Hawken is a new Mech FPS that is currently on Closed Beta, it has stunning visuals and a fast-paced combat that will gather all Mech lovers together along with regular FPS players.
We played the Closed Beta and will tell you our opinion about it, first we got to fiddle with the menu and options, there are personal statistics and ranks, there is also a garage where you can improve your mech or even buy a new one, improvements come in the shape of part upgrades, internal modules, items and weapons that you can change by paying the in-game currency you get while playing or the currency you get in exchange for your real money, there are also boosters for the Experience and other things that you buy with the two currencies, you can buy everything with both your personal effort or investing real money which is cool for those who have no time to play and can keep up with his friends.
After upgrading our default Mech we got to play 3 different maps with 3 different game types, there are the classic modes such as the Team deathmatch and brand new ones such as the siege mode in which you have to gather EU (energy units?) from specific bases and deliver it to your base to charge your battleship, once it’s full you have to control the AA of the map to prevent enemy from destroying your ship, and they will want to do that because it will go straight to the enemy base to destroy it.
So we entered in the first map which was a desert map, and we so the Unreal engine 3 at its best, graphics are gorgeous in ultra mode, a lot of visual effects and everything has high quality textures and poligons, so you find yourself in a cockpit that shakes when you get hit and reacts when your Mech moves, the gameplay is pretty natural and smooth, and the action is fast paced so you have to think fast and run away if needed because you can repair yourself by using a drone you’re carrying on your back the whole time, but you have to do this when away from the combat or you may got owned by a surprise attack. There are the classic roles, tough mechs, sniper mechs, assault mechs and so on, there is the possibility of changing your loadout everytime you die and even switching to another Mech.
The other 2 maps we played were in sci-fi style cities with super-high-techonology that has some resemblance to Cybertron, the planet where transformers and decepticons came from, they had high detail, you can even destroy civil vehicles you find on your way, climb to the top of the buildings by using your thruster, but watch it when you move among narrow corridors or streets because your Mech will hit the ceiling, walls and corners and you will notice it with the correspondent special effect, everything has been accounted in this great title that will be a hit when it releases.
As for now, check our screenshots and videos to get a better idea of how it feels to play this great title.
A lot has changed in this game since this review I think it’d be a good idea to re-review this game here’s some more recent gameplay