Hawken, for those of you who don’t know, is a free-to-play online Mech FPS for the PC. I got a chance to sit down with the game and play a free-for-all match against other people at the booth.
There are three classes that I cycled through during my time with the game: the Infiltrator is a quick moving assault mech, the Brawler, a slow moving high damage mech, and the Sharpshooter, a long range attack mech. As I went through the match I noticed how smooth the mech’s move around the map and how the HUD system in the mech was arranged in a way that was not intrusive and made you feel like you’re actually piloting the machine.
Some other mechanics that I got to mess with were a shield and a health drone which are both support items. The map was very dynamic, there was plenty of high platforms for better shots and placement to shoot down on your enemy. It was also very open, allowing for quick movement to dodge enemy fire.
By the end of the match, I felt like the game did a lot of things right for the ever-competitive mech genre. It keeps it simple and made the controls easy to understand along with a sleek interface that allows for changing classes quickly and changing your game up mid-combat. Look for Hawken officially releasing sometime this year. I have a feeling this will change mech games to come.
