Hawked is a new extraction shooter looking for playtesters this weekend

Hawked (opens in new tab) is a new PvPvE extraction shooter that sends players off on a quest for treasure and mysterious artifacts on a strange, remote island, where they’ll also have to battle aggressive monsters—and each other—in order to get away in one piece, naturally. An early access release is expected in 2023, but if you’d like to get a taste of what it’s all about right now, or if you’re just looking for something new to play this weekend, you can sign up for the closed alpha test that kicked off today on Steam.

The premise is pretty straightforward—X-Isle (Exile—get it?) is a repository of powerful artifacts from a lost civilization, but the current inhabitants don’t want to give them up. It thus falls to the treasure-hunting mercenaries known as Renegades to get the job done. It’s not the most coherent narrative ever, but action is the focus, and to that end you’ll be able to customize your characters with unique weapons, equipment, and abilities in order to solve puzzles, dodge traps, and do lots of shooting “in an ever-evolving world filled with mountains, jungles, and ancient temples.”