Warhawk Re-Imagined
I got a surprise issue of Electronics Gaming Monthly in the mail this last week --- surprising because I don't subscribe (I subscribe to Computer Gaming World, which is published by the same company). This was an E3 round-up issue, and it includes a lengthy summary of Warhawk for the PS3.

I like talking about Warhawk because the original, PS1 version was probably my favorite game development experience. Part of it is no doubt because it was tied with Twisted Metal as my first professional game development experience. It was a wild concept and a tremendous amount of fun to work on. It garnered great reviews - the most negative things said about it were about the (admittedly) atrocious FMV cut-scenes and the length of the game (which was too short). It sold pretty well... not Twisted Metal numbers, but I understand it was over a million copies before the end of it's run (a lot of those were budget "Greatest Hits" releases).

At one point I was on a design team that created a design document for Warhawk II. I don't remember what all was in it, except that it was going to include some missions in space, multiplayer gaming options, and some wild reality-bending environments. I think we might have kept Kreel as the bad guy, even though we all felt a little bit of embarassment about him from the FMV. But hey, it was done, he was out there, the game was popular, we might as well stick with it. We sent the design to Sony, but the project was never green-lit for development.

I read in the preview in EGM that Warhawk PS3 is a "reimagining" of the original. I'm not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, that's a big "duh" - it's way too late for a sequel, or a prequel, and I'm sure it's amazing what can be done on modern hardware. I'd pretty much start with a brand new game bearing the Warhawk moniker and keeping the stuff from the original game that was cool. Like the big mechanical bosses, and the retro-sci-fi enemies. So I'd undoubtably do the same thing.

But there's still a part of me says, "Reimagining? What was wrong with the first imagining?" I'm still very proud of the original game and what we accomplished. But I'm sure it could be improved upon.

Really, it all just comes down to hoping they do a great job with it.

Labels: Mainstream Games, retro

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