Emmett Watkins Jr – Definitively Not Emmett Graves

Warhawk/Starhawk (2007-2012)

A video game can be a deeply complex thing, especially nowadays. The days of Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando being created in only a few months are long gone, as modern AAA releases regularly take several years to complete. But even before then, games could be little more than simple shapes moving on a two-dimensional plane and could generate hours of fun. Now, I love the epic narrative of Nier Automata, the incredible detail of The Last of Us Part II, and the endlessness of Persona 5, but I have a deep appreciation for games that do exactly, and exclusively, what they say on the tin. Warhawk is the perfect example of such a game.

Warhawk one of the purest multiplayer games ever created. There’s no deep narrative to justify these near-future battles in hovercrafts and jet packs. These battles rage on purely for the sake of creating genuinely fantastic gameplay, and that purity is what I miss a bit in some modern games. Take one of my favorites, for example, Apex Legends. The combat and movement systems are immaculate, but also, there’s a lot of specifics there to master. What attachments do I need to loot? Where do I find the best loot? Which character abilities are best tailored to my playstyle? To my other squadmates? And the questions continue and repeat every match.

In Warhawk, there are no deep strategic questions to ask, just grab a weapon and shoot, or hop in a vehicle and go. The titular aircraft are just as aggressive with their artillery as they are nimble with their maneuverability. On foot, you can carry every weapon in the game, making you a walking pillar of destruction, one that can fly if you find a jetpack. And the game does everything in its power to encourage conflict, as its objective-based modes are often the most populated, and matches without objectives take place on maps so small that combat is inevitable.

This is why I want this series to return. Warhawk has such a juvenile joy to it that I haven’t had much since the Burnout series. Every match feels more like playing toy soldiers in the same way that the Burnout games always felt like unofficial Hot Wheels titles. The spiritual successor, Starhawk, was just as fun, but the fact it had a full universe of proper nouns and specific characters subtracted from the universality of the original game’s generic world. I think that vibe deserves to come back in some way, even if it’s through a downloadable title rather than a full AAA release. I mean, there’s a reason players have found several workarounds to keep the game alive through closed servers and 2 succeeding consoles.

There you have it, our choices for the dormant game series we’d like to see return. Remember to follow the VGU.tv Twitter, subscribe to the VGU YouTube channel, and be kind to one another.