With the announcement and release of the disastrous Hawken Reborn, it made me reminisce about the original Hawken a bit. It was everything I wanted in a shooter at the given time; it looked gorgeous for the era it was released in with a dense, captivating art style. The mech design was meaty and cool while allowing a level of customization that made every mech feel distinct to its player. And most importantly, the combat gameplay itself was both fast and had that weight to it that a lot of shooters at the time just couldn't replicate barring Titanfall: you felt like you were piloting a big, beefy mech.

The only real drawback to the game at the time was the rising plague of microtransactions in shops that felt like all the best mechs or weaponry or cosmetics were heavily gated behind grinding. I played a lot of the beta, but by the time the main game came out, I felt I couldn't keep up with the grind.

All in all I have a lot of fond memories of the game, being a showhorse in graphical power for its time with big fat mechs blowing shit up. The game to this day still has one of the most satisfying railguns/snipers I've used in a videogame. I might hunt down some private servers and reminisce some more.