Our car was in the shop, so we stomped through the neighborhood in a ten ton mech. Chaos ensued.

Metal Battlefield

Grasping control of the mech immediately feels natural, with the grimy windshield and worn dashboard providing a first-person window onto the dystopian world of Hawken. Movement is matched with a deliberate bob as metal legs thud heavily into the ground below. The heads-up display is as minimal as the mech you’re piloting, clearly picking out enemies to target with your walking arsenal. Sounds accompanying the motorized hydraulics are deep and purposeful, rewarding that expensive headset purchase. 

Going on the offensive is straightforward, with nearby enemies lighting up your radar. Depending on the mech, primary attack usually cranks up some kind of machine gun, with secondary fire reserved for rockets or boltguns. Although ammo is unlimited, continual attack will cause your weapons to overheat and go offline, leaving you as a giant metal walking duck until they cool. This encourages more cautious and deliberate play instead of holding down your trigger finger and spraying the air with bullets.

Regardless of how skilled a pilot you are, engaging in combat will eat away at your mech’s health, causing your screen to fracture and lose color. Gobbling up energy sparks from downed mechs is one way to replenish this, but another option is to find a safe spot and deploy a repair drone. Your mech also comes with a built in jetpack, allowing it to soar to higher ground, sprint forward and quick-strafe. Jumping off a high platform in a jetpack-controlled descent is a great way to deliver death from above.

The various maps have also been designed to take full advantage of the jetpack, with a mix of platforms and ramps leading to multiple levels. A mix of styles has been used, from an open and airy decaying city complete with billboards and street signs, to a claustrophobic and dark metal maze where daylight has been replaced by the blue-white glow of fluorescent tubes. Each of these incredibly detailed environments has been lovingly rendered using Unreal Engine 3, but it’s the undoubtedly strong and unifying artistic style that really makes Hawken stand apart as a game.

Four game modes are currently available, with Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch by far the most popular. Missile assault is based on controlling a number of turrets, which then proceed to pummel the enemy base. Siege is a little more complex, requiring energy to be harvested in order to power a battleship that, when fully charged, will crawl across the sky to the enemy base. Making life more difficult is an anti-air turret, which will blast your giant metal brick out of the sky if your opponents manage to seize control. Get your battleship to its destination three times, and Siege victory is yours.

Future Legacy

Ever since I set eyes on the early preview trailer of Hawken some eighteen months ago, I’ve been struck by the world they’ve been trying to create. Part District 9, part Judge Dredd, even part WALL-E, the mirror that Hawken holds up to our society is one of self-strangulation by rampant commercialism. It’s a bleak, breathtaking vista that provides an alternative to the atomic post-apocalypse that’s become overused of late. It’s been spotted by others too, with rumors of a comic book and film adaptation in the works.

But although Hawken has the potential to join the legacy of great mech culture, that membership rests on the ultimate success of the game. Excluding mech balance issues, entering that legacy hinges on three things. While we’ve mentioned the equipment and upgrades available for real money from the mech Garage, there needs to be an emphasis on paying for convenience rather than paying to win. While having an XP-based progression system is great, tying it to individual mechs and offering flat bonuses instead of hard choices can cause a narrow focus in players. And while offering tiered rewards for veteran players is fantastic, giving them a more powerful baseline instead of a more tailored mech means they could dominate the battlefield, dissuading newcomers from competing six months down the line.

Hawken is due to launch on December 12, a little over six weeks from now. In that time, Adhesive Games is likely to be incredibly busy. We’ll be watching carefully to keep you updated as beta progresses. 

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Staff Writer