Hawken by Adhesive Games Seems To Be Coming Along Quite Nicely

Hawken is going to be the best game ever released. Period. Okay, maybe that’s not a certifiable fact, and despite my obvious (and maybe oblivious) excitement, Hawken looks like it’s shaping up to be one of the most intriguing titles slated for released next year (or two – they’re still deciding on a release date). Yesterday, G4TV’s X-play was able to sit down with Adhesive Game’s Art Director, Khang Le, and get the skinny on this masterpiece in the making.

If you are unaware of this sci-fi romp through cities apparently built without a city planner, you might be asking yourself, “What exactly is Hawken?” Take Mech Warrior, Armored Core, any good resource control game, and your standard FPS, and you get Hawken. For a good idea of the work that’s gone into it so far, especially Le’s art efforts, you should probably just watch the gameplay trailer after the bump.

Now you should have an idea of why I think this game will be the second coming of awesome! Not only is it going to combine mechs and the pace of its FPS cousins, but it’s just downright beautiful! Would you believe that Adhesive Games is made up of only nine developers? Well, to be completely accurate, there are only six full-time employees working on the game at the moment. The other three are interns. I, too, was wowed. Enough of my rambling though, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty!

First things first. Hawken, at its core, will be a multiplayer game. One where you’ll get to pit your mech – which is about “three human heights tall” – against others in a fight over resources. In Siege Mode, these resources will go towards the construction of a battleship, key to destroying your enemy’s base. You won’t be able to make a single dent without one, and your opponents will win the game.

While at first this might seem like standard fare, upon closer examination, it seems as if this gameplay mechanic could be a very interesting double-edged sword. Why? Because you can destroy your enemy’s battleship. What does this mean? Not only will you have to take out your opponent’s battleship to protect your base, but you’ll also need to make sure that your team’s battleship is properly defended if you want to win the game.

This tug-of-war over resources and territory is not the only factor that determines the victors though. Adhesive is really trying hard to preserve the “mech” genre. The team believes:

… a mech game is more about the choices you make than your aiming and twitch skill. It’s about resource management and which weapons you use against the enemy at certain ranges and things like that. We tried to keep those elements in there to make it feel like a mech game. We have overheat, we have the fuel gauge that you really watch out for when you side-dash and things like that, and we’re going to keep adding more of that sort of thing to make it feel like a machine … so it’s not just a FPS dressed up to look like a mech game.

Adding:

… at least 50% of the battle plays out in the air. There’s a lot of people flying, swooping in, but there’s also a lot of walking because you can’t abuse it. Your fuel gauge has to be replenished before you can jump again [but] yeah, there’s definitely a lot of verticality to the gameplay.

So not only is there resource control, but resource management is also an important factor in how the game plays out.

For those that like to mix and match their mech parts, Adhesive Games has got your back. “The game is actually going to come out with much more customization than we had planned for”, said Le. I’m glad they changed their minds, because I love being able to customize my mecha. It makes the game so much more fun!

Hawken will feature light, medium, and heavy mech variants. From there you’ll be able to tweak them to your play-style, be that offensive or defensive, both prior to matches and during.

While Adhesive is still in the process of fleshing out the Hawken’s back story, it seems like they’re heading in a very exciting direction. They not only want to make a comic book based on Hawken’s setting and story, but they’re also considering having the IP turned into a film. I don’t believe there has been a good mech film since, well come to think of it, ever. Here’s to their success, because I for one want to see a movie about mechs!

Until then, I present you with the story thus far, showcased in Adhesive’s Story Teaser: