Starhawk Review – Reaching into a Whole New Shooter Frontier

Starhawk is by far one of the most anticipated new exclusives for PlayStation that I have waited for all year. I briefly saw it at E3 last year and then went full force into the Private Beta last November. I have eagerly awaited to get my hands on this gem produced by the masterminds at Lightbox Interactive in Austin, TX. I will say that I am not one bit disappointed.

So let’s start with Single Player, probably the most criticized part by many of the reviews I have read over the past week. Though you may look at the single player as a glorified tutorial for Multiplayer, then you really may not have let yourself get immersed into the Story.

Emmett Graves has become a hired gunslinger after being exposed to the blue gold known as Rift Energy. Sidney Cutter, Emmett’s “Gear Man” devised a way to control the Rift infection leaving Emmett as a half-breed of sorts. So they have returned to their old stomping grounds to mine the blue gold when they are thrust into battle with the Outcasts. These Outcasts are a fully mutated species of humans also known as “Scabs”. The short story is when a Rifter becomes exposed to the Rift Energy they mutated into a Scab hell-bent on protecting and worshiping the energy.

The story though a bit short, as intended according to Dylan Jobe, president of Lightbox Interactive, brings you through the past and present of Emmett and you quickly learn how he met his destiny after being exposed. He moves through several settlements working to get the Rift Rigs online so that they can meet their quotas. Along the way you are pitted in various battles with Scabs. Each chapter progresses with the introduction of various resources used via the all new Build & Battle system that is at the core of Starhawk.

This brings a new level of Strategy as you are building on the fly to react to the various Outcast attacks, everything from a simple Auto Turret to the Ox Tank. The game is very well-balanced in terms of matching your build options to the task and enemies at hand. In the early levels you are guided through the core building that you will use throughout the campaign, but as you progress it becomes an open canvas for you to decide what you think is going to work best.

I opted to take the game head on using the Mercenary difficulty setting and I will admit there were several times that I cursed the team as I would get so close to a check point to only be foiled by a scab. One thing I would have wished was present was saving and starting at a checkpoint versus a level. I found myself having to choose whether I would give up at a point to take a break or pausing and leaving my PS3 on while I stepped away from game so that I would not have to start at the beginning.

Aside from this very frustrating issue, I was quite satisfied with the story and campaign levels. The challenge factor was just shy of feeling impossible and the story progression was well laid out. It even leaves you with a sense of what’s next, I will leave it at that :). I did encounter a few bugs here and there with the cut scenes skipping and even a point with a loop, but only once did I actually have to start a level over because of this.

Starhawk includes a Coop mode known as Prospector, which is similar to horde or survival mode. I actually had previewed this mode at South by Southwest a few weeks ago, but as warned, when I got into it, it was much more of a challenge than the build we played in Austin, and it was quite satisfying. Now this is no cakewalk by any means either and make sure that you check difficulty setting before you host. If you are set on Mercenary mode, you better plan on a match from hell. You will need all four players and all of you better have skill if you want to survive any level.

Even on Normal mode Prospector is a heck of a challenge. C-YA and I got through 5 rounds only to be foiled by a swarm of Grinder equipped Jet Pack Scabs, talk about a “Damn we were so close” moment. I will be looking to build a bit of an elite team to beat all of the Coop levels. Well done on the Coop mode, and you should note that it is completely randomized so you are always evolving from start to finish.

Finally the meat and potatoes of Starhawk is of course the Multiplayer part of the game. Now as an avid Socom player, I do not have the Warhawk background to compare Starhawk too as most of the community does, so my views are from a fresh perspective. First lets talk about what put Starhawk on Urgent Fury’s radar, the Clan Management and Server set up. This is a great step back to the core of Clan Based Competitive gaming. Clans are able to create a custom server with a customized title such as “UFGL Tryouts”, this is extremely crucial when it comes to building a team in Starhawk. The key to winning is pure teamwork and communication. The server customization also garners a never-ending variety of playability. There are 10 maps, 5 large and 5 small, 4 game modes (Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Zones, and Deathmatch aka Dogfight Mode) and a selection of 10 loadouts.

As mentioned before, one of the major drawbacks in multiplayer is getting into random servers. For some unknown reason, people these days refuse to use mics which in turn leads to a lack of players working together. In Multiplayer, there is a small building limit of 32, and this can be a real challenge if everyone is playing as a lone gunman. Next thing you know it you have four hawk pads, three bunkers, fifteen walls, six razorback garages, six beam turrets and eight auto turrets. Now you can build anything out in the field like a much-needed pod beacon.

I have heard many say this is falls on the developer, but I say that is bs. It is very easy to manage building counts… I mean there are only twelve building types and in any given load out the largest number of buildings available is ten. So you can build three of every building and still have two to spare. So as you have heard us say many times, “Situational Awareness” is key to being successful in Starhawk.

Now we were all involved in the beta and have seen some of the issues like Mic Fallout carry over. One other hot topic is the Homing missile. It seems that it works better in Single player thank it does in Multiplayer, or it is way to easy to dodge. Now don’t get me wrong if you going nose to nose and time it right, you will get a hit every time, but other than that, it is extremely rare. Now that we have the flak guns, this seems to be a little overpowered but not too bad, but it clearly has become the weapon of choice for A2A combat in the servers I have been in.

One of the new editions to the air game is the cluster bomb, and well that is more powerful that even the TOW. It needs to either be scaled back or at least reduce how often it respawns. I truly believe this is the most overpowered weapon in the game. Also added were the Hawk Shield and Cloak, I think these are pretty well-balanced. You do not stay invisible very long and the shield is not a super bubble.

On the ground we now have the Flak Cannon which is an upgrade to the Beam Turret, this has been improved greatly since I first saw it in Austin. I have not seen it over used but it can be quite effective as an air defense. And finally the Repair ARM has made its debut, this is an awesome piece of equipment when used properly.

It can keep your base alive (except against cluster bombs) or go to town in the enemy base destroying anything it can reach.

There is still a sense of complaints about the flight mechanics by the community but I seem to fly fine, now don’t get me wrong I am not a hard-core pilot nor the best at it, but I can hold my own if needed.

Over all I am satisfied with Starhawk on many levels and the few issues I have seen can easily be adjusted and with the kind of attention that Lightbox Interactive and Santa Monica Studios have shown, we will see it very soon.

Here is the final tally:

Concept – 10 

The Build & Battle is a fresh and new experience in the overly flooded market of Shooters. This gives an ever evolving style of play that makes every match unique.

Graphics – 10

The graphic design is rich with colors and the cut scene animation is well done. You will find yourself just gazing into the universe looking at all the vast landscapes and the western theme is well executed in the future setting.

Sound – 9

There are a few issues with the sound in multiplayer that will surely be fixed in a future update which is its only hamper to the perfect score, but the music behind the game was executed beautifully by Chris Lennertz. The score is rich and as a music lover, I was taken by the great range of music performances throughout the game.

Playability – 8

Though the Campaign is short than most would like, it was enjoyable and the Coop as well as the Multiplayer are what will extend the playability of this game. I found it very frustrating that I was not able to pick up at a Checkpoint instead of the start of a level. For a noob there will be some rough beginnings in multiplayer and that may turn a few off, but this is pretty much with any game these days, one can only hope that some of the long time Warhawk players give the noobs a break and help them out.

Entertainment – 10

The game is very entertaining. You find yourself wishing there was more to the campaign, and who knows maybe the reason you get a trophy that hints at this is only the beginning.

Replay – 10

The replay factor for the Campaign is not really there, but Coop and Multiplayer more than makes up for it. And as mentioned with the announcement of Free Map Packs, we will continue to see fresh new content for a while, how long we don’t know. The complete randomized Coop ensures that you just don’t know what you are getting into and with the Build & Battle, the Multiplayer is always going to be fresh and challenging.

Total – 9.5/10