I'm going to start with the cons of HAWKEN, because there are a few: HAWKEN is tough, infuriating, unbalanced, unforgiving, and very, very free-to-play in all the best and all the worst ways.
The game suffers from Call of Duty syndrome, there will always be a hell of a lot of people so much better than you. Getting over that first initial hill is tough, but once you get good, the game gets good too. You won't always come out of a HAWKEN match with a positive KDR, in fact more often than not you'll have a very, very negative one, but when you do the game does a great job of making it very satisfying.
The game can be very infuriating. There's no real saving grace for someone dying a lot before they've gotten good. It can easily cost a team the round. If you're dying a lot from a single person or a few people and your team seems to be doing alright, chances are you'd be better off leaving the game. Sure, you lose the XP, but you'd get far more for your time finding a more balanced game. Matchmaking needs a little bit of work.
There are a few mechs that are quite obviously more powerful than the rest, and as you can imagine those are the ones you can unlock with Meteor Creds (mentioned later) and not Hawken Creds. They can still be taken down but they're a whole lot tougher.
Like most FTP games, HAWKEN has two currencies: Hawken Credits and Meteor Coins. As one can expect, Meteor Coins are what you can buy with real money from your Steam wallet and Hawken Credits come from playing the game. Both can be used to buy items and new mechs, but it requires much fewer Meteor Creds than Hawken Creds. This does not help with the balance of the game, and makes it a little grindy.
And now the pros:
HAWKEN has a lot of really fun game modes, particularly the co-op ones versus the AI. The AI is still formidable but not unbalanced like it would be fighting a player-controlled team. This is where the game REALLY shines in my opinion, its still fun and competitive but not rage-enducing. It keeps you coming back for more instead of making you want to quit like the PvP game modes. The co-op modes make the game worth all of the cons, because many of the cons dont exist in the co-op modes.
The game itself is beautiful. Between the god rays and map artstyle, let alone the animations, it is a wonderfully pretty game. I really wish there was a mode in which I could explore each map without the need for players trying to kill me. The mechs have an artstyle somewhere between the militarial vehicle of the far-flung future and a cyber/steampunk the likes of which Deus Ex strives to reach. I absolutely love the artstyle of HAWKEN.
In short, HAWKEN is a fun and interesting game the likes of which Free to Play hasn't seen until now. Get a group of friends and go play some HAWKEN! PvP: 7.5/10 Co-Op: 9/10

I'm going to start with the cons of HAWKEN, because there are a few: HAWKEN is tough, infuriating, unbalanced, unforgiving, and very, very free-to-play in all the best and all the worst ways. The game suffers from Call of Duty syndrome, there will always be a hell of a lot of people so much better than you. Getting over that first initial hill is tough, but once you get good, the game gets good too. You won't always come out of a HAWKEN match with a positive KDR, in fact more often than not you'll have a very, very negative one, but when you do the game does a great job of making it very satisfying. The game can be very infuriating. There's no real saving grace for someone dying a lot before they've gotten good. It can easily cost a team the round. If you're dying a lot from a single person or a few people and your team seems to be doing alright, chances are you'd be better off leaving the game. Sure, you lose the XP, but you'd get far more for your time finding a more balanced game. Matchmaking needs a little bit of work. There are a few mechs that are quite obviously more powerful than the rest, and as you can imagine those are the ones you can unlock with Meteor Creds (mentioned later) and not Hawken Creds. They can still be taken down but they're a whole lot tougher. Like most FTP games, HAWKEN has two currencies: Hawken Credits and Meteor Coins. As one can expect, Meteor Coins are what you can buy with real money from your Steam wallet and Hawken Credits come from playing the game. Both can be used to buy items and new mechs, but it requires much fewer Meteor Creds than Hawken Creds. This does not help with the balance of the game, and makes it a little grindy. And now the pros: HAWKEN has a lot of really fun game modes, particularly the co-op ones versus the AI. The AI is still formidable but not unbalanced like it would be fighting a player-controlled team. This is where the game REALLY shines in my opinion, its still fun and competitive but not rage-enducing. It keeps you coming back for more instead of making you want to quit like the PvP game modes. The co-op modes make the game worth all of the cons, because many of the cons dont exist in the co-op modes. The game itself is beautiful. Between the god rays and map artstyle, let alone the animations, it is a wonderfully pretty game. I really wish there was a mode in which I could explore each map without the need for players trying to kill me. The mechs have an artstyle somewhere between the militarial vehicle of the far-flung future and a cyber/steampunk the likes of which Deus Ex strives to reach. I absolutely love the artstyle of HAWKEN. In short, HAWKEN is a fun and interesting game the likes of which Free to Play hasn't seen until now. Get a group of friends and go play some HAWKEN! PvP: 7.5/10 Co-Op: 9/10