Personal Opinion for...

Hawken!!! This is kinda new for my blog, but ever since I had got a new computer, there were so many games I wanted to try out, one of them being Hawken, a currently in open beta first-person mech shooter. A little back story. As you know of how much I like Gundam models, you could say I have the same liking towards Mecha or robots and that kind of stuff. And since I had played Virtual On : Operation Moon Gate or Armored Core, there had never been very good Mech games on the PC. I knew about Mech Warrior, but it did not seem as appealing because I was more for futuristic and cool looking robots compared to the realistic kind (Armored Core runs a very fine line between both).

Though this is just my personal liking, I wanted a Mech game on the PC. Armored Core was sadly a console exclusive, and team that made Virtual On had stopped continuing the series so nothing exceptional came to the PC other than other first-person shooters.

So when a friend of mine showed me the link to the in-progress video of this game called Hawken, I was intrigued, and also I liked how the game gave you that bulky feeling.



(Above) The footage that told me I wanted to try this game!!

 Another reason I had quite a little more faith with the game was because I watched a video of in interview between Angry Joe and the creative director Khang Lee. And he mentioned one of the games they based Hawken on was Virtual On. I was excited, cause the game would be something of it.

So, what did I think of the game? It might be early for a complete review, since its still in the beta, but I can say this, the game is a first-person shooter, its online, and it plays completely different than your average first-person shooter. They really give you the feel of how heavy the mech is, but at the same time, you are allowed to quickly slide left and right to avoid attacks or rush to cover. Is this game a fast paced game? Quite fast actually, but at the same time lies in between that and strategical approach, which I will explain below. In my personal opinion, the fastest paced mech game would be Virtual On : Oratorio Tangram. The pace of Armored Core depended on the player, meaning if you know Armored Core well it is possible to obtain fast-paced gameplay.

One of the major differences I discovered, mostly the hard way (by getting killed in game of course) is it pulls away from personal expertise quite a lot. To explain myself, I played other games like Blackshot and Blacklight : Retribution, also spent a little time on Call of Duty MW3 and Battlefield 3, and in each game, you are capable, and its not impossible, to kill maybe a group of 3 or maybe 4, some really good players can maybe take out a group of 6 (with a grenade) single handed. I did manage it too, for example, 3 enemies in a room, I rush in and with a little luck (headshots) and well placed aim, you can take all 3 of them out before they can fully retaliate. But in Hawken, this is impossible.

There is no way, you can rush in, BY YOURSELF (meaning your allies are some where else) and kill all 3 (or 6) of them. Reason why, there is no instant kill from one source, meaning a group have to fire at the same target and hit to get that almost instant death, and it takes a lot of bullets and hits to actually kill another player in the game. I'm talking about team battles, not a Deathmatch. One of the only ways is that you are either really good, or they other team is really bad. In Hawken, a Grenade or a Tow Missile can, at maximum take away half of your hit points.

Another big difference in Hawken is that in fire fights, everyone is moving around, jumping, sliding in and out of cover, so actually hitting them completely for a whole 10 seconds is very hard, if not extremely HARD. And you can't sneak behind some poor guy and do a backstab instant kill. In some cases, you might end up getting killed even though you attacked first. This is also one of the only games where it is possible to have not died at all in a single match (this achieved not by hiding in your base, but even if you take part in encounters and fire fights) cause you can repair yourself, which at the same time leaves you vulnerable.

So, in most ways, Hawken is no where near your average first-person shooter. But on of the good things about this kind of play is it really encourages teams to stick together. The very reason a team can win is also mostly because they stick together, and gang up on lone enemies, which if happens to you, have almost zero chance of survival.

So, if you are used to the fact that it is possible to kill a group of people by yourself, you might want to change your mindset a little when trying out Hawken. Also bare in mind that there's no real telling you that you are hitting the enemy other than seeing their life decrease.

(Above) Just some screenshots of the game in its, if I'm not mistaken 2nd Beta. Had quite a lot of fun playing, but didn't focus on it too much.

Did I like playing Hawken? Yes, I did. I finally had the PC based Mech game and also it was pretty fast paced. One of the few things I didn't like is some of the designs of the Mechs made available, and also that most weapons are pretty limited, but its in beta, so all this might change. But so sum it all up, its something new which should be tried out, no questions about that.





Farid