Hawken Reborn Announced and Playable Quite Soon

2023 has been a stellar year with well-made re-imaginings of classic games. We’ve seen remakes such as Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space as well as incredible remasters with Metroid Prime Remastered and Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. On the other hand, we’ve also seen years-old franchises return with new iterations like Dead Island 2. It might be time to chalk another one up for the latter category because 505 Games has revealed a new entry in the Hawken series, called Hawken Reborn.

If that name seems vaguely familiar I wouldn’t blame you. The original f2p first-person mech shooter was released into an open beta state over a decade ago back in 2012 before expanding to consoles in 2016. While its Arena-Shooter genre kept it unique among other mech-related shooters such as Titanfall, the small and devoted community wouldn’t be enough to prevent the servers for the PC version from eventually shutting down at the beginning of 2018.

This new title is aiming to provide a different experience. All of the enjoyment from customizing the mechs is still here and it’s free-to-play, but Hawken Reborn won’t have a multiplayer component at first. Instead, it’s heading into Early Access on Steam with single-player PvE modes only. Players will be able to explore the world of Illal in story missions as well as a Patrol mode that lets them explore more freely. Co-op modes are planned down the road and the return of PvP is possible, although it’s not a focus at the moment.

As someone who played the open beta of the original Hawken back in 2012 and then dabbled here and there afterward, it’s surprising and exciting to see something else come from this world. I know I can’t wait to check out this new experience when it enters Early Access on May 17th.