Indie-Game-Corner: Hawken

Have you ever wanted to pilot a lethal walker mech, bristling with enough guns and rockets to make anything that stands in one place for too long a smoldering pile of debris and slag?  Of course you do, because who wouldn't want to do that?  Hawken is a game takes you our of your computer chair and puts you into a cramped and creaking walker-mech.  Rusty mechs of every shape, size, and color battle it out of the near-future-esque, dystopian world of Illal.  The game is currently in closed beta, about 30 days out from release, and man is it something.

Hawken, a free-to-play first-person mech shooter that calls back to the days of Mechwarrior, feels powerfully unique in this day and age of gaming.  The ability to customize your walkers is key to the design of the game and has tons of features to give you the edge or express yourself.  Between the different "classes" of mechs, the different cosmetic pieces, a variety of guns, talent trees, a variety of active and passive items (offensive, defensive, and utility), and finally the ability to pain your mech, you can make something that will fit your play style.  As you earn experience for each class of mech, you unlock points for mech optimization (faster fire rate, faster movement, decreased damage taken, etc.) and all sorts of guns, making playing games rewarding.

Once you get into a game, the feel is absolutely amazing.  As you walk about the urban layouts, the city feels dirty and gritty, tons of soot and grime in the air and on the scenery.  As the screen shakes from side-to-side as the mech takes lumbering steps forward slowly and even more when weapons are firing, movement and guns feel powerful and large.  Despite the bulk of your mech, the thrusters give it unusual bursts of quick mobility, hovering down a street toward a fight or jumping aside to dodge a rocket.  You feel like you are in control of the lumbering behemoth you pilot rather than fight to direct it.  The pace of the game is quick in individual battles, in just a few moments, you can get ambushed, dodge behind a building with next to no health remaining, flank about the building and blow your adversary to smithereens with a well placed rocket and a barrage of bullets.

Everything about this game feels great, from the cracks that appear in the windshield when you've taken a beating, to the variety of unlockable upgrades and mechs.  Being free-2-play, the game allows people to buy in-game currency with real-world money, but thankfully this cannot get you an advantage; everything with stats can be bought by earning "Hawken Points" after every match.  The multiple game modes feel great and seem interesting, with great dynamic events like a enemy cruiser flying over the city to assault an enemy base.  This is a game that has captured my eye, and I hope that you will look into it soon and give it a try.