Hammerwatch II

Hammerwatch 2 is not a bad game but it has a disrespectful amount of timewasting. Be ready to sift through hundreds of journal entries to read where to go, or which NPC to talk to, because the game doesn't explain anything (even for main quests). In HW1 NPCs had unique icons based on what they sell, in HW2 it's just a $ icon - hope you can remember what they sell because the game won't tell you! The map can't be zoomed out and quests aren't displayed until you're close to the relevant NPC so you'll just wander round like a headless chicken half the time. There's too much backtracking between copy/paste side areas, fighting the same enemies, and getting nothing to show for it. The loot is abysmal. Side quests aren't worth doing as you can grind more XP by killing mobs in less time than it takes to do the quest, and they're TIED TO PLAYTIME so you can fail by exploring the map. For example you need to gather 10 grapes, you find 5, then rest at the inn to respawn the collection point - quest failed, you took too long. But I literally couldn't get more grapes without resting?? If you buy/own this I would recommend ONLY playing the main quests and skip any side content. It's genuinely not worth the time.

Only recommended in co-op. Hammerwatch 2 expands on the original with a much larger and more open world, considerably more freedom. Horewer, this openness comes at a cost: the game feels empty, with more travelling, farming and grinding. 100% Completion Time : 75.1H Completion Difficulty : 6/10 Playthroughs : 5 Missables : None Notable requirements : Complete the game on the highest difficulty and with all classes, kill-related achievements.

Hammerwatch II próbuje rozwinąć prostą formułę pierwszej części w znacznie większego action RPG z otwartym światem, zadaniami, klasami postaci i kooperacją. Pomysł był bardzo dobry, ale wykonanie pozostawia sporo do życzenia. Walka początkowo daje sporo frajdy. Rozwijamy bohatera, zdobywamy wyposażenie, eksplorujemy lochy, wykonujemy zadania i walczymy z hordami przeciwników. Pixelowa oprawa również ma swój urok. Niestety szybko wychodzą problemy z balansem, mało czytelnym projektowaniem zadań i map oraz niepotrzebnie uciążliwymi elementami eksploracji. Gra potrafi bardziej męczyć niż zachęcać do odkrywania świata. Najbardziej boli kooperacja, która powinna być jednym z fundamentów Hammerwatch II, a przez długi czas cierpiała na problemy techniczne i rozłączenia. Potencjał na świetnego oldschoolowego RPG zdecydowanie tutaj był, ale zabrakło dopracowania i wygody znanej z najlepszych przedstawicieli gatunku. Nie polecam.

This review is from the perspective of the Wizard Class(My favourite Hammerwatch class) on Serious mode(Hardest difficulty). After finishing the first Hammerwatch Game, I was eager to give this a go. I cannot however recommend it. I finished Hammerwatch on Serious mode and despite the difficulty, it never felt unfair. Hammerwatch 2 however, is a slog to get through. There is a distinct lack of reward for exploration (The odd chest here or there if you're lucky) and if you venture off even slightly under levelled, you'll be torn to shreds, sent back a long walk away to the nearest town and lose 60% of your current gold. This makes the 'Open World' feel like very linear experience and the lack of damage dealing capabilities against large health pools, makes the combat rather tedious. No more are you getting combos and shredding through foes as you dodge and weave their attacks. Instead, you'll be constantly retreating, taking pot shots around corners to avoid getting one-shot by the 3 archers, 4 soldiers and Wizard chasing you. Currently stuck on the Thieves tower, where the boss is doing so much(and me so little) damage, that i'm not sure I can be bothered to spend the hours grinding a win.

I really don't understand the negative press around this game. I'm having a blast, it is simple enough to be able to pick up and play whenever, and deep enough to make you WANT to come back and dive back in. The combat is snappy and fun, a good balance of risk and reward, I'm playing the rogue and I can already feel a really strong build coming along, which is kind of what I like in games. I like building a character up from being wrecked from a trash mob... to smashing an final boss with next to no difficulty... This game really scratches that itch and I'm already planning my next character for when I've completed story with my rogue. The pixel art is amazing, it's vibrant and full of character, paying homage to older retro CRPG's whilst looking modern in it's fidelity, equally the world design is great, there's been multiple occasions where I've been traversing a dungeon, made it to the end and then came out of the dungeon into a room I could not access in a dungeon I had explored earlier... this is great game design to me. Making you feel that the world is connected and not just a series of dungeons connected by a overworld map. That being said though some of the passageways in the dungeons are too narrow and you can/will get stuck when it looks like you should be able to walk without hinderance. This has led to a couple of tense moments when I've ended up getting swarmed by a group of enemies. This is always annoying, as a death by this is not my fault, it's the fault of the developers. The game says it "Supports Your Controller" - Which it does, but not AMAZINGLY. There's some weird issues with the controller support, there was no button mapped for potions, which was easily mapped but realistically should of been programmed in by the devs. When access to "quick access" inventory the game gets confused between input of your joystick and reads it as both the joystick and a cursor movement. Which makes navigating this menu an absolute chore. If you know you're going into a dungeon make sure you have everything equipped and ready to go before you enter to avoid this menu as it's not easy to navigate whatsoever. This along with some other strange input issues where the game will allow you to use the D-Pad to navigate and then just seemingly stop allowing you for what seems like for nothing but the fun of it. This alongside the aforementioned really don't take too much away from the moment to moment gameplay, when it comes to navigation and battling the many foes you'll face, the controller works amazingly. But still, this needs mentioned as it is frustrating. Hammerwatch 2 is not a "Gauntlet" style game like the original or a Rogue-lite like Heroes of Hammerwatch 1&2 it is a ARPG more akin to Diablo etc. This may be a detractor to a lot of folks who want that more "one more run" experience, this (as far as I've heard) is a 30 hour campaign with one character. The one reservation I have about this is that you get locked in to your class from before you even start the game, and then you have to stay with that character you chose until you either complete the game or start it again. This would not be a bad thing if you rapidly realised you were not feeling the class you chose 1 hour in, but if you've put 10-15+ hours into a character and then you no longer felt that class was working for you, as far as I can tell... there's no way to change class so you'll just have to start again. Which would suck. I plan on getting my pals into this game and having a full party of 4 delving into dungeons and smashing beetles under our boots, I think that will be when this game is at it's absolute best. Even still, playing solo as I am now, is still a tonne of fun. This games main flaws (to me at least) are entirely due to some poor design choices made by the devs which have occasionally knocked my immersion and took me out of the experience, but when the game is good. It's very good and I would definitely recommend a purchase, if you can get it on sale.

The idea of this game is great, but the execution is horrible. 1. The controls are abyssmal. Game is not optimized for controller at all. Everytiing is annoying. input is sluggish, and if you happen to press the wrong combination of buttons, the skill wheel might pop up in the middle of a battle, and you die. If you want to attack with your tome (wizard) instead of your wand.. sometimes nothing happens when you press the assigned button. managing your inventory is annoyingly tedious. 2. most monsters take Way too long to kill. It gets really booring. And on top of that, everyrhing respawns all the time. Going back to previous locations normally means killing everything yet again... new killing grind. 3. Game is more annoying than fun. I would really love to see a game in this exact style done right. It's got some nice RPG elements mixed in with the usual hack n slash.. 4. There are way too much walking, Some levels are way to big and repetetive .. it gets boring. map should also have been zoomable.. but it's not. minimap would also have been nice. Don't get this game unless its part of some cheap bundle.

Loved the first game, even enjoyed heroes of hammerwatch, but this? An abandoned downgrade. Avoid it.

One of my favorite games in recent times. Very very fun indie game with tons of replay value (in terms of what class you play) and super fun to play with a group of friends. Can be a little buggy at times but still very fun, 9/10