Writer Fraser Brown delves into the world of mech-on-mech action in Hawken.
"The release date of December 12 is fast approaching, and Hawken certainly feels close to ready. While it’s an action shooter rather than a sim, every moment of it still makes you feel like you are stuck inside the cockpit of a powerful behemoth, and strategic thinking is still just as important as a fast trigger finger. It would be a tough call to decide where you want to spend your time commanding a mech, MechWarrior or Hawken, but with both titles being free-to-play and offering distinct experiences, why not try both?"
Expect the game to only work offline right now.
As we trend ever deeper into a world of games that require servers maintained by the developer or publisher, we see more and more games disappearing from the world. What happens when these games are shut down? What does it take for a game to survive beyond this point?
Most modern games that have online components like destiny rely so heavily on co op between players that even if you had a full disc version popping it in and playing won't be a fun experience as you can't play the actual game after hitting a wall with difficulty levels of they even boot
But classic titles like vice city will still be the same in 2049 as they were in 2001 provided you play on a disc not stripped down digital versions that have the soundtrack cut out ten years later
Hawken, the free to play mech shooter has had its servers closed on Steam, but it will remain live on consoles.
This is exactly why only online multiplayer games won't last very long. It's important to have a single player campaign (a good one, not a throw-away trash story) or some kind of offline multiplayer mode.