Hawken Hits Consoles in Early July, Heavier Emphasis on Lore

When it originally launched on PC back in 2012, the free-to-play multiplayer mech shooter Hawken had a few problems. As Reloaded Games prepares to launch the game on consoles however, the team is taking the opportunity to make some changes. Speaking about some of these changes, the developer announced console players can get their hands on Hawken starting July 1 on Xbox One and July 8 on PS4.

The Story of Hawken revolves around the planet Illal, where three corporations (Prosk, Crion, and Sentium) compete over the staggering amount of natural resources. When a new mineral called cavorite is discovered, that competition becomes hostile. Soon, attempts to synthetically replicate cavorite go horribly wrong and a planet-destroying virus, the Hawken Virus, is unleashed.

While making the planet almost unlivable, the virus has the added byproduct of creating an untapped new energy source called Vitrolium. With the planet quarantined, the three corporations launch into full-blown warfare competing for the resources.

“When I first started on the Hawken project a little over a year ago, I wasn’t aware of this depth,” Producer Josh Clausen explains on the PlayStation Blog, “and it’s been satisfying to see that so much thought and effort went into the mythology behind the game.”

Noted in the trailer above, very little of that translates through the actual game and wasn’t “super clear.” Going forward however, Reloaded Games has taken what it calls the “first steps” to really integrating that narrative and promises this is only a foundation the team hopes to build from.

Changes such as a heavier interest in lore, new and more specialized mechs planned for the future, and even large updates to the game’s UI are just a handful of the revisions coming to Hawken.

Though the July 8 release date is currently only confirmed for the PS4, the game is coming to Xbox One as well. Already up on the Xbox Marketplace for pre-load, the release date is listed for July 1.

More News:

• No Man’s Sky’s Soundtrack is Going On Tour This Fall, Even Though No One Has Even Played the Game Yet
• Resident Evil 7 Devs Were Worried They’d Pushed the Horror Too Far in VR
• Watch Dogs 2 Can Be Beaten Without Killing a Single Enemy
• Mass Effect Is Getting Books to Bridge Andromeda With the Original Trilogy