Starhawk Review
Developer Light Box
Publisher Sony
Platform PS3 Exclusive
Release Date Out Now
Starhawk is more of a spiritual successor than a direct sequel to one of the earliest PS3 multiplayer titles Warhawk. Warhawk was for many the first introduction to large scale multiplayer battles with huge maps incorporating a diverse range of vehicles. At the time it was very entertaining but dated quite quickly and as the market evolved the game got left behind but not forgotten.
So when the name Starhawk first appeared it raised quite a bit of interest and deservedly so, what used to be a standard multiplayer experience has now evolved to a game that is a hybrid of third person shooter and a RTS/Tower Defence strategy game.
The game comes with a story mode to get you ready to all the new features, many had written it off as little more than a tutorial but I found it pretty enjoyable. Sure it does a good job of introducing you to the new features, the new Hawks, the building mechanism and weapons but the story is enjoyable and it is all played out with a nice art style.
You play as Emmett Graves a rig worker, he is the hard nut, the guy on the ground capping the wells to harness the energy pouring out of these planets surfaces. The single player mode is heavily influenced by the western genre with accompanying orchestral score. Think small one horse towns with sheriffs and space ships and your half way there.
The main new feature is the building mechanism, you are able to call down from supporting space crafts a variety of different buildings. Defensive walls which you can mount turrets on to, supply bases, tank or jeep garages. Hawk launch pads, defensive shields and a host of other buildings that allow you to set up base in locations that you need to either protect or that they can act as bases of attack.
The building controls are well handled the buildings can be called down with ease and can be planted and tied together with little or no fiddling.
This new building mechanism in itself leads to a whole new set of problems, online console gamers are notoriously difficult to organise into a cohesive team. The lack of Mic’s being used by players and this coupled with initial problems with players getting into parties or simple that their mics didn’t work in game means that chatter has been minimalistic.
Why this leads to problems is simple, players can build buildings. There are no restrictions on whom or where they can build but there is a restriction to the number of buildings that can be built in one map by each team. One particular game saw this problem highlighted, as the team tried to set up a strategic outpost further up the map we got a message saying 32/32 buildings already built.
When we got back to the base it was a mess, players had just started building everywhere. For some unknown reason we had eight watch towers, four razorback garages and an untold number of beam turrets! All sitting at the back of our map serving no purpose at all, this meant we had no ability to plant outposts, build walls, extra tank bays. Trying to dismantle buildings while also fighting and trying to fend off an organised enemy can be some of the most stressful gaming you will ever encounter.
If that wasn’t enough when you do get a group together to build something resembling a base it is often left with gaping holes due to the size and layout of the maps as well as the limits on buildings. When an attack does come the walls and buildings are smashed to pieces with such ease it seems almost pointless to have taken all that time building them in the first place.
All that aside when you do get a good team together it does deliver as it promises and the action is nonstop. The game also contains a Co-op mode in which you and up to 3 other friends can take on wave after wave of enemies as you attempt to defend your rig from destruction. Similar to Gears Horde mode you are given a head start to build a base but with limited resources. You set up the base then cap the well. Then the waves of enemies come at you, but again you encounter problems, it takes literally seconds for the enemy to break through your defensive walls, and once the first wave has decimated your structure you are given no time to rebuild.
While all that sounds negative it is only a small section of a hugely enjoyable game, the game looks and plays amazingly. The controls are intuitive, especially the building mechanism which works very smoothly making good use of the controls pad. The variety of different locations and vastly different missions from ground RTS style, to epic shooters on space ships to amazing flying sections means this game is constantly changing and consistently keeps you interested.
Overall : Starhawk is a very good game, the quality is undeniable and for the most part the game plays extremely well. Its only flaw is that it is very hard to organise your team, but with news of some balancing coming up in the next patch fingers crossed it does smooth out all the small issues.
SCORE 8/10
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