If you quote this, please snip it or only quote the parts you are replying to
Imagine, for a second, that I'm not a forum-goer, and that I'm a casual average Hawken player. I'm uninformed, I'm here because of one of my buddies, and I've got a 20 sitting in my wallet. As an uninformed average gamer, I'm far from impressed.
tl;dr at the bottom.
It's a big claim, but I hope you'll read my post and not throw a kneejerk "well gtfo noob" or whatever standard fare forum hate spew.
I should also go ahead and clarify what I mean when I say that the game won't last until the summer. What I mean is that the majority of the audience here will have moved on to some other game. There will be a small group of paying players and players that want to try the game, but for the most part a good 75%+ of the people playing now will be elsewhere. Revenues will be... low, but that doesn't really matter with a freemium like Hawken.
Content
So far, Hawken has an abysmally small amount of content. You have 9 mechs split into 3 classes. You've got a handful of primary weapons and a handful of internal parts, all of which are the same across all mechs. The optimization tree is arguably useless, with bonuses being handed out in the thirds of percents. There are 4 maps and 4 game types. There is no ranked matchmaking (which is likely a requirement for a competitive FPS) and no auto-balancing. You can customize your mech to look nice, for a fee. These parts are only for one mech, even if it's something as trivial as paint. For me to have all of my mechs look "unique", I have to spend large amounts of money. If I don't, I look like a gray box with legs and a gun. Since parts don't affect gameplay, casual players won't spend any money. It's not like you ever see your mech outside of the garage or when repairing anyways.
Let's look back at a game from the early 2000s, Phantom Crash on the XBOX.
http://youtu.be/JwNApZMTKj8
Edit: stupid video won't stay embedded...
You can see the customization at 7:00, and some combat at 10:00 (the pilot isn't very good, but it highlights some similarities). It's a fast-paced arcade mech shooter. It uses a non-standard first-person mech display (no HUD text, but a HUD modeled after the machine) and a similar boost mechanic to Hawken. While Phantom Crash is more focused on running mechs, you still have thrusters to do quick dodges. Phantom Crash has 3 mech types (and 2-3 hidden ones) from different manufacturers. However, Phantom Crash has a slew of parts that can be placed on your mech, and all non-insert parts can be customized for weight vs damage/armor. Phantom Crash's customization has depth, whereas Hawken is boring and class-locked.
Blacklight: Retribution released into Open Beta or something like that a little while ago. It's got a fuckton of customization, more than I'd care to list. It's also another Freemium and from what I can tell still has a little following. It has content, it has maps. I can actually personalize my soldier. There are no class restrictions. I can use a sniper rifle and a shotgun or I can use an SMG and a hammer, and it still manages to balance out nicely. While I'm not actively playing Blacklight now, I do have interest in playing in bursts every once in a while.
Topic Dropped
Phantom Crash looks fine for when it was released, but mainly it has color. At 10:00 in the video, you can see the pilot's paint is a strange mismatching, but it's colorful. It has character. Blacklight: Retribution is colorful and interesting beyond gray and brown, but where it stands out is the quantity of color options for things.
Story
There is none. There might be some in previous works or on a Wiki somewhere, but there is no story to be gleaned from the game itself. You're in a city and you have to blow up the enemy base. Why? Because.
Endgame
So you've unlocked all of your mechs, what now? Absolutely nothing. There is ZERO endgame content. If there was a deep customization system or clan/group content or a story, people might stick around a little longer. Problem is, Hawken has none of those things and only one is likely to be added.
Money
And this one's the most important. Freemium games like Hawken come and go. They hype up, bring in an eager following, and then cash in during their endless "Open Beta" where they still take payments for an unfinished product. In 6 months, the game will still be in beta, but the popularity will have declined to a small cult following and some new players that get grabbed from the internet.
So, they'll make more content. Sure they will. That's a given. However, as with just about every other game to date thats gone "Open Beta" and taken payment, nothing major will change about the game. Too much time has been put into it to get it where it is, and there's now way in hell management will let them make major changes like a meaningful customization system.
Hawken will die a quiet death some 6 or so months from now, and there's little anyone can do about it. Which is sad. I quite like Hawken, but there's nowhere near enough content to keep me hooked for any more than another week. I fly back home over break on Thursday and I'll be gone from Hawken for 3 weeks. I'll come back to check in, but by then DayZ will have hopefully gone into standalone. MWO looks interesting. I'm not particularly a fan of slow-paced mechs, but there's enough stuff to collect to keep my squirrel brain interested for a while. I might have to go try it.
There's not enough to Hawken to make me want to stay.
tl;dr
Hawken will last another 6 months or so before dying quietly. The only people left will be a small cult audience that pays money for things. There isn't enough content, there aren't going to be any large changes to the game outside of map/mech/cosmetic releases. Hawken doesn't have the depth to be successful enough for a sequel.
Edited by Publik, December 19 2012 - 03:51 PM.

 

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