Hawken, the upcoming free to play bashy robot arena game from Adhesive games, is looking rather excellent, blending the agility of Eastern mechs with the heavy stompyness of Western, finally showing the two cultures that giant robots can be for everyone. And in our interview with them, Khang Le, the game’s Creative Director, detailed one of the areas for expansion in the game: PvE.
Citing Lost Planet as a big influence, there’s already a lite version of PvE in the game already, in the form of a tutorial where “you’re shooting endless waves of stupid robots, just to get players familiar with the weapons.” That’s all that’s in there right now, but it’s something that will grow in the future. “We really want to expand once we have more time and budget and everything, to expand the PvE aspect of the game. I really love Lost Planet, you know, a bunch of players fighting together to destroy a giant beast. We’re really pushing for that because I think PvE is a lot of fun.”
It would also set the game apart from a lot of Free to Play games that are currently out there, all of which have a heavy competitive multiplayer focus.
As for the rest of the game, Tim grilled Khang relentlessly about quite how they’ve gone from a tiny team with a stunning looking mech game into one of the most anticipated PC games of the year, including how they’re going to monetise it, the relation with Mitch Lasky, a major investor in Riot Games of League of Legends fame, and how you might one day have a bobble head in the cockpit of your giant robot suit.
As for the game itself, it’s pegged for a 12/12/12 release date. Or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. Palindrome dates are the best.