HAWKED Early Access review
Imagine. You are Indiana Jones and want to loot the treasures on an island. But be careful! You are not the only one who wants to do this. Other bandits have the same goal and come to the island at the same time as you. Of course, you have to reach the treasure before them, but your opponents are not the only problem. The locals of the island are also waiting to protect their treasure. But none of them are cute creatures like Charmander from Pokémon. They are all bloodthirsty, armed creatures.
HAWKED Early Access review
As in many productions, we start by choosing our character in HAWKED. Although there are many different characters, these are basically just cosmetic differences and there is no difference between them. However, players can also make many customizations such as hair style, color or clothing if they want. Although it does not affect the game, it can be your excitement to play.
After choosing our character, we need to go to Sürgünada , where our story will take place , but there is one more step before that: Fevriâlem . We join the game here before Sürgünada. Actually, it is more like a waiting area before entering the match. Here you can shop if you want, and you can set up your team. I should mention right away that you need to be friends on Steam in order to enter the matches as a team. After giving the start command in Fevriâlem, we start the match after a short wait.
HAWKED Early Access review
As we said, “we are looters”, “bandits”, and it is imperative that we remain true to the essence of this. We need to take down anyone who comes our way and take what they have. When we arrive on the island, we have a slingshot and a sword in our hands. We develop ourselves with these lizards (called Racists) that we encounter while running towards other looters and the weapons and power-ups we obtain from the chests they protect. In this way, we will be more prepared when we encounter our opponents.
Our only weapon to defeat our opponents is not our gun or rifle. You can also use the traps around you. For example, there are rotating barrels with blades. If you shoot the red dot on top of it, it spins quickly and starts to harm those around it. At the beginning of the game, I thought it was a puzzle, fired it, and then died in a short time after receiving a large wound. Although details like these get on your nerves, they are actually fun. Especially if you start using them against your opponents.
HAWKED Early Access review
You can also use artifacts from a lost civilization that we collected on the island. These artifacts give passive bonuses such as the ability to turn into bushes when you crouch or gaining a sixth sense for nearby enemies. There are currently 18 types of artifacts in the game. You can combine three artifacts at a time. And what’s even more interesting is that all artifacts are of various rarity levels or can be upgraded to these levels. You can customize your character as you wish by using these artifacts with 16 types of equipment such as boomerangs, deployable shields, and watch hawks. You can even sell or dismantle equipment and artifacts that you don’t like or don’t plan to use in the game’s social area Fevriâlem. This also provides you with valuable resources to develop your character.
Some chests contain guns, while others contain more powerful weapons like rifles. Since we played the game in groups of three, I often heard my friends who opened chests complaining, “Oh my God, this one contains a gun too.” However, since there were plenty of chests around, we went to another one and tried our luck again. Sooner or later, you get a stronger weapon. There is a very important point to note here, which is the fact that we are racing against time. Because the opposing team does not sit idle while you are looking for weapons. If they are lucky, they may reach the treasures before you. Therefore, after a while, it seemed most logical to take the first one we found without worrying too much about weapons, continue on your way and try our luck in the chests we come across on the road.
HAWKED Early Access review
By the way, the Exile where the story takes place changes every time you enter. Sometimes the treasures can be close to you and sometimes you are far away. For this reason, you have to encounter different parts of the island in each match. My favorite parts were the ones with lots of rivers. Because we could get on our surfboard that goes fast on the water and reach the opponent area faster, and if we got stuck, we could jump on our board and get away from the area quickly. Components like these add fun to the game.
I think we’ve covered the general mechanics of HAWKED enough. It’s worth talking about its dynamics. Matches last about 15 minutes. This can be a little shorter depending on the ability or inability of you and your team. If you die during a match, a teammate can revive you. However, since we couldn’t figure this out at the beginning of the test, we had some very short matches. I won’t lie, young players are more agile in these types of games due to their reflexes and familiarity with the controls. In the first 1-2 games, I was a little afraid that my teammates would kick me out of the game.
HAWKED Early Access review
There are many details to write about HAWKED. In fact, I forgot to write about one. Let me briefly mention it. As you progress, you will encounter puzzles. For example, you need to shoot the fruits of a tree and find the treasure it hides. These are not puzzles that must be solved. However, since they can give us historical artifacts, we should not miss them. They are not very difficult anyway.
The encounters that took place in a graphically colorful environment made us feel like we were entering Marvel’s Thor world to some extent. Bright explosions, colorful bullet trails, offer a visual show for those who prefer bright colors. Depending on the equipment we get, you can also get different experiences. The green plains of Sürgünada, colorful flowers, and the environment full of ancient ruins, despite all these details, did not cause any technical problems (even for a game that has not yet entered the early access phase).
HAWKED Early Access review