Hammerwatch is an excellent Gauntlet-style game with very clever level design and its own interesting mechanics.
The game offers two main campaigns for roughly 10 to 15 hours of gameplay combined, 6 playable classes with their own gameplay style, a couple extra maps (survival and defense), as well as a variety of crutches and handicaps to ease or spice up your game.
There also is a level editor and Workshop support for custom campaigns for additional hours of gameplay. I must admit I was expecting a little more maps than what is available right now, but most of the ones available are top-quality and very creative.

Game itself can be quite challenging and won't hold your hand that much, and the two main campaigns are ridden with secrets and hidden passageways you most likely won't notice on your first playthrough if you're not careful.
As far as game mechanics go, I'll only talk about the three things I think are worth mentioning in terms of originality (the gameplay itself is nothing too fancy for this type of game, but it works fine as is).

1- There is a progression system, but it doesn't come in the form of XP earned by completing objectives or killing ennemies. Instead, you'll have to collect treasures around the levels and use that currency at traders scattered about the game to buy various upgrades (health, armor, move speed, damage, class specific active and passive skills). The Temple of the Sun campaign adds an extra layer to that system as all the traders will be in the starting zone, but you'll have to find ore in the levels and give them to the traders of your choice in order to unlock their upgrades before you can even purchase them.

2- There is a combo system (combos must be purchased at the Combo traders) where when you kill 10 ennemies or more in quick succession, your overall speed and damage will increase for as long as you can sustain the killstreak. This can be upgraded to also give you health regeneration or a damaging projectile aura while it lasts. This adds additional strategic depth as sometimes you'll have to ponder whether to combo the heck out of ennemies or hold it up if the whole mob actually is out of your league.

3- You begin the game with several lives. When you die, you just get kicked back to the last checkpoint you activated and keep on moving without reloading your game. Extra lives can be collected along the way and after you beat bosses. The interesting part is that in multiplayer games, the whole party shares those lives, which means playing recklessly will affect your teammates too.


While I warmly recommend this game for those who like the genre, it will be a lot more enjoyable if you can get to play with a group of friends. Solo play isn't that bad, but this is the type of game clearly designed for multiplayer mayhem and co-op fun.


My only pet peeve right now about this game should only be taken into account by achievement hunters.
While there are challenging and interesting achievements, if you want to 100% the game you'll also have to get through some stupidly grindy achievements as well (kill x monsters and collect x gold) that can only be achieved in the main campaigns (anything done on custom maps doesn't count towards the achievements). Since the main campaigns are the same on each playthrough, it really gets boring after the 20th run or so if you're going the legit route.

ʕ •ﻌ• ʔฅ

I don't think I saw a single Hammer.

My friend recommended this game and Ive loved it since I got it. My only question is what drunkard chose the weird controls? Like, its not a bad thing, but it takes days to get used to.

Its ok for a dungeon crawler for the price I paid, great sound, allot of grinding if you like to grind, feels like early NES zelda games.

Pros's
-Decent visuals
-Great sound and music
-Hours of gameplay
-Taps into the best of 90's console games

Con's
-Not a big fan of grinding, you may not like this
-Battle mechanics although varied for each class, still feel limited.
-Needs more boss battles and variety in enemies as you progress(what they have is decent, but there is a big list of dungeon crawlers that reign over this one for variety)

Challenge 10/10.

If Diablo had been designed for the SNES then it might look something like Hammerwatch: grind your way through hordes of identical mooks, collecting gold to purchase upgrades.

It's an even less interesting Skinner box than Diablo, however, with negligible enemy variety and an utterly tedious upgrade system. There is minimal skill development and no fancy equipment to find. There is no XP so no reward for killing enemies per se; they're just obstacles between you and the gold, of which you need to collect thousands upon thousands of pieces to purchase small and usually uninteresting upgrades.

This just contributes to the tedium of murdering identical hordes of hundreds upon hundreds of easily-killed enemies: no reward other than a few gold and advancement to the next room filled with the same opponents. (Later enemies do at least use new sprites rather than just pallette swaps, but the behaviour of bugs and eyeballs and skeletons is nevertheless the same.)

The only really notable feature is the combo system, which, when unlocked, gives you a temporary boost after killing 10 enemies in quick succession.

I kept playing at first because I thought it was just starting off dull -- as most games with level-up mechanisms do -- and then because I was too far along to give up. I regret the time wasted. It doesn't get better.

If you're looking for a retro style, dungeon-crawler game with roguelike elements, then Hammerwatch is the game for you. Either solo or with a 2-4 member party you hack and slash your way through 4 unique acts which have levels (and bonus levels) within them. New enemies are progressively introduced as well as having a boss level at the end of each act. There are five character classes for you to choose from (Knight, Wizard, Ranger, Warlock and Thief) and each character has its own unique trait specific to its class.

With all of the above being said, the game can be quick to get repetitive unless you switch it up often with the characters and the pre-game options. (Such as, shared mana pools, no hp pick ups, no extra lives etc.) I found the game to be most fun when at its most challenging. However, even though the game is repetitive, you can definitely burn quite a good few hours with it: I've played around 60 hours and I still plan on playing more.

Another problem I encountered is more of a community issue. Unless you have friends who want to play with you already or if you happen to be lucky at a certain time of day, jumping into a random game doesn't often get you very far. People are quick to just kick you instantly - which once or twice isn't so bad but I've actually given up on playing the game completely on a number of occasions because everyone that was online just kicked me. However it's not all bad, as I have made quite a few good friends that I wouldn't have had before without this game.

I recommend this game to anyone wanting a fun dungeon-crawler to play that you can enable or disable the roguelike feature at will.

I picked up a four pack the other day and tossed the extra copies to my friends. At one point about two hours in we found ourselves in a situation where we had to deal with one of those lurkers that shoot spikes from the ground. To give our ranger the space to kill the lurker we needed to clear away all of the giant worms that were guarding it. Our thief ran in, threw his knives to get the worms' attention, then ran back around the corner where my paladin was waiting. As the worms circled around the corner to chase our thief they ran into my sword, and while a couple managed to poison me, our priest standing behind me had his healing beam running to keep me topped off. We killed off the horde and the ranger gave us the all-clear that the lurker was dead and the rest of us joined him in the lurker's lair to clear out to the booty.

It was at this moment I said over voice chat to my friends, "This game is awesome. Do you want to know what dungeon-crawler I believe Hammerwatch is ten times better than?"

My friends responded "Diablo 3?"

"Yeah, Diablo 3."

I feel so ashamed. I have neglected my wife and children for the last 2 days. Do not buy this game if you care about your family. Wait! I have a better idea. Buy 4 copies and play co-op.

Hammerwatch is definitely a game with a lot of effort and a lot of potential. From the comfortable pixel-art visuals, to the simple Gauntlet-style gameplay, I spent a good number of hours playing just through half of the game's basic campaign with a few friends and enjoyed it. Each choosable class feels different from one another, and as you progress, you can further your abilities to defeat swarms of tougher monsters. There's a few problems with the game, such as graphic bugs here and there, but they're few and far between. Top it off with a map editor that has as much potential as a set of dev tools, and Hammerwatch is definitely worth the $10.