News: Hawken is coming to PS4, Sadly still Freemium
Posted on : 13-06-2016 | By : Cacophanus | In : News, Videos
Hardware: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
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Along with Hawken coming to Xbox One, the game will also be released on PS4. The latest trailer (shown below) also clarifies that the game will also remain free-to-play on consoles. Considering that whole monetization setup killed Hawken on PC, I had hoped they would have gone back to the game’s origins and do something more standalone. I still think the fact that Hawken wasn’t released as a straightforward downloadable arcade game on the 360 is one of the biggest missed opportunities of the last console generation.
The game is now being handled by Reloaded Games and 505 Games. Thus far, they seem to be doing a better job than Meteor Entertainment did, as they pretty much killed the community through overt greed and incompetence. I feel sad for the old team at Adhesive Games though, as seeing their work resurrected like this must be difficult.
That said, Hawken is finally getting a wider release. Let’s hope that this time the game survives a bit better and finds the audience on console it so badly needs.
I didn’t stop playing because of the monetization. I stopped playing because the technician threw off the pacing of the game, and the later TTK reductions made the traditional pause/repair mechanics a death sentence.
I don’t think the monetization scheme did much in the long haul in the face of some shoddy balance work. I was super happy with the game before they tried to be TF2.
That’s exactly why I started to play less, then eventually stopped too. I remember from the OG Hawken forums that a lot of serious players were upset with that decision as well and many quit. After that it was bad choice after bad choice that saw the game become the grave yard it is today. I will agree with Cacophanus in that the game should have just had a proper retail release on 360, it would have been a classic that people would still play now, before they made all those daft changes. Its timing to appear on PS4 is also way off, since the PS4 is starting to build up a good game collection, this should have been on there from the get go, PS4 owners will have many other things to play now. Real sad how Hawken ended up, the first 6-12 months of it was awesome, I played it so much, so many great matches.
Like the other commenters it wasn’t the monetization that killed my interest in the game. Personally I just found it a game that was very 50/50 on the “fun” factor. Skilled pilots who knew how to time their dashes and aim the more powerful weapons just were completely dominant. Also, the C mechs special move just never really seemed to be worthwhile, just made you a huge target. So overall I just found matches to be frustrating as either I did really well, or I just got totally stomped.
I mean, in an pvp game there will be top tier players and lower tier players, it’s just that in some games there are mitigating factors. In games like Titanfall and Battleborn there are bots for you to kill and it’s not all about shooting and killing other players.
I was also upset that Hawken was all multiplayer only and was excited when they threw in the co-op vs AI mode. Sadly, at least when I tried it, it was entirely too difficult and also wasn’t very fun because of that. I remember I never got too far in that mode, like wave 15 or something like that? I really can’t remember, it was too long ago, point is; I just didn’t find it very enjoyable as I found it overly difficult.
I’ve downloaded it for my PS4 and will give it a shot though, see what changes have been made and if it is a more fun game now.