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Back story starter
When I first played Hawken, I had already been well established in MWO, so I did the rational thing of take a glance, see something I don't like, play a few alright games, and pass it off as inferior. Recently, however, while looking for MWO's Pax East announcements, I stumbled upon Hawken's Pax East video found here:
The first 6 minutes are kind of bland, just talking about mech specializations and new mechs coming out. However, at 6:__ they make a very interesting announcement: a healing mech similar to the medic from TF2. After hearing this and watch the rest of the video (I lost interest again towards the end as they start to talk about graphics, which my PC can't handle that well), I decided I would play a bit of Hawken and compare the two on some points.
I readily acknowledge that they are not the same game, but they are competitors and knowledge is a very useful asset for PGI, who can learn from Hawken, and the consumer, who will be spending money on one or the other.
Facts about Hawken, since most people I know just say Hawken is a twich shooter and pass it off. I will also state that I don'tk now the ends and outs of Hawken nearly as well as I do MWO which is evident from later parts in the post, but for first impressions (The important part to know for F2P games since that is what will get people to spend money)
Business Model
All Mechs in Hawken are five dollars. Additionally, mech customizations run anywhere from $1.50 to $2.50. Cosmetics range from $1.00 to $2.50. Colors are all free, but only very small parts of the mech can be painted. Camos do cost and allow more effective use of the colors and cost about the same as other cosmetic items.
Customization
The Customization in Hawken is dramatically more limited. Each mech has three primary weapons to choose from.. Mechs also have offensive and support items such as mines, turrets, heal charges, and deploy-able shields. Lastly, mechs have passive buffs that all feature some sort of buff as well as a downside, such as increased bullet damage but less armor, more armor but slower movement, etc. (It's important to note here that this is the thing that originally turned me away as I saw it as P2W and a throw back to CoD 4. This is, however, not the case because mechs are harder to kill and the extra damage is miniscule in comparison. Also, all mechs start out with +5% armor).
Gameplay
Matches are 15 minutes in length and feature re-spawning mechs. Mechs die faster than in MWO, but not nearly as fast as other popular twitch shooters like Call of Duty. Their are no head shots or a complex hit system like MWO; a mech has a health bar and when it is depleted, the mech dies. Mechs can also heal in the game using a repair bot that every mech has. Little passive buffs can boost this rate (often increasing start time as a trade off), but ultimately, every mech can find a corner to hide in and heal quickly to return to battle. Mechs move at different speeds, but their aren't mechs that move at egregiously different speeds. All mechs can also dash in all directions to avoid damage and all mechs have jump jets that allow hovering without much escalation outside of an initial burst.
Matchmaking
While I don't fully understand the matchmaking system, it does group players based on skill and features a lobby system, which is currently broken since it unbalances games if players of different skill levels join after the initial creation, this is an issue they are addressing. The key thing here is the lobby system.
Starting equipment
Everyone in Hawken starts out with a basic medium mech that comes with a basic item for every part except Offensive Items. The starter mech, called Fred, may not be the best at any one thing but it is easy to pilot and is easily able to avoid other mechs it can't fight, the assaults, while pounding on the ones it can, the lights.
Gamemodes
Hawken currently features two game modes, Team Deathmatch and Siege. I haven’t had any experience with Siege because Hawken requires new players to play in TDM to get a feel for the game first. I will edit this post with more information on Siege when I acquire it.
End of Facts. Start of opinion/ What PGI Could learn from Hawken.
Hawken's base game is currently much better than MWO. The development team knows their audience. They have created a forgiving game at an affordable price to reach their target audience. Their prices are actually micro-transactions that are more likely to appeal to their target audience of teenagers and people in their early 20s. MWO, on the other hand, is priced for older adults who are fans of the game. The issue is that they are trying to make the game appeal to the younger audience, but they aren't adjusting the prices for said audience. Additionally, they aren’t' fast enough to keep up with the high demands of the younger audience who often tend to lack the patience of older players. For a long time, PGI has been talking about how their meta-game will drive MWO home, but the problem with that is that the base-game simply isn't good enough right now. The only reason I will state here is the fact of how easy it is to kill mechs do to PGI's balancing (Caused by obnoxiously high burst damage balanced by long cool down times among other weaknesses. The problem with this is that the single high burst damage is often enough to cripple mechs for the rest of the game.) Another big note is the starting equipment. Trial mechs are just garbage and that will turn away a lot of new players. It is something that definitely needs to be addressed quickly and, at the very least, before Full release. A rebalance of mech rolls is also needed as well and possibly further limitations to the customization system so mechs play their rolls.
What now?
Well, I'm going to play other games. The point of this post was to, hopefully, give Pgi a bit of perspective on where to lead the game while they are developing it. I'm still going to track MWO's progress and play the hell out of Double XP weekends with a small MC stipend every now and then, but I guess I just lack the patience mentioned earlier and hopefully things'll get better. MWO does have a lot of potential but they seriously need to focus on the base-game more than they are. Additionally, lowering prices to be more competitive will be a necessity if they plan on changing their target audience while still keeping the older audience, who they have to keep to stay profitable. (They wont be able to tap fully in to their new-target audience because of competitors like Hawken, but having the older market will help them do better) Not ignoring the forums, filled with the “minority” die-hard supporters of the game, would be a good start.
In closing, this isn't a post to bash PGI or encourage people to go play Hawken. It is a post to hopefully inform PGI of some issues that need to be addressed before Full Release and give PGI some insight on the appeal of their competitor.
Edited by Steemship, 30 March 2013 - 08:23 AM.
