Looking for a retro, Diablo-like, adventure game? You may want to check out Crackshell’s Hammerwatch 2. This game is a pixelated, action, roleplaying game designed with a top down perspective. You’ll go on a journey completing quests, exploring dungeons, and defeating powerful bosses, all while progressing the story, should you so choose. However, it has a few problems in terms of its visuals, gameplay, and performance.
Pixel Power
If you’re a fan of pixel art, you won’t be disappointed with Hammerwatch 2’s visuals. Everything from the menus to the effects is crafted with some quite commendable pixel artistry. I have to admit, the overall presentation really pulled me into the world. What I liked most was how the caves and dungeons felt so dark and gloomy. Rays of light would cast down from the cracks in the ceiling. Creatures lurked in the shadows. The sound of rushing water would fill the air. All of this and more worked to make these places feel alive.
On another note, one neat little feature that you’ll find in the display settings is the ability to turn on an effect that makes the screen curve like that of old CRT televisions. It feels a bit jarring to have this on while playing on a modern television, but this may be something you can utilize if you’ve got some older hardware.
Not all of it is perfect though. For instance, when you get to the surface, the lighting can be a bit too bright depending on the time of day. Luckily, the game features some settings to adjust the contrast and gamma levels to your liking. I appreciated being able to control this, but I found myself going back and forth between brighter and darker settings whenever it was dark or sunny out.
Another area that is a bit rough when it comes to the visuals is the game’s map. There is no minimap that shows your local location, so you have to rely on the map in your journal. For a game that delivers a strong visual presentation, I was surprised to see that the map was lacking in this area.
What the map does right is that it features the names of various towns and locations that you can go to, and it even shows the roads that lead to them. However, that is all you get. There is no icon that shows your location, nor are there any quest markers to guide you. Also, you can’t place down your own markers or stamps to keep track of where things are. Furthermore, the map itself looks very bland. There could have been a bit more detail added to make the map look more like that of a cartographer’s map.
Aside from that, Hammerwatch 2 still achieves some captivating visuals that enhances your exploration and combat encounters.
Creating the Hero
Hammerwatch 2’s gameplay feels great, at least when it isn’t frustrating.
Upon starting a new game, you’ll be given a handful of options to customize your character. To name a few, these involve picking a class, choosing a voice, and coloring your armor. I was excited to see that Hammerwatch 2 features five classes to pick from. These are the Wizard, Paladin, Rogue, Warlock, and Ranger.
On my first playthrough, I chose the Wizard. The class boasted a decent array of abilities that allowed me to pass through enemies, give myself magic armor, and launch fireballs at my foes.
However, I had way more fun with the Paladin class on my second playthrough. The Paladin comes equipped much like your standard fighter class, but it still utilizes some magic abilities. My favorite of these abilities has to be the hammer throw. This helps in combat when you are dealing with large groups of enemies. Once you throw it, the hammer will bounce from enemy to enemy, dealing huge amounts of damage. Plus, it makes you feel a lot like Thor.
I won’t spoil the other classes, but they all feel great to use, especially when you get them to a higher level and unlock more abilities.
Also, you can invite your friends over if you want to do some co-op in Hammerwatch 2. It definitely adds to the gameplay experience when you all join up to take on a boss together. In a recent update, you and your friends can each export your respective character saves so that way you can still use your characters in your own worlds.
Fighting and Fetching
The combat and skill system in Hammerwatch 2 is where it shines the most. Combat is punchy and satisfying, and the enemies provide a great challenge, even on the normal difficulty level. The same goes for the game’s various bosses. They are all designed in a unique way akin to what theme they are. This makes them feel a lot like Dark Souls bosses with their unique abilities and combat techniques.
Defeating certain enemies or bosses will net you with experience and some possible new gear. The gear won’t change the look of your character sprite, but they will provide you with some significant bonuses and attributes that apply to your own attributes and skills.
Speaking of skills, every time you level up, you are given a few skill and attribute points, which you can save or spend depending on what kind of build you are going for. Although, you can’t really change much since your chosen class establishes the path for leveling up.
Where the game starts to fall short is when you are tasked with completing certain quests.
On my first playthrough, I managed to clear out the first major dungeon on the starting island. However, I had to go back because I didn’t accept two vital quests that I needed to finish in order to progress to the next area. What made this harder was the fact that enemies respawn very rapidly, both in dungeons and on the surface. It also doesn’t help that there aren’t any markers or visuals that show you where to go, or at least what area you need to be in.
This makes the fetch quests extremely hard, especially when you come to a point where you have to break open certain crates to get the item. These crates don’t look any different than other ones, so when I discovered this the first time, I tediously went around the whole map breaking everything to see if any of the items were in them.
Platform Performance
Another area that significantly hinders Hammerwatch 2 is in its performance. Keep in mind, many of these issues will largely depend on which platform you own the game on. For me, I played on both the recent PS4 release, and the older PS5 version.
On PS4, the game suffers from stuttering, freezing, and a lower framerate. This made the game a real struggle to play, especially since I have sensitive eyes. During a majority of my combat encounters and exploration, the game would suddenly start to stutter. This caused a lot of my deaths in the game, and is what kept pushing me to play the PS5 version instead. The stuttering got so bad at times, I had to step away from playing to rest my eyes.
On PS5, the game runs much better. There is consistent framerate, no freezing, and no stuttering whatsoever.
In the end, Hammerwatch 2 has a lot going for it. There’s numerous quests, engaging combat, and beautiful visuals to encapsulate it all. The various problems with certain small aspects of the game, coupled with the major performance issues are what muddles the experience.
