E312: Large mechanical hands on with Hawken

E312: Large mechanical hands on with Hawken

If there’s one thing that’s been keeping me from playing mech games over the years, it’s been the their complexity. I don’t want to have to  start my engines individually, manage my cooling units, reload my ammunition manually or calibrate my targeting systems. Fortunately the team at Adhesive Games has successfully created a fast paced mech game that gives you all the excitement of a complicated simulator without requiring you to study for six months before you play it.

Granted our own Dalibor Dimovski could maybe benefit from some time in a classroom.

The appeal of Hawken seems to lie in it’s simplicity, both in the core gameplay and the broader mechanics. Before the match, you’re allowed to chose the type of mech you want to pilot and choose your load out, but after trying three different setups, I found that it didn’t really matter much what you choose. That’s not to say that different weapons don’t require you to play differently, but I didn’t find myself to be any more or less effective after switching things up.

The mode we played had us venturing out into the field as two teams fought to collect fuel for their battleship. Once the fuel had been released, the battleship was released overhead with the next step being to protect the large anti-air gun in the center of the battlefield. In the limited time we had, we didn’t get very far past that point.

Hands on with Hawken on PC at E3
Hands on with Hawken on PC at E3 2012

Hawken will be available to would-be pilots everywhere on 12.12.12, which is thankfully the last time we’ll have to see a release date like that for 89 years.