Yes, I'm Late To The Hawken Party, But I'm Here.

Well, like everything else, I usually stumble onto something late, long after everyone's raved about it and moved on.



Latest case in point is the video game Hawken, being developed by Adhesive Games.

It's a mech first-person-shooter. It looks like you need to have an I.V. drip of Mountain Dew to play it. I'm an old man compared to most gamers (36), so I like to see the action, not just blurs and 'splosions.

The concept seems a little preachy: a human colony runs out of resources due to excessive industrialization, and "the hunt for resources has become the battle for survival," to paraphrase the story trailer.



The mechs look appealing, in a Maschinen Krieger sort of way. Very dieselpunk, very "junky future." I like. The designer, Khang Le, says that M.K. was a very heavy influence on the designs of the mechs and environments. You can read more here at this Kotaku article.

They also seem to be on the smaller side, HAMR-suit or slightly larger. They all have jump jets, and I see no hands on any of them. If Hawken inspires a new trend in mecha models...well, we'll see.

Anyway, the concept seems right up my alley, my first mech game ever being FASA's CityTech. I love urban brawls. Hopefully the customization menus in the game have an "Old Fogey" speed setting. Either that, or I have to start looking around for I.V. stands on ebay.

Best,
JBR