radical improvement to the core game is in line for a disappointment, as the bottom line is that all you're getting is a new vehicle that is of limited use, and an additional gameplay arena that's nowhere near as good as any of the five levels in the original release.
Onto the much-vaunted new map then: the sinister Omega Factory - a combination of heavy industrial cityscapes combined with rocky, mountainous terrain, garnished with a foreboding night-time atmosphere. Trumpeted in Sony PR materials as the biggest Warhawk map yet, ironically that aspect of the new level also happens to be its biggest downfall. Its size and scope is so colossal that gameplay is slowed down to a crawl; even when airborne getting from A to B feels like travelling between international timezones, and as a consequence, firefights with the enemy are few and far between.
The problem with Operation: Omega Dawn is that aside from the novelty of having some new content to try out, there's really nothing here that tangibly boosts the appeal of the original release. Certainly for a title like Warhawk that's crying out for additional maps, game modes and vehicles, this expansion is deeply unsatisfying in that the fresh material is nowhere near as classy as the basic content. The release of Omega Dawn is also somewhat divisive. Premium expansion packs for online games always serve to divide the userbase into the 'haves' and 'have-nots', moreso here where the inclusion of the Dropship in older levels on servers running the expansion effectively freezes out those who don't want to pay the GBP 3.99 for the 'upgrade'.
