Starhawk Is a Step Up from Warhawk
"This game has its own lore," says Starhawk lead designer Josh Sutphin. "It's not the same universe as Warhawk." Rather, LightBox has cooked up a Western-themed sci-fi universe where prospectors scour the galaxy for "blue gold" -- dangerous "Rift Energy" that can turn you into a mutant if you're not careful. As Emmet Graves, a spacer who survived deadly exposure to the blue energy, you travel from locale to locale, trying to wrest control of the resource from a band of brutal mutant Outcasts that attempts to keep the valuable stuff to themselves.
It's More Than Just Shooting Stuff
Sure, you'll climb into vehicles and use traditional firearms to dispatch enemies. But Starhawk's firefights have a second layer to them -- something LightBox president Dylan Jobe calls "Build and Battle." If you rack up enough kills, you can radio for airdrops -- entire buildings that further fortify and arm the good guys. These buildings include turrets, walls, bunkers, pod beacons (for summoning A.I. allies), and launchpads where the titular Hawks (more on those in a sec) can spawn. This stuff can go on any clear bit of ground, and you can craft your own tactical approach on-the-fly. The game's nonlinear campaign maps and symmetrical multiplayer battlefields become sandboxes where you use creativity, tactical know-how, and shooting skills to win the day your way.
Hawks = Mechs
Starhawk wouldn't be Starhawk without aerial battles, but the Hawks aren't quite the same as Warhawk veterans might expect -- and that's due to feedback from players of the original game. Players griped of spawn-camping in Warhawk; Hawk aces would go into hover mode and keep bases covered with a rain of death. If you get backed into that particular corner, "you're kind of hosed," Sutphin says. So LightBox tried to find a way to balance the power of the Hawk without reducing its air superiority. That's when the developers settled on transformation. As a ground unit, the Hawk is slower and slightly more vulnerable, with no melee attack. Though, "If you jump, you can stomp people," Sutphin admits. In mech mode, the Hawk is also vulnerable to death from above. A well-placed airdrop can crush a rampaging robot under 10 tons of concrete bunker. It is a sight to behold.
Starhawk Features a Black Protagonist
Game heroes aren't the most diverse bunch -- they're a crew of mostly generic white guys. So, to many, Starhawk's black hero Emmet Graves will come as a surprise. During the early stages of Starhawk's development, LightBox headed down the same path of most games: "We had a whole lineup of white protagonists," Sutphin explains. But then one particular bit of concept art started to catch the team's eye. "Everyone saw that guy" and immediately got behind him, Sutphin says. "That's our hero." And Sutphin says that one of the many reasons he loves his team at LightBox -- and Sony management -- is that he received no push-back on the decision.
LightBox Is Going All-in with Multiplayer
Warhawk devotees will be pleased with LightBox's dedication to making Starhawk bigger and better -- with many of the changes based on suggestions made in the official Warhawk forums. Fan requests like an in-game calendar, cross-server clan voice chat, and a full automated tournament system are just a few of the features that LightBox is implementing. With 32-player multiplayer, four-player co-op campaigns, splitscreen multiplayer, and slew of other as-yet unannounced modes and features, Starhawk looks like one of the PlayStation 3's most ambitions online exclusives. 2012 suddenly feels like a long way off.
