The most important bit right away:
And if you need more to convince you that the shop is bad: The cheapest pack gives you 1100 cash currency but the mech is priced at 1179, so you need to buy at least 2 packs and then be left with over 1000 currency that you didn't even want.
I played some more and the missions start getting really spammy with enemies so it becomes dificult to survive. But to get stronger you need parts, which you have to build, which you need currency and resources for and the game for sure doesn't give you enough to build right away, but they strongly encourage you to spend premium currency to top off your resources in order to build something.... and its not cheap.


They killed hawken and then they use its corpse to make a new game, which really isnt hawken.

The game starts by throwing cutscenes at you and then throwing you into a mission before you get to adjust any settings.
In game, the menu doesnt pause it and you cant use your mouse to navigate it. Only Arrowkeys work.
Sensitivity is also completely off with the game still being way too quick on minimum sensitivity but they also did the thing where vertical aim is much much slower than horizontal.
In short it feels like controls were made for controller and they emulate playing with mouse+KB, yet we don't have any button icons for controller though. weird.

Gunplay is boring. It feels floaty. Enemies are just sponges that you dump bullets into. No real strategy needed so far. No localized damage, no aiming for cockpits or arms, guns etc. Just dump your load into them until HP equals 0.
AI is also not exactly smart at all.
The maps also don't give much freedom and if you dare to adventure you are told to return or else you explode.

Graphics are really not good and it doesnt have the gritty style of old hawken. You also have a 60fps lock and the game still stutters everytime something spawns or whatever.

Voice acting is mid, but not terrible except that one nurse cutscene which you can not skip for whatever reason.
Main menu is weird and ugly, UI in general is ugly. You also get a forced mobile-game style tutorial there and you find a cash shop right away.

Man i didn't hope for much but i am still left disappointed.

If they didn't want people to expect that this is like OG Hawken, maybe they shouldn't have called it "Hawken Reborn" but instead should have stuck to the Unreal Engine project title which is "Hawken 2"

>"we're listening closely to your feedback"
>makes sure comments are turned off on the news post
>check steam forum
>lots of pinned threads, zero posts
>"Bug Report thread, make sure to leave highly detailed instructions here!"
>Thread has been locked by moderator
>all posts deleted
yeah

I played the REAL HAWKEN; the original beta.

Back then the game was a wonderful mech customization game with solid PvP and an excellent basis on tactical gameplay choices, teamwork, and intricate mech variety.

Then the beta ended and the official release was a crappy ADHD-based twitch shooter that crashed and burned like the mediocre display it was.

What happened? I personally think the devs were stabbed in the back by fratboys who wanted to pander to the lowest toxic denominator of gaming. They dumbed the game down and sped it up to the point where it lost ALL quality.

And now I see the name HAWKEN on a single-player campaign game that didn't even bother to get basic functionality into the damn alpha before they put in a microtransaction shop?!!
I bet the licences to the game has finally been sold through enough bargain bins that a team managed to pick it up cheap and are now trying to cash in on the name.

Well... HAWKEN is back. And there are some genuinely good ideas here. But the new devs NEED to play the real game, the original beta from so long ago. They NEED to play Armored Core ( for the experience, not to emulate that game. They don't have to be good at it, they have to PLAY it).
They need to play Team Fortress 2.
They need to learn about good balance, proper pacing, tactical gameplay, and how to avoid the more toxic elements of the game community.

And they NEED to get rid of their greed.
If your game isn't good enough to get sales on its own merits, and you thus need a microtransaction shop, then you are BAD AT MAKING GAMES and you do not deserve to be making any money at all.
I do not care what the greedy pigs told you; mictrotransactions are NOT a part of the economy now. They are nothing but a paper-thin excuse to deliberately gut the quality of the product you are selling in order to force customers to pay more money.

Want proof? You put the cash shop into your alpha build before it even had basic functionality.

It is unethical. It is immoral. And it needs to stop.

Did you Love the Orignal HAWKEN?

If Yes:
Don't play this. Unless the game almost completely changes its development path it will make you very disappointed.

If No:
Do you like a DoW Aesthetic from 2004? and wish it was merged with borderlands numbers-upon-damage system and colourful drops from helpless small enemy humans who will throw their lives away as they shoot, out of cover in futile at a 30ft mech?
Then you might have liked this game if the infuriating writing, pacing and UX design hadn't made you wish you had spare battery acid to place inside your eye sockets.

I'll check back in, in 6 months to see if there has been the HERCULEAN levels of overhaul this game needs, and yes, I know it's early access.

This isn't HAWKEN REBORN, it's HAWKEN STILLBORN.

As it currently is, I'm not sure I can really recommend it. Excusing standard Early Access bugs and jank for a moment, you have basically 6 fairly short (as far as I saw), repetitive missions to do. I don't mind a bit of repetition, but by mission 4 alone I was kinda losing interest. I'd imagine it's mostly due to the AI not exactly being a huge enough threat. Regardless, it feels like too little, even for a proper early access launch. Even if there's content beyond the 6 missions, I find myself a bit too bored to want to find out. After all the fun the OG Hawken brought that's kinda sad.

Additionally, the microtransactions feel haphazardly crammed in. Mayhaps it's just me but I find the idea of a singleplayer game with microtransactions very weird in any situation, even if it's free to play. Add to it, that after taking a good look at them I really can't see myself putting the money to any of it. It makes me wonder how this is going to pull in any money to stay afloat long enough to get anywhere.

Let's not forget that this shipped without the ability to customize your keybinds. Ctrl to sprint and Shift to dodge feels very wrong to me, and was constantly throwing me off during battle. I'd try to sprint when I wanted to dodge, or dodge when I wanted to sprint. It left me feeling more like I was losing shield because the controls were wrong than anything else.

It's an odd case, really. Super short, to an almost hilarious degree, and has polish in some areas (it runs quite nicely!) and lacks it in others (the AI likes to rub up against walls sometimes). I think with time it could be good, but this thing needs to survive long enough to really reach that I think. I don't think this makes for a stellar first impression, even for early access standards. That said, I wish you all the best of luck, 505 games. I want this to succeed as much as you do.

They actually managed to kill the same game twice. Impressive

Just boot up the OG Hawken Servers. Add 1 new Maps. 1 new Mech. Done. Everybody wouldve paid for that.

My Brother in Christ you literally have pay to win microtransactions in a game that's currently locked to singleplayer PVE

I was excited to see Hawken come back, but then I started playing.
Where'd the mech kit design go?
Where's the mech core powers?
Where's the risk/reward decision to self-repair?
Why aren't I starting out in a CRT with a rocket launcher?
Why can't I move around without feeling like I'm trying to walk in chest-deep water?
Where's the Hawken that was supposed to be Reborn?

You didn't have to change anything, if you just re-released the old it would have been a hit! How do you make this massive of a mistake of putting labor into ruining this game?

Has none of the charm and feeling of the old game, just feels like a low budget pay to win cash grab.