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Hawken Preview for PC

Hawken Preview for PC

When A Tank Isn’t A Tank

Mechwarrior 2 was the first game I ever played against someone over an Internet connection. Back then, modems required a phone line, so we’d had a second phone line installed at home so my dad and I could both plug in, fire up NetMech, and take to mech vs. mech battles for household supremacy. As the younger generation, and a far more experienced gamer, I won nine times out of ten, but I was always jealous of the setup he used for the game: a Thrustmaster Flight Control System paired with a Weapons Control System Mark II. So many switches and buttons on that throttle that it was almost fetishistic!

Hawken Screenshot

Almost a decade later, I would receive Steel Battalion as a Chanukah gift, which I loved in equal measure for the game itself and its absurdly complex controller (though, when you boiled it down, you were really only using a couple of sticks, the buttons on them, and the pedals most of the time). Hawken continues this tradition of controller fetishism with its MEK-FU joystick. It’s a dual-stick behemoth, which can separate into three segments (at least one of the sticks can be used independently, for games that don’t demand such an intense setup). The center contains a full, if miniature, keyboard for messaging, along with a small readout that lists the player’s call sign and short messages. There’s a multitude of metal switches that are mostly for immersion and buttons for both explicit and programmable functions.

It’s a bit strange, then, that Hawken is simply not that complex as a game. That isn’t an indictment; it’s just a statement of fact. Hawken is, for all intents and purposes, a mech-themed first-person shooter. It certainly goes further than that, as these metallic behemoths are not as agile as the mecha of Armored Core or Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. They have a definite sense of weight and a deliberate form of movement. Jumping, even with the attached jets, is a laborious procedure, and dashing cannot be stopped on a dime, as the thrusters take a split second to power down.

Hawken Screenshot

Their weapons are appropriately satisfying to fire, too, since they are many times stronger than what one would ever expect to see a humanoid holding, much less shooting. Dual wielding is, after all, simply a matter of having a second weapon strapped to one’s other arm (or, in this case, composing one’s second arm). The most common and basic combination of weaponry appeared to be that of a powerful chain gun on one side with a multi-rocket launcher on the other, but this is malleable, with characters able to pick both a basic frame and specific weapons for their avatar.

Hawken Screenshot

Under such an onslaught, even beefy mechs are going to go down quickly. Those of Hawken are no exception, though they are able to withstand a good few shots before collapsing and exploding in a shower of debris. Further, if one can escape to safety, it’s possible to repair oneself with the built-in repair bots. It takes a long time to reach full health—somewhere in the neighborhood of forty-five seconds to a minute—but it removes the necessity for health power-ups, maintaining a focus on pure combat strategy.

Strategy is important, too, since the team-based combat of Hawken is objective-centric. In the game I played, my team was tasked with gaining control of an anti-air cannon so that we could bring down the enemy team’s battleship, bombarding us from the sky where it hung, drifting across the map. It was even possible to shoot it with one’s personal weapons, but this was a quick way to draw its attention and wind up curb-stomped by its powerful artillery. There are standard team and free-for-all deathmatch modes, but this “siege” gameplay feels like the bread and butter of the game.

Hawken Screenshot

There were, however, elements that could stand to be improved. While Hawken is a good looking game, its color palette is fairly bland. Everything is somewhere on the scale between gray and black, with only occasional flashes of a neon sea green. It’s an appropriate aesthetic for a futuristic mech game, but I can’t help remembering that the Mechwarrior titles were able to work with reds, browns, greens and blues in equal measure. Hawken is a more urban game, with the battles taking place in city environments, but that doesn’t mean everything should look washed out. More importantly, there isn’t really any indication that one is low on health. There’s an explicit health meter, yes, but there are no effects to indicate that it has dipped into the danger zone. Flashing red lights or a cockpit fire, perhaps? Occasionally, there’s a bit of a static effect overlaying the screen, but this seemed inconsistent at best, and didn’t really draw one’s attention immediately, which led to a few careless charges into hopeless combat situations.

Folly should come from the player, not the game.

As a free-to-play title, there’s a certain amount of slack one must cut such a game, but given that the Hawken devs felt confident enough to commission a controller that may retail for as much as $250, it’s hard to overlook a lack of polish in any element of the game. That said, it was a lot of fun to play, and gave me thrills in much the same way older mech games provided. It’s also still a good six months out, so there’s time yet to address the few complaints I can levy against the title.

Game Features:

  • Battle against other players in a rich multiplayer experience.
  • Optimize your hardware with a robust system allowing the player to focus on the abilities that matter to them – Offense, Defense, or Agility.
  • Fill your mech hanger with powerful creations. Each mech can truly be something unique by customizing its parts, abilities, performance, and visual style to suit how you like to play.

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