History VideoGame / Hawken

* KillStreak: Two kinds. You get a little bonus XP for keeping a streak up long-term - but anyone who ''ends'' your streak will get a nice chunk of bonus XP themselves, rewarding pilots for staying alive and 'headhunting' those with large streaks. Scoring two or more kills in rapid succession results in announcements from your mech's computer. [[ShoutOut It stutters noticeably when announcing Triple, Quadra-, Penta-, and Hexa- kills]].

* KillStreak: Two kinds. You get a little bonus XP for keeping a streak up long-term - but anyone who ''ends'' your streak will get a nice chunk of bonus XP themselves, rewarding pilots for staying alive ahd 'headhunting' those with large streaks. Scoring two or more kills in rapid succession results in announcements from your mech's computer. [[ShoutOut It stutters noticeably when announcing Triple, Quadra-, Penta-, and Hexa- kills]].

** Similarly, the Raider is a repurposed mech, originally a power-loader/cargo-transporter type known as a Merchantman. This caught a few fighters off-guard in the war, as they thought they were coming in to sell something and wound up taking flak to the face.

* KillStreak: You get a little bonus XP for keeping one up, and scoring two or more kills results in announcements from your mech's computer. [[ShoutOut It stutters noticeably when announcing Triple, Quadra-, Penta-, and Hexa- kills]].

* MacrossMissileMassacre: The Rocketeer and Bruiser both have Hellfire Missiles as a special weapon, which fire a homing swarm of missiles, though, for balance, they distinctly don't have much punch.

** Also the battleships in Siege mode. You ''can'' take them out using your mechs, but there's a reason the primary objective is an AA gun when they're active.

* RealRobotGenre

** Similarly, the Raider is a repurposed mech, apparently being made for... selling wares. This caught a few fighters off-guard in the war, as they thought they were coming in to sell something and wound up taking flak to the face.

* TheTurretMaster: EVERYONE can deploy turrets. They come in 2 variants, one armed with a Point D Vulcan Minigun and the other a TOW Launcher. Heavy mechs can turn into turrets via large metal shields mounted onto their chassis.

** Co-op, which pits four players against a wave of drones and robots, along with bosses every five waves.

* {{Overheating}}: Firing weapons for continuous periods without letting them cooldown will eventually result in them overheating. However, not only will overheating disable the weapons, it will also shut down all systems (save for movement), leaving overheated mechs sitting ducks for enemy fire. Played with by the Incinerator, which needs heat to fire its secondary weapon and activate its ability, but can still overheat if the pilot is careless.

* TheWarSequence: Siege mode, which is a rush to destroy the enemy's battleship, or defend yours. The developers also want to implement a co-op horde mode.

* {{Overheating}}: Firing weapons for continuous periods without letting them cooldown will eventually result in them overheating. However, not only will overheating disable the weapons, it will also shut down all systems (save for movement), leaving overheated mechs sitting ducks for enemy fire.

* {{Bizarrchitecture}: The Giga-Structure. More specifically, the "Origin" map, which is set right on top of the Giga-Structure. The map is highly irregular in design and plays as such.

** Notably, despite being a prominent part of the game's backstory and TheNamesake of the game, the Hawken virus itself does not figure into the gameplay in any way, shape or form. At all.

* MoreDakka: The Submachine Cannon and Point D Vulcan.

* ScavengerWorld: Due to a blockade on the planet and dwindling supplies of the corporations, the war has turned it into this.

The game entered open beta on December 12, 2012, and transferred to {{Steam}} February 2014.

* AnyoneCanDie: In the Hawken comic, all named characters die by the end of the second issue.

* CycleofHurting: The Genadier Rev-GL used to have a bug which caused it to reset a person's walking speed when it hit them. This resulted in people getting spammed by the Rev-GL and unable to walk anywhere. "Stunlocking" was eventually patched out.

* ScavengerWorld:

** The CR-T Recruit mechs are an ugly, unaerodynamic boxy shape to conserve precious tech and save on manufacturing.

** It's implied the reason why everything is reused or old-looking is because of a quarantine/blockade that surrounds the planet, forcing the corporations to scrape up what they can find.

* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Before the HP nerf, Speed was generally regarded as being the most important stat. As light mechs could easily disengage from losing fights, while heavy mechs generally couldn't and thus died. After the HP nerf, light mechs can not so easily disengage from fights and thus must exercise more caution with their positioning.

** The Scout, a mech that is lightning fast and has a damaging flak cannon, is very deadly in the right hands, but only has 500 points of health. A well-timed TOW rocket will almost kill it.

** Brawler post ascension update takes this to it next logical step. Starts with 1080 base HP (When the other C class mechs have around 900 to 980) that can be brought up to 1180 HP with tuning, has an alternate mode which boosts its defenses and gives it self healing, and packs a nasty flak gun which can be swapped out for what is essentially a fully automatic sniper rifle and the aforementioned Point-D vulcan. It also has the slowest base walking and boost speed in the game, and even when tuned is still way slower than any other mech in the game, combined with a crippling long weapon cool down period should it overheat (which is very easy to do).
*** Also the battleships in Siege mode. You ''can'' take them out using your mechs, but there's a reason the primary objective is an AA gun when they're active.

** The only mechs that avert this is the Infiltrator, a SuperPrototype that is continuously upgraded with new parts, and the Cupcake, a mech that was reserved [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous for Prosk's "royal guard".]]

The game entered open beta on December 12, 2012.

Now confirmed to be on {{Steam}} as of February 2014.

* The Raider mech as default uses the 'Muller' chassis set, which is styled after upper chassis of the M1 Abrams main battle tank.

** Similarly, the [[Irony Raider]] is a repurposed mech, apparently being made for... selling wares. This caught a few fighters off-guard in the war, as they thought they were coming in to sell something and wound up taking flak to the face.

** Similarly, the Raider is a repurposed mech, apparently being made for... selling wares. This caught a few fighters off-guard in the war, as they thought they were coming in to sell something and wound up taking flak to the face.

The game entered open beta at the 12th of December.

* PromotionalPowerlessPieceOfGarbage: The special Vanguard Cupcake mech, exclusive to players that purchased the Vanguard Initiative pre-order packs. While by no means useless, it is generally regarded as the weakest of the Heavy mechs due to its weapons not complementing each other (its primary weapons are all direct-hit continuous fire, while its secondary fires arcing grenades)Not to mention, Cupcake's status as a Heavy Mech does not means its primary armaments' 'run and gun' nature does not synergise well with the mech's slow and tanky nature.

There is also a literal walking tank, the Raider mech as default uses the 'Muller' chassis set, which is styled after the M1 Abrams main battle tank family, the upper chassis in particular.

** Similarly, the Raider is a repurposed mech.

* PromotionalPowerlessPieceOfGarbage: The special Vanguard Cupcake mech, exclusive to players that purchased the Vanguard Initiative pre-order packs. While by no means useless, it is generally regarded as the weakest of the Heavy mechs due to its weapons not complementing each other (its primary weapons are all direct-hit continuous fire, while its secondary fires arcing grenades)

* ColorWash: So far, the playable areas tend to have a specific color theme. "Prosk" is sea green, "Uptown" has golden hues, "Origin" is ... [[PurpleProse periwinkle]] and "Bazaar" is full of sandy tan colors, "Frontline" is sky blue, "Facility" has dull flame orange, "Last Eco" sports mostly natural green tints.

** The Vanguard, despite being a heavy mech, is this. With its boosted tuned to max, its faster than all C class mechs, and even out speeds most B class mechs and even a few A class mechs, but it only has 900 base HP, and its weapons are the rather puny SMC or the mini-flak.

* ColorWash: So far, the playable areas tend to have a specific color theme. "Prosk" is sea green, "Uptown" has golden hues, "Origin" is ... [[PurpleProse periwinkle]] and "Bazaar" is full of sandy tan colors.

* Brawler post ascension update takes this to it next logical step. Starts with 1080 base HP(When the other C class mechs have around 900 to 980) that can be brought up to 1180 HP with tuning, has an alternate mode which boosts its defenses and gives it self healing, and packs a nasty flak gun which can be swapped out for what is essentially a fully automatic sniper rifle and the aforementioned Point-D vulcan. It is also has the slowest base walking and boost in the game, and even when tuned is still way slower than anything, combined with a crippling long weapon cool down period should it overheat(which is very easy to do).

** Also the battleships in Siege mode. You ''can'' take them out using your mechs, but there's a reason the primary objective is an AA gun when they're active.