Hawken Open Beta is Live!

[Achilles]

Hawken is a beautiful game.  Graphics are nice.   Gameplay is just like an FPS for me.  To me all the Mechs are similar in speed, weaponry etc.   They all dodge around and zip about the battlefield.   Some differentiation would be nicel.  Also after playing for about an hour it just loses my interest. 

[RooksBailey]

Hawken is a beautiful game.  Graphics are nice.   Gameplay is just like an FPS for me.  To me all the Mechs are similar in speed, weaponry etc.   They all dodge around and zip about the battlefield.   Some differentiation would be nicel.  Also after playing for about an hour it just loses my interest.

I completely agree.  One of the big demands on the official forums is for a lot more differentiation and customization of the mechs.  Interestingly, when the game was in alpha, there WAS a lot more of this:

http://youtu.be/lWRj4VnMm-E

What happened to this?!?

Hawken forumites are hoping that this stuff was pulled out to simplify the beta process.  I hope they are correct because the game needs a lot more customization and differentiation to make it interesting for the long haul.  Still, in small bites, its current form remains addictive as a quick time killer, like CoD. 

[RooksBailey]

Sounds like the Hawken devs have some really good ideas in the works:

Hawken devs 'exploring' melee weapons, decals and spectator system

Sounds great! Even though I also greatly enjoy the more tactical nature of MechWarrior Online, I find the quicker shooter pace and "beer and pretzels" nature of Hawken to be a more addictive formula. Right now the game is a bit too thin on content to keep me playing it for more than a few rounds a night, but the above changes will go a long way in changing that.

The first big patch is also due out soon:

The Reaper Update: Patch Notes


The Reaper looks cool:

[Martok]

Thanks for the update RB.  I'll admit it makes me squee a little.  :) 

[RooksBailey]

I said I wasn't going to do it until Hawken was out of beta, but I finally did fork over some cash. Not a lot, just $10 to customize my starter mech, but I feel that I have gotten at least $10 worth of play time out of this game. Even though Hawken very much remains in a beta condition (particularly the UI), the game is already a lot of fun.

Here is my mech after I tricked it out with some customized body parts and a paint job:







Snazzy.

Much better than the standard "TV Head" mech that the devs deviously contrived to be as ugly as possible.  :P

Now I saved up enough credits to buy a second mech.  Haven't decided which to go with, though.  I think I want to try a more missile-armed mech for my second beast.


BTW: I also enjoy MechWarrior Online. Both are good games, so I encourage everyone to not heed the internet chatter of the two fan groups that one is better than the other. Hawken is to MechWarrior Online what Call of Duty is to Battlefield: both are good games that approach the same genre from a very different perspective.   Personally, I give Hawken a bit of an edge because it is much easier to jump into and play.  Plus, I think the artistic direction of Hawken is much more interesting that the rather bland terrain in MWO.  But both are good.   :)

[Martok]

Thanks for the feedback RB!  I've continued to keep my eye on both games, although have yet to jump into either (too many other games to play in the meantime!).  I still wish MWO would add an actual campaign, as I feel the game-world's lore gives it a one-up on similar titles. 

Hawken is to MechWarrior Online what Call of Duty is to Battlefield: both are good games that approach the same genre from a very different perspective.   

For those of us who are almost wholly unfamiliar with the shooter genre, what does this translate as? 

[RooksBailey]

Thanks for the feedback RB!  I've continued to keep my eye on both games, although have yet to jump into either (too many other games to play in the meantime!).  I still wish MWO would add an actual campaign, as I feel the game-world's lore gives it a one-up on similar titles. 

Well, I hear the devs are planning on a Planetside meta-campaign where every battle impacts the larger war, so that could be interesting.  If MWO does actually get such a thing going, that is when I suspect MWO is going to overtake Hawken in popularity.  Right now Hawken has the edge because, being a vastly simpler game, the devs are much further along the development curve. 

Hawken is to MechWarrior Online what Call of Duty is to Battlefield: both are good games that approach the same genre from a very different perspective.   

For those of us who are almost wholly unfamiliar with the shooter genre, what does this translate as?

Sorry about that.   :D  What that means is Hawken is much more of a "run and gun".  That is, like Call of Duty, Hawken is all about fast and furious battles where the name of the game is to wrack up the most kills for your team (in team deathmatch - there are other modes, though).  And like in CoD, when you get killed you respawn after a few seconds and are off and running again.  Teamwork is a factor in Hawken, especially since they started adding support mechs, but you can still lone wolf it if you see fit.

MechWarrior Online is more like Battlefield (really, World in Tanks would be a better analogy) in that it is not about running and gunning as a lone wolf, but about careful maneuvering and close team tactics.  And unlike Hawken,  when you lose your mech in MWO, you are out of the round for good.  This alone makes players much more cautious and "tactically-minded". 

As I wrote above, right now Hawken feels like a more complete game, so that is why I've been enjoying it more (I estimate Hawken to be 60% complete to MWO's 40%).  But I think once MWO is further along the development cycle, it could easily overtake Hawken as the mech game of choice because there is planned to be a lot of depth to this title. 

Hope this helps!

EDIT:

Here is an example of Hawken's gameplay:

And MWOs:

[Martok]

Thanks again, man.  I appreciate the compare-and-contrast between the two.  :) 


<Goes to watch the gameplay videos>

[RooksBailey]

Big changes coming to my favorite mech game!

Hawken update coming 'later this month,' tunes mechs, adds new map

Hawken, the free-to-play mech-based shooter from Adhesive Games, is still in open beta. It's been in open beta since December and, while Adhesive Games' Jason Hughes says the developer hopes to launch the game "sometime this year," and a new update coming "later this month" promises to radically alter the current state of the game.

• "This new version of Hawken will retire the current Optimization system, replacing it with a new Tuning system - a more nuanced set of variables attached to each subclass of mech."
• "On top of that, a new item slot system will limit what players can equip on their mechs."
• "Finally, this new update institutes some much-requested community features like a party system that will allow friends to group up before jumping into a match.  ...  There is also a new co-op bot training mode, in case you and your pals don't feel like taking on humans, and an offline team deathmatch mode to help new players ease into the experience on their own."

And a new jungle map!   8)

Sigh, between this and WoT, I have become such a motorhead.

[Martok]

Damn.  This game needs to come out so I can play it! 

[RooksBailey]

The next patch for Hawken adds a lot of great ideas!

This makes me more confident than ever that Hawken will be the mech game to beat...until Titanfall comes out, anyway. 

[Martok]

Thanks for the update, RB.  The new changes do sound pretty cool. 

[RooksBailey]

Predator is coming to Hawken.... :D

Have to get back into this game.  The new changes that came with the last mega patch really threw me for a loop since the game changed so much.   Sort of turned me off after getting comfortable with the original version.  But it is still a good game.

[Martok]

Heh.  I just watched that video maybe half an hour ago.  The Wilhelm Scream cracked me up.  :P 

Have to get back into this game.  The new changes that came with the last mega patch really threw me for a loop since the game changed so much.   Sort of turned me off after getting comfortable with the original version.  But it is still a good game.

Is the aforementioned mega-patch that Ascension update you posted about back in August? 

[RooksBailey]

Heh.  I just watched that video maybe half an hour ago.  The Wilhelm Scream cracked me up.  :P 

Yeah, I heard it too.  :D

Is the aforementioned mega-patch that Ascension update you posted about back in August?

Yeah, that one.  It is a good patch, but it changed things up quite a bit.  I felt like I had to learn the game all over again, so I got a bit frustrated.  It's me, not the game.  :)