Competitive gaming is becoming more and more popular as the years go by. As games like Fortnite have proven time and time again, there is a firm place for that genre and, if the games are good, could mean lucrative longevity for those game companies that do it right. And, as we all know, Epic Games has certainly done it right with its flagship title and has made millions over the years as a result.
Related, we were privy to a two-hour preview of the potentially next great competitive game called Hawked from MY.GAMES. Born from the group-based, goal-oriented concept that Fortnite established on a mainstream level across various platforms catering to multiple demographics, Hawked looks to establish itself as a quick-hitting, competitive PvP title that is driven by treasuring hunting while gunplay acts as a sideshow.
Time to open this treasure of a preview and get started.
Competitive and Single
That header isn’t a line from Ben Sheene’s Tinder profile, rather it’s a statement of fact for the backbone of Hawked. For much of your time, you’ll be competing against other teams to collect the most treasure while avoiding death when humanly possible. It’s the forefront of the game and it should be if MY.GAMES wants this title to stick. There is also a single-player aspect to this adventure as well, at least perceived. It is driven by side quests and individual goals that equal cool customization and eventual player-to-game connectivity. You want that as well.
Starting with competitive play, during our preview time with Hawked, our team was dropped into a large jungle map that had specific zones connected to each other, much like what you would find in Fortnite. Each zone contained a few things – treasure, enemies, hidden areas, gun chests, and puzzles. The latter of the bunch is how you access items of interest in the game that you want to collect. So, for example, you might run into a multi-tiered temple that has multiple puzzles that you must unlock to find treasure. The puzzles could be as simple as matching symbols on the floor to walls/structures around you, or it could be multiple puzzles that lead to one puzzle that ultimately unlocks a treasure. The fact that puzzles of this type and complication are included in a competitive gaming environment is interesting considering that most of the time you’re watching your back for quick hits and possible death. It was bold of the devs to consider this route, but I think it might just pay off.
Now, how MY.GAMES pulled this off is impressive, as the puzzles don’t feel out of place; rather they add to the treasuring hunting arc that the game is trying to sell. They work, but you are susceptible to enemy fire. Having this in a competitive game creates an entirely new type of competitive game genre that I haven’t seen before. Sure, there are competitive games out there with locked doors and such, but not this level of puzzle-solving on the fly. Having complicated puzzles in a competitive game, it encourages the dreaded communication among group members and makes a team a bit closer. It’s like group work in college, except that it actually works here.
To get to the puzzles and find your treasure, you must go through enemies, and that category is split between NPC enemies and Donna (pick a last name) from down the street who is looking to hunt you down and take you out. Starting with NPCs, the enemies that we saw during our preview were lizard-like creatures in this jungle area. Some were common/basics that were easy to take down, while others were brutes that required a bit more teamwork and muscle. They were everywhere on the map we played, and they were more annoying than the competition. Imagine them as road bumps in a street, and you get the picture. They were typically guarding outposts that featured gun chests, which are vital for taking down said enemies. There were also a few that guarded puzzle areas with more significant treasure. They were spread out evenly and, again, were more annoying than the competition.
The gun chests in these NPC-guarded areas featured buffs, guns that were color-coated to a certain power level (green, purple, etc.), and contained throwables like grenades, as well as healing solutions. From the weapons that we saw, it seems like there is going to be a nice variety that you’re going to run into when this game hits release. Much like Fortnite, you can compare weapons when you pick them up and figure out what you want and don’t want. You only get two weapons to swap out of during gameplay, so choosing the right one means taking into consideration future enemies from afar, and brutes close-up. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, and it works just as well here. I’m hopeful that I will be able to purchase more slots for weapon carrying when the full game hits.
As for the PvP gaming in Hawked, I think it’s going to be on par with other games of this type. What made this experience different than the usual was that there was more flora than I expected in the levels we played in, which meant there were more places to hide from enemies (or surprise them). While the likes of Fortnite depend on structures and buildings for hiding, Hawked uses hiding in plain sight behind plants, inside buildings, and behind structures. This type of strategy is a bit broader than the usual PvP competitive game, which creates a helluva lot more strategy for the gamer. This makes the action a bit more uncertain and less straightforward, which I think is a great thing, and allows more room for deception by players or enemies. What I mean by that last part, and I saw this during our preview session, is that enemies can send out a sacrificial lamb to a treasure or puzzle in hopes of drawing other people out in the open, and then the enemy team ambushes the invaders. It’s brilliant as it is irritating, but it creates this thick layer of strategy you must consider during gameplay. It’s cool to see in motion, but dreadful when it happens to you.
Why you would want to put yourself in that type of scenario is simple. The goal for Hawked is to obtain the largest amount of treasure and find a way to get the hell out of the jungle with it. Much like what you would find with a Call of Duty zombie mode, your focus is to balance out risk versus reward in this process because as soon as you get killed, everything you gathered is gone. I know, you’ve seen this before in different iterations, but it’s thick and potent in Hawked. Gathering treasure puts you at risk because most of the treasure is out in the visible open unless you’re traversing complicated puzzles. Getting to an extraction point with that treasure is the final step in the overall goal, where you will have to fight off enemies to ensure your own treasure-collecting success. The more you collect and get out of the jungle with equals more success and leveling. Anyway, there’s a lot going on in the competitive side of this game and it works well, at least from this preview session.
On the single side of things, the game does have a unique single-player feel to it as well. You have tiny side quests that you can go off and do, assigned by NPCs in your hub, customization that is out of this world good, and several moments during gameplay that feel like maybe this could work in a deathmatch structure. I’m sure the latter is coming, but we didn’t see it during this preview. Anyway, the game especially feels individualized thanks to the heavy amount of customization. This includes costumes, player crafting, and a bevy of other little odds and ends that allow a gamer to personalize their experience. Sure, it’s not enormously different from what you have seen before in competitive gaming, but it’s still nice to see that was a thought-through design choice.
Overall, the main gameplay of Hawked is simple and familiar in its design, but its treasure-hunting and puzzle-solving backbone help bring a different flavor of competitive gaming to the genre. It was more than a blast to play this small preview. I can’t wait to see what the full game has in store.
Presentation simplicity
With Hawked you get a very Fortnite look and feel to everything. The animation is simple, from player to environment, and is almost visually playful. I can see some future licenses or opportunities to expand the world a bit, but as it stands it’s a simple-looking game that fits its personality perfectly. It’s as if they had made Indiana Jones into a 90s cartoon, where it was not taking itself too seriously, but oozed elements of the gameplay, such as hats, hiking boots, and everything adventure related, to remind us this is a treasure-hunting good time. It works well.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this preview.
Conclusion
Hawked from MY.GAMES looks like it could be the next great competitive gaming adventure. Packing with more than just aiming and firing guns, the inclusion of complicated puzzles and directly creating complicated approaches to gameplay strategy/execution makes for a unique time.
We’ll keep an eye on Hawked as it wraps up. Until then, keep an eye out as well. This could be a nice competitive treasure to find.
