Starhawk (Warhawk 2)

The game is set in a lawless frontier somewhere in space. Human colonies are spread to the farthest reaches of this frontier, colonies that have spread to every planet in the system. In a similar manner to what took place in the 1800′s in the western U.S., the story takes place during a time known as “The Rush.” Instead of Gold however, these men are in search of Rift Energy, a valuable form of energy that can be harnessed and used in many interesting ways. Unfortunately for the “Rifters” (men who mine and extract this valuable commodity,) exposure to Rift Energy is incredibly dangerous. If it’s even touched, they begin to mutate, eventually killing almost everyone that’s been exposed. But some are strong enough to resist death. These “Outcasts” that survive leave everything behind and go into hiding, as they are still somewhat mutated and not welcome by the humans. This establishes the core conflict in Starhawk. While the Rifters are still attempting to mine the Rift Energy wherever they can, the Outcasts are hell-bent on protecting and worshipping the rifts from everyone. The Outcasts have essentially become a brutal race, developing tribes all across the frontier, and all making sure that nobody gets near the Rifts.

This Rift Energy, not only being the catalyst for the core conflict and what is used for “currency” in the game, it also fuels the hero of the campaign, Emmett Graves. Unlike others who were exposed to Rift Energy, not only did it not kill him, he didn’t even fully mutate. He carries Rift Energy within every cell in his body, but with the help of his friend and “Tech Guy” Sydney Cutter, he survives although in excruciating pain at all times. Sydney, after some experimentation, figured out a way to regulate Emmett’s condition by implanting a regulator directly into his spine. Unfortunately for Emmett, the uniqueness of his condition alienates him from both factions, as he’s still, in the Humans eyes, an Outcast, but the Outcasts want nothing to do with him. So Emmett and Sydney are Rift Salvagers, helping small Rifter outposts defend against Outcast attacks and getting a share of the profits, in other words, they’re hired guns. As you may have figured out by now, Starhawk has a definite Western theme. Rey said almost immediately that it seemed to have been inspired by Firefly, where I thought it was a tad similar to what we’ve seen of Rage so far.

The core game mechanics are aimed squarely at breaking the mold of first and third person campaigns, where you go from Point A, to Point B, to Point C, all while making every twist and turn that the developers wanted you to make. In Starhawk’s campaign, there are no predetermined routes, there are no predetermined enemy positions, and the enemy AI is smart enough to actually co-mingle and work together. The even bigger feature though, is the fact that you, the player, will actually create the layout of the game-space, on-the-fly, while the game is in-progress. They’re calling this mechanic “Build and Battle.” Think of a 3rd-person shooter, set in a huge section of a Warhawk map. Then imagine an RTS element of being able to place weapons and objects wherever you like, all by holding Triangle to choose an object, then laying it down on the ground using a wireframe model of hat object for reference. So, in our demo, Emmett is up on a ridge, you start running down into a valley and are quickly spotted. I take the first couple of enemies out with y machine gun, then I grab my sniper rifle with the d-pad (yup, weapons are still tied to the d-pad) and start plucking guys off in the distance.

At that point, Sydney appears in a small window on the screen to let you know that you need to get a transmission working, but that the dish isn’t functional. He tells you that enemies will be landing in certain spots on the map and that you’d better figure something out to hold them off. Their aim is to stop you from transmitting your position, which is also where a huge cache of Rift Energy has been found. Just like that, enemies start shooting-in from the sky in small transport pods. As you fight your way through, a quick press of the Triangle button allows you to choose a locater beacon, which brings three allies in to help you fight. They’ll keep spawning-in to a max number of three as long as the beacon isn’t destroyed. Then, another wave shoots-in on the other end of the map, so I run over, hit Triangle, and build some walls to slow them down. The build portion, once you figure the controls out, is quite intuitive, and it all happens in realtime. Other items in the demo included automatic turrets, a weapons bunker, and oh yeah, Hawk launch pads. The thing that they’re obviously shooting for here though, is the fact that you can play any mission a bunch of different ways, and the game will recognize and reward this kind of play.

So, one change made to the Hawks in Starhawk is that they removed the hover mode. Now, before you zealots freak-out, they replaced it with something a bit more balanced…

The Hawk can now TRANSFORM INTO A MECH!!! While not able to hover any more, the Mech is pretty powerful in its own right. Where the balance comes in is that it has to be on the ground. Also, it’s pretty slow, so it’s a great target for those adept at the rocket launcher. The Hawk itself, like the rest of the gameplay, absolutely feels like Warhawk, with a few adjustments and enhancements (all for the best so far.)

So, here’s the biggest change in the multiplayer, your team doesn’t start with any vehicles, and limited weapons. There are no more weapon pickups strewn across the map (except for what’s dropped by fallen friends and enemies.) Instead, you start with a certain amount of Rift Energy, shared completely by your team. You use this energy as currency to build everything that you need. So if you’re on a team of randoms that all decide to build 5 4×4 garages, you’ll run out of currency VERY quickly. This one will require the players to definitely play as a team when it comes to resource management, because if you can’t be effective with what you’re building, you’ve already lost the match.

In the map that we played (we got to play 3 rounds,) items that became available included:
- 4×4 Garages
- Weapons Bunkers
- Walls/Gates, which can be upgraded with turrets
- Automated Turrets
- Anti-Air Beam Weapons
- Warhawk Launch Pads

With the garages and launch pads, only one vehicle appears at a time. After that, you merely have to hit a control panel to build another, for a price (war ain’t free!) One of the coolest things that I figured out was the fact, at least in the CTF mode that we were playing, there were no more territories to capture. You do have a designated area for respawns etc, basically considered “your base,” but this doesn’t mean that you can’t build these things anywhere else on the map (although the costs is a bit higher.) So, as in a typical Warhawk map, it’s basically a mirror-image on each side, so I decided to build a weapons bunker right on the hill that’s directly in the center of the map. The good news is that these structures can be DESTROYED! It’s takes quite a bit, but it can be done even with a handheld rocket launcher.

That same great gameplay from Warhawk still exists, from squadrons of Hawks flying in for bombing strikes, to full jeeps rolling-in to capture the flag from a road behind the base, to taking a Hawk down with a few shots from the handheld rocket launcher, the game feels like would be expected. A couple of tweaks have been added, especially when locking-on to an enemy with your weapons, Now, instead of holding the button down to lock-on, it happens automatically when the enemy is in-sight and is being aimed at. The perspective, especially when on-foot takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, man oh man is it sweet.

Another change is how you spawn-in after dying. Instead of just dying, you now choose a spawn-point in your safe area on the map, and are dropped-in via a rocket-powered pod. Now here’s the cool part, when choosing your spawn-point, you can actually see where teammates are choosing as well, allowing you to coordinate with them if a certain spot is being overrun. Also, if a jeep has happened-in to your base, you can choose that spot to drop-in on. Then, when you’re hurtling-in, you’ll see a bright spot on the ground, which is where you’re going to land. Try to move that spot over the enemy jeep that’s in your base,, and if you succeed, you’ll perform the most powerful kill in the game (yeah, it’ll even take a mech out.) Even more fun, but effective is dropping a bunker on an enemy that’s in your base and trying to hide. In the last round, I had 4 enemies trying to kill me while I hid behind a rock, that is until I saw a shadow of a bunker all around me. I ran as fast as I could (you actually have to hold R2 to run now) but I just wasn’t fast enough to outrun gravity.

The visuals so far (this was a pre-alpha build) look great. It looks like Warhawk still, but with everything amped-up. Textures are cleaner and higher-res, colors are deeper, lighting is even more dynamic, and explosions are much fuller and more dramatic. Even in this early stage, the game looks great! Also, 3D isn’t being shoehorned into Starhawk, and at least from my perspective, I’m happy about that.

A few other items that were discussed but not shown, the online features are definitely going to be the deepest we’ve ever seen on a PS3 game:

- Full Clan support (not just a tag)
- In-game calendar
- Cross-Server Clan Voice Chat
- A Fully Automated and Integrated Tournament System (we heard him say “cell phone,” but we’re not sure if it was something in-game or not)

Obviously, this is the tip of the iceberg. We’ll be getting a lot more information as the months go by. We definitely expect to see more at E3, and so far the plan is to have multiplayer on the show floor. Stay-tuned to PS Nation for even more coverage in the future, and make sure that you grab Episode 215 for our full discussion of the event.

Starhawk is tentatively scheduled for a Q1 2012 release, exclusively on the PlayStation 3.