E3 2011 First Impressions - STARHAWK was Surprisingly Awesome

***It’s hard to give a full review on a game while at E3 because usually the demos that are available to play give us only around 10-15 minutes of gameplay time. So there will be a series of first impression reviews for the demos that I get to play while I’m here.***

I was introduced to the new video game Starhawk yesterday when the trailer was revealed at the Sony resentation. I thought that game looked like it could be fun, but didn't think it would be worth buying. I was wrong, and Starhawk actually turned out to be pretty freakin' awesome. After playing it I think it is something I would pick up.

After struggling with the inverted controls in the beginning, I fixed it and jumped right into to some awesome capture the flag multiplayer action. Running around a great stylist landscape, with a lot of madness going on around you. This game is fast paced and you have to think fast to stay alive. The graphics look incredible, and they kind of reminded me of the same gameplay as Gears of War, only this seemed to move a lot smoother. I really liked the designs and style of the game.  

One of the major cool aspects of the game that was really cool and interesting, is a system called “Build n' Battle" in which players are encouraged to build structures such as bunkers, defenses, vehicles and armories right in the middle of battle. So it's a real-time strategy game, at the same time it is a great looking fast-paced third-person shooter, and I loved that about it. It also surprisingly included some awesome playable flying mechs to play and kill with.

I really had a blast playing this game and recommend you check it out when it is released next year. I think any gamer would have a great time with it.

Here’s the synopsis for the game:

In Starhawk the universe is in the future. Set in a distant colony called the Frontier, the Frontier was home of a massive battle after the Rush. The Rush was when all of the rift energy miners, commonly known as Rifters, were mining for rift energy, but it was extraordinarily powerful, and transformed miners into mutants.

The hero of the game is Emmett Graves, a man who was running a family business with his brother running a rift mining farm in the Frontier. But as is unfortunate and common on the Frontier, the farm was attacked by an Outcast warband. The rig exploded and both Emmett and his brother became infected with rift energy, which partially corrupted their bodies and to some degree turned them into the mutants known as the Outcast. The brothers' technical engineer, Sydney Cutter, who was on a drop ship up witnessing these events, made a racial slur against the Outcast warband, calling them "mangy creatures". In the developer diary he was also heard to say, "It is a shame I tell ya," in reference to the events.

Emmett asked Sydney if he could modify any of the equipment he had lying around to save him. Sydney was able to modify some of his equipment and he created a regulator to suppress Outcast tendencies and embedded it into Emmett's spine. Emmett was impressed by Sydney's technical and surgical ability but was also left in a lot of pain and cursed with the mark of the outcast warrior, just like the ones that had attacked his family run business on the distant planet in the frontier during the rush. Emmett didn't really see the irony in this and decided to abandon trying to fix his rift farm and instead decided to become a hired gun, like a gun slinger. "Anyone that comes out here either has a plan, or a problem. I came back with both," he was heard to say in the developer diary.

The brothers go to White Sands, a distant colony on the moon of Dust, which was quite distant from their distant planet on the Frontier. Whilst Emmett is the hero they needed on White Sands, he was not the hero they wanted.

Here's the Previously released Trailer: