Review - HEROES OF HAMMERWATCH - Hammered by the grind

So, the new Hammerwatch by Crackshell (I assume that horrible website was made as a joke?😅) is now a proper "roguelite", with procedurally generated levels, which really improves the replayability which was somewhat limited in the first game.
Unfortunately, it's also a bit frustrating at times, and eventually becomes way too grindy, although the developer seems to want to balance it out in the recent updates.

WHAT IS IT?

A top-down view real-time action roguelite with permanent upgrades, a la Rogue Legacy.

You start your adventure in Outlook, a nice looking town which seems to experience an endless winter, but the cozy houses and lights make up for a warm atmosphere overall.
Alas, this apparent warmth hides a dark evil secret lying in the depths-eeer I mean heights of the mountain.(you'll keep going up in the mines, not down.)

 You have a decent choice between the 7 customizable characters (the same in the first game), each offering you a completely different gameplay style!

In order: Paladin, Priest, Ranger, Sorcerer, Thief, Warlock, and Wizard!

There are no "real" quests, so to speak, since the friendly NPCs in town just ask you in general some help to rebuild some houses, or bring some ore, but basically, everybody will need more or less the same thing: to go kick some monster butts in the mines.🤠

Most of the XP you get will be from killing the endless hordes of enemies in these dangerous mines, while avoiding countless traps, and hopefully, if you find some puzzles on your way, finding some nice loot too!😄

TIP!

The game seems open-ended, and while the level cap is 20,  every time you start a "New Game +", your level cap is increased by 5. Example: NG++ lvl cap=30

The town can also be "upgraded" with the ore you'll find during your endless scavenging hunts.
These upgrades will consist of new buildings and people who will let you have access to various enhancements for your heroes.

Back to the comparison with Rogue Legacy... 
In Rogue Legacy, EVERY time you played and died and went back to the castle, at least you always had enough money to buy an upgrade, unlock a skill, or buy better gear.
Everything was balanced PERFECTLY. Even in NG+.
This WON'T be the case in Heroes of Hammerwatch.
The first few runs will make you think so, until you reach very fast a wall(around level 8-9) and can't progress unless you try VERY hard.
Either because some insanely strong monsters kill you instantly, or you forgot to send your ore back to town, or you simply just don't find enough ore anymore and don't get enough xp either, anyway your progress will just come to an abrupt halt.
Leveling up will also take ridiculous amounts of time, to a point that you'll just lose motivation to keep trying.

ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY

Being surrounded in a dark corner of a cave by a hundred of hungry monsters, my greatest dream.

On the Steam forums, Hardcore gamers have pressured the developer to make the game as painfully hard as possible, because that's the only way they can enjoy life. Yes, pain is a source of joy for some people.   So, you'll "enjoy" on every new update harder enemies, more deadly traps, unkillable bosses, and impossible to meet requirements to unlock new skills or upgrade your gear. Not mentioning the respawning enemies in the third area who will rape you in a corner of the map.

STILL ADDICTIVE DESPITE THE FLAWS

Despite the crazy difficulty and grinding, the new roguelite mechanics make the Hammerwatch formula much more addictive than it ever was.
Even when you won't last long in the mines, that won't stop you from starting over right away and going back, at least until you reach level 8-9, when the game slows down dramatically and that you realize that you'll have to die 50 times in order to get enough ore to unlock more skills and buildings.
At that point, every little thing that you'll unlock will feel like a major accomplishment and you'll surprise yourself laughing like an idiot when you finally get speed +0.3 boots. yay.

The somewhat fast-paced gameplay helps preventing you from getting too bored, or frustrated because of too many deaths.

Once you cleared a whole area, it'll unlock this portal which you'll be able to use in future runs to have access directly to the next area. Very convenient... But after entering this portal, you'll have to face 6 waves of enemies to reach the next area.

What did I tell you? 😝 Beating every wave of enemy will grant you a powerful item so, good luck!

On the other hand, despite being fast-paced, the character walks quite slowly.
Especially once you've cleared a floor, having to go back to the part where you can send ore back to town feels a bit slow and boring.
And even if it's "realistic", the slowing down while attacking(while shooting arrows, for example) is too extreme. (edit: it has been a bit improved in the latest patches)
So, don't hesitate to spend money on faster boots!

The game has loads of content, and we barely scratched the surface.
Replayability is VERY good thanks to the numerous different characters you can play.
The loot is satisfying, and you'll need to play a very long time to discover the hundreds(maybe thousands?) of unique items, but we couldn't tell if their stats were randomly generated or not.

One of the fun parts of exploring dungeons is finding some puzzle areas, which are literally mini-games, in some cases.

Push the button and try to memorize where each sign is!

In some cases, you'll be wondering how to be able to reach a chest without dying.
Don't give up and try to figure it out, there's always a way! 

TIP!

Look out for cracks in walls, they can be broken down and usually contain treasures! And there are loooots of these secrets in the game.😉

We haven't tested multiplayer but what we do know is that it doesn't have local co-op at the moment, which is a MAJOR letdown.
The developer might have good news about it though:
"We really like local play, but this game won't have that until after release (perhaps) cause we need to figure out the best way of doing that. Just getting multiplayer in a game like this is pretty unique, even if it's not local play."
We'll see!😊

AREA 1 - WORMS APOCALYPSE	AREA 2 - ARCHER HELL
AREA 3 - GHOSTS NIGHTMARE	AREA 4?

VASTLY IMPROVED CONTROLS

Compared to the first Hammerwatch, the controls are a huge improvement, whether you use a gamepad or keyboard.
In the first game, you couldn't even configure the keys so that it plays like a proper "twin-stick shooter", unlike the sequel!
You actually couldn't even walk backwards and attack at the same time, which made it feel like the old Gauntlet games.

The one thing we found better in the first game is the walking speed, like we already mentioned once.
But now that you can use the mouse to look around and control your aiming, you won't look back, I guarantee you.
Overall, Heroes of Hammerwatch feels much, MUCH better.😎👍 

LOVELY SUPER NES GRAPHICS

The game looks like a Super Nes RPG, except with HD resolutions available, and very nice lighting effects, which have been even improved further from the first game.
Lights have always been one of the trademarks of the Hammerwatch world, and help creating this mystical yet comfortable atmosphere.
The game never feels creepy, even when you fight disgusting gigantic worms spitting poisoned acid on you. 😱

The night is so pretty... Waaaah I don't want to go back to the mines!😢 I just want to walk around the town and relax!

The weather effects in town are gorgeous, and the snow especially might be the best I've ever seen in a 2D pixel art game. 

NICE MUSIC BUT EVEN BETTER ENVIRONMENT SOUNDS

Not much to say, it works well.
Nothing memorable either, but the music blends well with the gameplay.
It doesn't have extremely loud leads or aggressive drums like in so many games nowadays, and that's already a lot.

If you find the music too repetitive, you might want to disable it completely, and be pleasantly surprised by the ambient sound in the background, which enhance the atmosphere drastically, and make the game more immersive. You have to raise the volume though.
(with the music on, it's not noticeable.)

Sound effects are quite disappointing.
They seem to be the same which were used in the first game, and they were already underwhelming back then.
 

A WORD ABOUT OPTIMIZATION

Heroes of Hammerwatch is "just" a 2D game, but it manages to make our computers noisy.
Our GPU fans are doing their best to cool off the system... 😲
Maybe it's because it uses Directx11?

RATING BOX

	(VERSION TESTED: Patch 74) Publisher: Crackshell Developer: Crackshell Release Date: March 1, 2018  Genre: roguelike, dungeon crawler, RPG   1-4 PLAYERS Difficulty: Impossible
GRAPHICS: 87%
If you grew up with the Megadrive and Super Nintendo, you can't help feeling nostalgic when you see these cute pixels, enhanced by a modern engine which allows us to enjoy very nice ambient lights and gorgeous weather effects. (too bad we're underground most of the time though.😄)
MUSIC: 74%
Not our style at GMG. Melodies aren't memorable, and instruments don't fit well the game style.
SOUNDS: 70%
The developer was a bit lazy to reuse the average sounds of the first game.
GAMEPLAY: 68%
Procedural generation mixed with permanent upgrades usually means a very addictive mix in any roguelite... Unfortunately, the difficulty makes the progress come to a halt pretty fast and eventually infuriates you. Game is pretty simple, eventually repetitive, and at the moment, still a bit rough on the edges.
OVERALL RATING: 75%
Heroes of Hammerwatch is a very difficult game to rate... It's a success and an improvement over the first game in almost every way, but sadly, the game has been "balanced" for hardcore gamers who like to grind for hours. The core gameplay is actually great, and if eventually the developer balances it out, OR adds different levels of difficulty, it could become much better.

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