The world needs more games about giant robots blowing things up, and Adhesive Games’ Hawken seems fit to deliver.
If you’ve been reading my work here at The Escapist for the past few years, you may have gathered that I’m fairly fond of giant fighting robots. I think that videogames could use more giant robots, really – there isn’t a single game that couldn’t be improved by the addition of a giant robot or two.
So you have to understand my excitement when I saw an announcement about Hawken, a new indie FPS all about giant robots fighting other giant robots. Said excitement was only bolstered by the fact that the game’s first trailer looks absolutely superb. It may be only nine months into the game’s development by a “small indie team” – the Los Angeles-based Adhesive Games – but so far Hawken seems like it could hang with the big boys.
According to the game’s official site, everything you see in the trailer here to the right is in-game footage captured from network play sessions. The actual game is played from a first-person viewpoint; all of the third-person action seen here was taken with a spectator camera. While the trailer admittedly looks a bit choppy, the Adhesive post claims that this is simply a byproduct of filming the demos in slow motion and that the actual play “looks okay.”
I’d say it looks more than okay, myself. It’s true that Hawken‘s robot designs seem like they’re leaning more toward the blocky and ugly Western-style mecha, which I’m not a really big fan of. On the other hand, they aren’t lumbering and plodding battle tanks – some of them seem pretty quick and agile in the Eastern style of giant robots. I don’t see any beam sabers, but maybe they’ll be patched in later.
There’s no definitive word on pricing, release date or even platform yet, but Adhesive is “interested in bringing Hawken to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.” Given its indie nature, one could probably expect it to be a PSN/XBLA downloadable title rather than a full retail release.
Either way, Hawken certainly seems like a title worth keeping an eye on.
(Hawken game blog, via Eurogamer)
