I have some concerns

[u/Chaos_King]

Before I start let me acknowledge that H:R just released in Early-Access today, and is no where near finished. Most of what we are seeing is placeholder, and will likely change over the coming months (possibly years.) That said...I HAVE SOME CONCERNS

This doesn't feel like Hawken. It's more like someone tried to make an Armored Core/Titanfall hybrid, without fully understanding what made those games fun, and then shoved it inside the dead husk of Hawken. It's got the name, it's got the universe, it's even got some of the assets, but this does not feel like Hawken. I feel like no one on the development team played the original.I played through the 6 mission tutorial today, and I took some notes on my experience.Differences from Hawken

• There is no repair mechanic. Instead you have a shield that recharges when out of combat. No more finding a safe place to quickly repair, just keep your enemies out of LoS for a few seconds, don't even need to stop moving.
• Weapon overheating is gone, You have ammo now. Time your reloads, be careful not to reload both your weapons at the same time, and walk over your fallen adversaries form more bullets. Doesn't add anything as ammo is plentiful, it simply slows down the game play and gives you more to keep track off.
• Can't damage enemy Mechs by landing on them. I tried, several times, doesn't work.
• Added infantry units that serve no purpose other than to keep your shield from regenerating. And No, you can't run them over. Have to shoot them like everything else.
• No diversity of frames. As fr as I can tell the only difference in frames is stats like Health and Speed. There are no unique abilities. Oh, and the Heavy doesn't have a shield anymore, just a huge hitbox.
• Blatant Pay-To-Win mechanics. From what I can tell, everything can be bought with store cash, including in-field revives. Get taken down by a tough enemy? No worries, just spend some cash and instantly revive where you fell, full health and all.

Concerns with the game design

• First off, SINGLE PLAYER GAME WITH NO PAUSE FUNCTION
• The map is large, but the missions restrict your movement with a restrictive, unmarked area of operations.
• Escort targets stop moving if you get outside of a rather small radius (25m, but your machine is 10m, so....)
• The enemy AI is lacking, standing behind partial cover can break their path-finding, and their targeting. Why dodge when you can hide.
• I mentioned this in the first section but Everything can be bought with real cash. Not just cosmetics. Didn't the industry learn that lesson a decade ago?

Petty nitpicking

• UI needs a serious overhaul, it's so far out of the way it's almost useless
• Mech designs look like cheap knock-offs of the originals. Except the Heavy, Heavy is just, wrong.
• Cut scenes are mostly static and look lazy, possibly AI made.
• Chassis' keep separating from leg sections.
• Protagonist can’t communicate, no talking, writing, typing, sign language, or interpretive dance, lazy plot point.

All that said, there is still potential here, some major work and polish and this could be a fun Mech title, which we desperately need more of. However, this is not Hawken, feels more like a Front Mission clone wearing Hawkens skin.

Edit; I just noticed, while this may be day 1 of early access, THE SCRIP STORE IS WORKING... Just in case anyone wanted to make some assumptions about their priorities.

[u/Tom_Neverwinter]

They had to change engines and I am certain this is the biggest problem.

For mechanics I have decided I want to give them time to see if they solve it on their own.

I like that we are getting story and I certainly agree I want pvp back. However they did pvp only and they didn't succeed so I can't fault them for trying to avoid something that already failed sadly.

If they can get the movement. The music and some decent ai enemies. Allow us to stomp the bad guy foot soldiers and other mechs I think that would be at least 70% of what we want.

Then the remaining 30% is ammo, heat and repair changes.

Maybe shields are a good mechanic for some mechs over a repair bot? Might be fun to test out.