The long awaited spiritual successor to Warhawk comes out on May 8th with a full single player campaign and a revamped multiplayer portion. Starhawk is being developed by Santa Monica and Light Box Interactive.
Single player:
The setting for Starhawk is a series of planets with a brand new resource on them known as Rift Energy. There is a current oil rush going on to set up claims and make a fortune off the green blue stuff. Unfortunately long time exposure to it changes a rifter into an outcast which for some reason seem hell bent on stopping the harvesting of it at all cost.
The main charactor Emmet Graves is one such rifter who's claim gets assaulted by the outcast. His rig explodes bathing him in unshielded rift energy causing him to change into an outcast. His doctor buddy gives him a kind of life support device that slows the transformation making him something in between the two.
Multiplayer:
Here is a half way decent primer for new players trying to wrap their heads around what is going on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHKdt23UV1Y
The game is a hybrid rts third person shooter. Using your Rift energy supply you can drop ready made structures onto the battle field anywhere you want. There are a vehicles to open the map up for high speed traversal and combat.
Vehicles and weapons:
Razorback: This is a fast 3 seated jeep similar to the one from Warhawk and Halo. It's the only vehicle currently in the beta that looses no functionality when you have the enemy flag. Press and hold x to hot swap from one seat to another.
Vulture jetpack: These are not too terribly fast but they allow you to reach higher spots on the map for snipers and rocket assaults. They also make you harder to knife or stomp. Note that while flying you can be locked on by the missile launcher, hawk weapons and beam turrets.
Hawk: The VTOL/hover function from Warhawk is gone replaced by mech mode. In mech mode you still have access to all of your weapons you a bit slower but you can still overtake a running enemy if your persistent enough, and you can stomp with R3 for an easy kill. Beware though you become very vulnerable on the ground not only are you a much larger target but a sniper can actually shoot you off the top of your ride with a good enough shot.
There are several settings for flight mode mess around with them till you find what works best for you most players from Warhawk will be using the advanced option with hold fire lock on. All the classics are back hold r2 l2 for drift l2 brake r2 go fast.
Jetbike: Agile one seat and no armor to speak of. No built in weapons but you can stop aim and fire infantry weapons with out having to dismount. Careful when turning on inclines you can roll the bike causing you to be exposed to enemy fire while trying to flip it back upright and get on.
Tank: Mobile armored and dangerous. This monster has two fire modes line of sight and mortar fire. There is a seat for a second man to fire infantry weapons from, hand for a buddy to be there armed with a rocket launcher to protect from hawks and a welding torch to patch up damage. Beware hawks though the gun will track directly to you making a few solid strafes deadly.
Assault Rifle: Rapid fire good at mid to long range. Sustained fire causes wider bullet spread.
Shotgun: Aim for a tighter spread great at close range.
Rocket launcher: Locks onto hawks and vultures in flight, direct hit is an instant kill on infantry, great for turning an enemy base into a pile of rubble when fired from a bunker.
Rail gun: Head shot is an instant kill capable to hitting multiple enemies if they happen to be lined up. Press r3 for extra zoom.
Proximity mines: These spawn on the map throw them on any surface when an enemy walks or drives near it they will have a bad day.
Welding torch: There is a spawn near your base always. These will let you repair any friendly vehicle or structure and do damage to any enemy one.
Swarm laser: Able to lock up to eight times on a flying hawk or vulture. Lots of ammo capacity.
Homing missile: These are hard to shake do a lot of damage but take a long time to acquire a solid lock on. Currently best strafing weapon in the beta too.
Air Mines: When you fire this weapon you will leave a chain of floating weapons that will latch on to any enemy plane that fly's too close and deal some damage. Not as bad as they were in warhawk, still not a fan.
Flak gun: Deadly in a dogfight just line up get close and watch your victim fall from the sky. No aim assist only dumb fire so great for an ambush, but limited usefulness in more turn and burn dogfights.
Torpedo: Long wind up big damage. These are very slow moving projectiles and can be shot down by the enemy. When they hit they hit hard though shorting out shields and leveling any structure taking a direct hit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64PTsyzCqVs
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Cincitucky/Cincitucky
Soktos/Soktos
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VG-Robot/VG-Robot
Nightslyr/Nightslyr
Posts
Check the multiplayer spoiler that videos about the best we have atm. Yeah between building, flying, shooting, driving and capin flags, yeah the game has a lot going on.
One possible drawback to the game's multiplayer is definitely going to be the demand for tactical strategy and teamwork. There's been a mix of CTF matches where my team actually builds reasonably well to fortify our territory and follows the objective to cap the flags. Other times, people are building structures that are either redundant to logically make no sense defensively. In addition, essentially no one is making attempts to at least grab the flags.
Definitely interested in picking up this game. Just have a concern that pubbing it a majority of the time in multiplayer is going to shorten the life of online games.
Maybe on the ground game M/KB would be great. I cannot stand dog fights with mouse control, or even realistic flight at all. The only reason the raptor in unreal 2k4 was bearable was it was hover flight.
Who knows they may have fixed the flist bug.
It's Malechai but my internet says I will be downloading the patch for another 2 hours. Since I havn't been able to get on the game today have they fixed the bugged flist integration?
Impressions: New interface with the buildings is nice and the built in tutorial will probably help a lot if people use it.
The changes to the flight hud are a bit too much. With a dogfight intensive server it is hard to pick your target out from the swarm to focus fire. The torpedo is toned down a lot from what was shown in the early footage still great for taking out turret fields but for bigger structures you need a direct hit. Flak gun is great in dog fights terrible on the ground.
Tank seems powerful and even has a mortar mode which is cool. Didn't drive it myself seeing as I have always been more of a close air support type. Hawk guns will lock on to them so beware.
Jet bike seems kinda like little more than a novelty. You can run over people with it and shoot your infantry weapons but you loose your momentum when aiming. It's just a small razorback with more maneuverability.
Was the MAV rocket laucher lock-on removed? Could never lock onto any overhead hawks buzzing the base.
Changes to the on-screen interfaces with buildings and vehicles are consistent with weapon switching which is nice. Just got confused with the button switching.
Don't understand why you can't fire your weapon while driving the jet bike. I'd like to see where you can at least fire straight ahead while moving on the bike, you only come to a stop while aiming your weapon.
Overall, Starhawk still has my interest in seeing the final product.
Add me for some games... PSN Soktos
Coming from the PC, the previous beta really hurt my eyes...
Well since you have taken the initiative I guess Rifting Wang will work.
Yeah I couldn't get a lock on either, I am hoping they either reduced the range or it's a bug.
As for frame rate I have not noticed any change.
Because I am so into that.
Yeah I'm all over this game. Love it. The tank has 2 fire modes if you havn't discovered that yet. It has the ability to launch an artillery volley at enemies. Amazing. Add me up and lets do this thang!
Yeah, I jumped the gun and made the clan. I won't start one when the game releases, leaving that to someone else.
Figured out the lock-on. While aiming, you have to hold down the fire button. Letting go of the button to fire after the lock-on.
Currently the biggest issue I am having with the game is that everyone is making servers to try out the different load out options. So I hit quick match and wind up in a 3v3 game on dust which really isn't all that exciting.
I've been using the game listing to find ones with a decent number of players. Found a few 32 player games on Dust, TDM is a blast. Thought CTF would be more entertaining but team death match has been fun every time.
I usually start by building a Hawk station right off the bat. As soon as I'm in my hawk I go and grab a torpedo ( the new BLUE weapon )
That torpedo deals out crazy damage to enemy bases, and is a great way to break the enemy at the beginning. That essentially destroys whatever they have built immediately. From there I make slow passes at their base to destroy whatever turrets they are trying to build.
Usually, if I have a good flag caper, this strategy will set the pace for the rest of the game.
I have back up strategy's if this fails. Once the enemy groups together and builds laser defences you have to switch gears. I found that building off-shute bases close to their home base is key. Once you have a defended armory established you can continuously assault their defences with rocket launchers until your ready to attack with a hawk once again. Also, keep in mind that the torpedoes respawn every so often and they break defences easily.
Hopefully, someone here enjoys capping flags and building defences! That way we could form a tight team.
I haven't tried TDM yet! I just assumed it would be crap! Oh, is it possible to set up some Clan matches in the near future?
They do have an option for clan matches but it is currently disabled. Think they may not roll that out till full game.
With as much as I'm enjoying the beta, having to restart the system a couple times in one sitting makes me give up.
Think that mostly has to do with the host disconnecting and the server migrating to a host with a poor connection. Here is hoping that when the full game comes out that there will be dedicated servers like warhawk had, p2p gaming is never the best answer just the cheapest.
Have to keep an eye on that setting before joining a game next time. If that is the problem I'm guessing the host migration is defaulting to Yes and no one ever turns it off, or everyone chooses Yes thinking its a good idea. Hoping I'll have a reply in this thread noting that's the issue. Don't want to scare away others that are sitting on the fence about trying this game.
The best laugh I keep getting is from using the MAV launcher on those flying around with the vulture, once they get off the ground I'm locking on to them to get the free kill.
I've had poor luck bringing down vultures with the MAV launcher. Seriously, the matches I've been in recently have been stacked with great players who can outrun and out smart any lock on. Switching your flight controls to "Arcade" is the solution here. These Warhawk Vets are near impossible to bring down compared to the newbs of the game.
If you ever find yourself completely dominated by a good pilot, go for the tank. They are forced to slow down and make runs at you in straight lines. That tank can bring down vultures with ease in these situation. Better yet, have someone jump in that tank with a MAV launcher and your set for success
Honestly I would suggest advanced flight. It gives you a much more aggressive profile because the camera sticks closer to the cross-hairs all the time. Shaking a lock on is not hard in this mode either you just spas out on both sticks* and watch the missiles drop. Was a bit confused by your post cause the vultures are jet packs and getting a rocket lock on them is in my experience a certain kill.
*Spassing out on both sticks means pushing both sticks in the same direction then the opposite then another random direction repeat.
L4 R4, L6 R6, L7 R7, L3 R3. To use fighting game notation this is what a typical advanced missile scrub looks like just keep repeating this until all locks are broken. It does not matter which direction as long as you follow this basic pattern. It's not 100% best way to counter another player doing this is to get a good lock from a distance then boost into them and release your shot when the tips of their wings are further out than the edges of the lock-on reticule.
Edit: Tips I forgot about shaking missiles in advanced flight: Use your boost to get a few extra seconds. You will notice lights blinking on you wings this will tell you what direction the missiles are coming from, start your shake in the opposite direction. Finally if you happen to have air mines at the time use them this has multiple benefits, if they are as aggressive as me they will probably take a few hits and get scared off, if they are firing the gun at you it will auto track to the mines too disrupting their aim.
For Vultures, I'm usually hoping to find people on foot with that pack strapped to their back. Once they leave the ground I'm switching to the MAV. BOOM!! hahaha
One thing that would be nice is actually joining the same team as other PAers playing this game. Everytime I've hopped into a game, I've joined the opposing team. And for Sliver, I'd appreciate you not landing in the area I'm trying to build a structure... ass!
Sorry about the confusion. Yes, I was referring to the Hawks. I think when I saw the unfamiliar "vulture" reference I thought "Oh man, is that what they call the new warhawks?"
I have yet to try going out on an adventure taking down these poor vulture strapped individuals. I'm sure its a blast!
That was a corny pun..
I know in Warhawk the pros would use the advanced flight mechanic. I have yet to give it the time. Thanks for your little tutorial.
@Cincitucky I will never stop harassing your attempts to build a base lol!
Finally had a full sitting without the game freezing but that might be related to the recent patch. Much better. Only unfortunate thing was playing with some obvious warhawk vets. Near impossible to get any kills.
Apparently, 1.3.1 stopped system freezes. Its refreshing to see a developer with a fast turnaround in changes and applying fixes.
As much as I like the skill showing me my last killer, its a distraction. While it was turned on, too much time was spent chasing that person versus playing the match.
Several perks in the list are odd: spawn with a certain weapon or always accumilate rift energy. Most times, someone has constructed the supply bunker in every possible area to spawn. In every case, your rift energy bar fills after a minute of playing a match, assuming your not sitting in the base the entire time.