Some people may say you can not judge a game by how much or how little gameplay they show in a trailer.
This honestly seems like a compliment on the graphics and engine they're using. If they can fool someone who has the tag [intelligent] in their raws then they must be onto a good graphical to gameplay balance. Though of course, some people may say that people who self aggrandize aren't really all they make themselves out to be
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the gameplay shown is fucking old and stale.
No question about that, seems like a sped up and more opened up version of slai to be honest. I wish people made more games like Heavygear where the mechs were in balance with everything else and the gameplay was much more unforgiven given the similarilties with the real world.
Oh, a machinegun and rockets. Yes... Because i don't already have those in other mech games that i can play already and run reliably on a computer that isn't the "super" kind.
I think you're over looking one very important aspect with recycled settings, that is, that the content of the game is just one part of the experience it gives. Yes, this game does copy a lot of stuff from other games of the genre, but so does every game. The content of the game can make the game, The Void for example, but in a more comprehensive review of games you also have to take into account how the mechanics and structure of the game relate to the content within it. If all there is is content, then all you have a picture.
Likewise, judging a game solely on its content is also a bad explanation for why it is bad. There are games out there that don't do anything out of the ordinary content wise, but the mechanics, the execution, and the general way in which it's laid and played out put it above its competitors. Furthermore, complaining about the presence of guns and rockets explains about as much about the game as complaining that the concept of the game operates in a three dimensional plane, something that almost all games do, or that the game incorporates metallic structures, again that almost all games do. These things are at most personal preferences, it's something that no one can fault with the holder of those preferences, but if you're striving for an objective complaint you need to look at more than just the generalizations and the categories they fall into.
How the guns work, how they impact the rest of the game, how they relate to the rest of the game, as well as how it feels overall is going to be a factor. Not all machine guns and rockets in games are the same. There are machine guns that are merely there because video game weapon tropes demand that there be one even if there isn't really a use for them, machine guns that feel like you're shooting a rapid fire potato gun with the model and the sounds merely put there due to the necessity of them being there with no inspiration or competence at all; there are machine guns that inspires you every time the belt is fed and the muzzle lights up, where the you've just made the world a better place just by squeezing the trigger; and then there are machine guns that look like shit and sound like an enthusiastic intern with bubble wrap but the way in which they affect the rest of the game not only makes them indefeasible, but also looked up upon due to their status.
To conclude, the things you mentioned might be indicative of lazy design and imagination, but given the eccentricity of the setting, I'd say that it's not likely.
Y online = What the Hawken trailer would have you believe
With your mistaken assumption aside, I think you're being quite unfair to the developers and the trailer itself. It's not really promising anything, their website is quite barren compared to other games. For all intents and purposes, we can't really say we know very much about what the game is promising, in fact I think the trailor demonstrated the exact opposite of what you accuse them of. Compared to other trailers that either show the opening CG intro or intersperse short series of action with sudden shots of gimmicky words that try to allude to "features" that may just as well be the base line for games of that genre, the Hawken trailer at this point only shows gameplay from what I could tell.