Starhawk Beta review

Starhawk takes a new slant on the third person shooter genre by introducing real time strategy to the game. Fans of the original Warhawk for the Playstation 3 will be familiar with the adrenaline fuelled gameplay, however the RTS element takes the game to a whole new, albeit slower level. Using the “Build and Battle” system players earn Rift Energy by waiting in home bases, shooting special barrels and killing enemies. This energy is then spent building structures that supply weapons, spawn vehicles and provide additional spawn points. Think Command and Conquer – but on the ground.

Aerial combat Warhawks have been swapped with plain Hawks and these bear more than a passing resemblance to the cast of Transformers as they twist and turn from a Mech style giant robot into slick flying vehicle before blasting off into the sky. Although flight controls play identically to the original game the Hawk itself is now unable to hover and doesn’t stand up to the same battering as its predecessor. Hopefully this is something developers will fix as the Hawk factories and Hawks themselves are costly to build. It’s a long wait during the level before you get your hands on one only to be taken down by a couple of hits from a rifle. Damage meters have also vanished from vehicles leaving you to guess just how high the flames will reach before you explode.

Graphically it’s a huge step forward from the original in both detail and animations. Structures such as supply bunkers, sniper towers and laser turrets hurtle from obit in giant shipping containers and cleverly unfold like origami before your very eyes. A steampunk fad flows throughout the game with characters dressed up in cowboy gear lending a nod to the TV show FireFly. If you’re not a fan of cowboy music then hopefully custom playlists will make a return, however with music off the sound design is particularly impressive especially during building and Hawk transformations.

Damage can be dished out in many imaginative ways with trophies to match. Stomping on someone with a Hawk, dropping a building on the enemies head or smashing a vehicle by spawning a drop-pod onto it are just some of the possibilities. A low-ammo capture the flag session disaster was narrowly avoided by squishing the enemy flag carrier with an automatic gun turret as it fell from the heavens – the match was decided as the turret took down the remaining enemies intent on picking up the flag; cool indeed.

Starhawk lacks the initial bursts of action found in Warhawk, instead relying on players to wait around in their respective bases saving up energy before being able to afford weapon and vehicle supplies. From the demo it typically took around 5 minutes of collecting energy before the pace picked up to a suitable level, after 10 minutes the gameplay was over. Playing the rollercoaster predecessor Warhawk immediately afterwards highlighted just how slow and frustrating this game felt by comparison.

Longer games are available when hosting your own multiplayer game and these feel much more enjoyable until the game suddenly hits a limit of 32 buildings per team. This leads to confusing behaviour when teammates deliberately trash your hard-earned buildings just because they have their own ideas on town planning. If this is a technical restriction to prevent the PS3 from overheating then fine, but if the 32 building cap was a rule to encourage strategy then it needs to increase before frustration amongst fellow teammates kicks in.

This time round Starhawk features a single player mode featuring half man – half glowstick Emmett Graves and looks to be a glorified tower defence game as you fend off wave after wave of Outcast. The game is also due to sport one to four players in co-operative Hoarde Mode, but multiplayer is predictably where the most mileage on the game will come from. Teams working cooperatively using voice chat stand a much better chance of success than a rabble of individuals building duplicate resources as they take one step closer to hitting that annoying 32 unit cap.

Although only 2 maps were available in the Beta each round felt totally different due to fresh layout strategies of buildings. It is possible to play the same multiplayer map for months on end without ever seeing the same layout twice due to the variety of ideas and strategies from other players, and that is where the Starhawk’s biggest strength sits.

Visually the game felt polished during the closed beta however things like hovering, pacing and building limitations need to be fixed before that rumoured Starhawk release date of the May 8, 2012. If the developers Lightbox need to take a few more months to tweak the game then it’ll be worth it, Sony have a winner on their hands.

Get Starhawk now
New: Buy Starhawk from Amazon.com

Related: Starhawk release date, Starhawk