Recent reviews by Susan_Moonshadow

There are good things and there are bad. I'll start with the bad as most comments are simply "this isn't HAWKEN" without actually saying *what was wrong with it* and that isn't helpful. Reminder: this is not a PvP game. Most people seemed to love the original specifically for that, and can't get beyond that fact. This is a PvE game and designed as such.

Problems:
Mechs and Equipment have resource costs to construct, and upgrade. This in itself is fine, as they are always the same and guaranteed to get. It creates a stable sense of progression. In addition to this there is also modifications which are limited in number, and give boosts within a wide range. You can spend all your time farming the hefty costs to construct and upgrade your gear, but as soon as you start modifying you get terrible rolls and the entire thing is now comparably garbage. This in turn heavily emphasises use of their Cash Shop to avoid the resource costs, and only worry about the modifying. This is the major killing point of the game for me and will ultimately make me lose interest and let it die.

Remapping keys, there was no options for this when I played. I found the defaults (keyboard and mouse) to be quite comfortable, so it didn't affect me, but this will be an issue for others.

Menus, they decided to make the menus into an awkward HUD window, navigated only by arrow keys and q/e for the tabs. This technically keeps you fully combat capable while in them, but it's very awkward to actually use

And finally we have the balancing issues, primarily around survivability. When you are in the field there is no way to repair your hull, you can't just crouch down and let your little drone repair you. That is gone :( This means that you're now surviving mostly on your shielding capabilities. The starter (medium) mech has 2.5 seconds delay on regen and a reasonable rate. The tanky (heavy) mech has a 3.4 second delay, and effectively takes longer to reach max as the regen boost doesn't keep up with their slightly larger base capacity. That 0.9 seconds is deadly. For five hours in the starter mech I took a grand total of less than a quarter of my hull bar. Within half an hour of being in the heavy I was already forced under half hull. I didn't farm enough for the light mech, but with a 2.1 second delay I imagine that would be more survivable than the heavy as well.


Fun Things:
The movement in this game is extremely fluid, and there are ways of moving extremely fast. As a result the combat can be very high intensity bouts (the AI doesn't do it, but there are a couple different tiers of AI enemies, so this may develop into them at higher levels of gameplay later on in development)

There are a variety of weapons in the game already, and hopefully more to come. Each of these can be viable in most encounters, as the environments are fairly variable. There is no really flat open boring terrain. There are a variety of hills, cliffs, buildings, forests, caves and some developed city areas.

I know these two things alone don't say much, but they are the core parts of the game which is why I am recommending you at least try it. There is definitely potential with what they have IF they can deal with the other problems

I see buttons and I press them <3

10/10

A very relaxing and enjoyable experience (I have ADHD and hate driving IRL so this surprised me).

Let me start out by saying that the free demo gives you full access to the base game. If you're curious at all, try it. If you end up enjoying it you can buy the game and continue that same profile with zero progress lost.

There's so much I could say about this game but I'll limit it to this: Turn your suspension sliders, in the gameplay options, all the way to the left for maximum wobble. Turn signals do have an effect on the AI. Every street light has a red light camera that will automatically fine you. Cops are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Quick Jobs lets you try out every truck in the game - with only money loss being from fines you may get.

Just give it a try for a few hours. It does get a better once you have a few drivers under your wing, but overall if you feel it you feel it

A turn based tactical mech game that scratches so many urges for me.

It does not include every mech from the franchise but there are still 96 variants to choose from, each with their own strengths and drawbacks, so you'll be able to build a lance just how you like them.

Pilots are fully customizable, with the exception of their underlying bone structure, so you can make your friends and enemies work with you, or die repeatedly >:]

The only thing that confused me was how there are both "Campaign" and "Career". Campaign is the story mode which is enjoyable enough to play first, with some missions unique to it. Career plays out similarly to the Campaign, but removes story limitations from you in place of a score system. I ultimately just ignore the score and keep playing past the timer that it puts on it

Absolutely worth getting, including the Heavy Metal, Urban Warfare, and Flashpoint DLCs

6 great games for the price of 1.

Progression for unlocking customization is definitely skewed towards online PvP, with only Firefight counting for PvE. The campaigns, playlists, and spartan ops do NOT count towards progress which is a major negative for me.

The options for PvP allow you to jump in queue for all the games you have installed at once - with your custom selection of game modes you'd like to play. This constantly keeps things fresh and exciting.

With the updated graphics, the cross-game playlists do flow decently well into each other, without the jarring experience.

Amazing all around for a free game. Great graphics, responsive controls, and decent AI.
The downside of a free game is that about 1/3 of the ships are locked behind paid DLC, or incredibly long farming and crafting times. You do still have a large array of choices though so it's not that bad.

Quick and fairly balanced matchmaking for all game modes: Skirmishes (short matches vs AI), PvP, as well as PvE missions (mini-story scenarios).

Additionally there is an "open space" mode where you can go explore and gather resources, money and experience. Occasional timed tasks with bonus rewards appear to add some extra excitement.

Update: Tried playing recently but the PvE is plagued with people running scripts and just automated hacking. Really ruins the mood if you don't have a group of friends to play with

There is always something to do. New features and areas are made available to you at a great pace. Very good game for semi-mindless enjoyment. That being said there is also a lot of character stories, history and other lore to explore.

The one thing that I absolutely recommend you change in the settings is the Game Speed. Set this to the lowest possible. By default about 2 seconds irl is 3 minutes ingame. The whole day flies by way too fast and you will miss so many events and have a lot of difficulty using all your stamina.

I've been happy crying so much whenever I get to see and talk to my girlfriend and soon to be wife. Not going to spoil who but <333

A fun little adventure

Pros: Gunplay feels smooth and rewarding
There's a lot of content
Fairly smooth transitions between solo and group activities. Exceptions are the queues for strikes etc but there's enough people that it doesn't take long.

Cons: Floaty robot you're stuck with is a racist
The Red War campaign is written as if you're the *only* person, yet this game was entirely designed for multiplayer

*Received free on Battle.Net when they gave it away a couple Christmases ago

Definitely meant to be a multiplayer game, but just means a greater challenge for soloing ;)