14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Computer Entertainment has officially announced that it is working on a spiritual successor for its old Warhawk video game, set to be launched exclusively on the PlayStation 3 home gaming console at some point during 2012.
The new game is called Starhawk and the development work on it is being done by a new studio called LightBox, which has taken on board a number of the people who have also worked on Warhawk.
The new game will be set in space and Sony says that it aims for a quick-to-play and easy-to-pick-up third-person shooter, with some complexity built in for those players who played Warhawk and for veterans of the genre.
Starhawk will include a system called Build & Battle, which is designed to allow players to drop a number of structures from space on the game maps, allowing them to create defensive strong points and to change the dynamic of a match.
The dropped structures can also be timed to actually crush enemy players although the developers say that this will be a little hard to do, meaning that run and gun skill is still the most important attribute for those interested in Starhawk.
Vehicles, both land based and aerial, will be on offer for players looking for some extra punch.
The developers at LightBox are also promising that the single player component of the game will be as developed as the multiplayer one.
The gamer will take on the role of Emmett Graves, a gunfighter who is shunned because he was exposed to something called Rift Energy, which leads to mutation.
Scott Steinberg, who is a vice president in charge of product marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment, has stated, “The combination of a run and gun, frenetic gameplay style with our advanced Build & Battle system will truly move the genre forward offering new strategic and tactical options for the player.”