It’s been five years since Hawken turned off the lights and shut down, the well-loved mech combat game leaving a hole in the hearts of under-served stompy bot fans everywhere. From tomorrow, they’re getting a little of it back.
Hawken Reborn is a new free-to-play PvE version of the beloved (and now dearly departed) mech combat game. While the original Hawken focused on intense PvP multiplayer, Hawken Reborn is taking a different approach — at least to start with.
When Hawken Reborn goes into early access tomorrow, Wednesday, May 16th, it will launch with a brand new single-player PvE-only mode. According to an interview with PC Gamer, multiplayer PvE is on the To Do list for developer 505 Games.
“By going PvE, it lowers the barrier to entry a little bit with people who might see a PvP game and get discouraged, just because they think they don’t have the skill set needed to come in,” senior producer Brian Decker told PC Gamer. Decker says that 505 is “focusing on the PvE, the narrative, the world,” for the time being.
When it drops tomorrow, Hawken Reborn will feature nine weapons, six missions, and five mechs, and a Patrol Mode for freeplay that unlocks after you complete a set amount of missions, with more of everything on the way.
Part of Hawken‘s appeal was the way it let players spec their mechs for specific combat situations. If you needed agility or overwhelming firepower, you could create a mech loadout that would give you the traits you needed. The thing to know is that, even in Hawken Reborn, no-one is taking it easy on you. PC Gamer’s yarn reports being shredded by the computer in PvE, so a certain amount of tactical play is required.
Finally, let’s talk about monetisation. Hawken Reborn will feature monetisation (because everything does now, if it wants to survive), but won’t feature any paid loot boxes. Players can either gather materials from matches played to craft new mechs, weapons or enhancements — or pony up real money to have them right away. “”The foundational philosophy” guiding monetisation in Hawken Reborn “was based on the premise of anything that a player can purchase using real money they must be able to play towards.” That sounds great on paper, but there is a worry that this could lead to a pay-to-win problem down the line. Whether the same philosophy will apply to cosmetics, at this stage, also remains to be seen.
Hawken Reborn is not the first time Hawken has gone free-to-play, or had questions to answer about monetisation. When the original game first launched in early access, there were concerns about the cost involved in getting set up. Feels oddly like a little bit of history repeating.
You can see how it goes for yourself when Hawken Reborn launches on Steam, for free, tomorrow.
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