Hawken: Hawkening

When Hawken originally exploded onto the PC gaming scene in 2012, it was hailed as a visual and mechanical revelation. It abandoned the lumbering, slow-motion simulation of traditional tank-like mech games in favor of high-speed verticality, intense thruster dogfights, and immersive, screen-shaking cockpit perspective. Following the closure of the official commercial servers in 2018, the game was considered lost to history. Hawken: Hawkening is the triumphant, community-led resurrection that reverse-engineered the network backend, restored matchmaking, and revived dedicated 6v6 arena warfare for pilots around the globe.

At the core of Hawkening's thrill is its masterclass in mech combat design. You are not a camera floating above a robot; you are locked into a cramped, vibrating cockpit surrounded by analog CRT displays, thruster gauges, heat dials, and mechanical diagnostic readouts. Movement is defined by the boost dodge system—a high-risk, high-reward burst of kinetic lateral propulsion that lets agile mechs juke incoming rocket salvos, leap across ruined rooftops, and flank heavily armored brawlers in tight industrial choke points. Balancing your thruster fuel and weapon heat is constant and demanding: redline your weapons, and your cannons lock up while enemy autocannons shred your composite plating.

Team composition is everything. Hawkening features three distinct mech weight classes spanning specialized roles: agile scout skirmishers like the Berserker and Raider, frontline medium assault chassis like the CR-T and Assault, and hulking heavy artillery titans like the Brawler and Vanguard. Matches take place across striking, dystopian cyberpunk industrial complexes and smog-choked scrap canyons, where vertical positioning and team crossfire determine victory across modes like Team Deathmatch and Missile Assault.

We picked Hawken: Hawkening because it represents everything PlayBound stands for: preserving irreplaceable, peerless multiplayer masterpieces that the commercial games industry abandoned, keeping community servers thriving, and providing seamless one-click onboarding for new pilots to strap in and fight.