Hammerfight

 PC
Metascore
tbd

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User Score
5.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 53 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 53
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 53
  3. Negative: 25 out of 53
  1. genoforprez
    Jul 27, 2011
    5
    I picked up Hammerfight as part of Humble Indie Bundle 3, having never heard of it before, and my reaction to it is bittersweet, but sadly aI picked up Hammerfight as part of Humble Indie Bundle 3, having never heard of it before, and my reaction to it is bittersweet, but sadly a little more on the bitter side. The game deserves points for inventing a simple but interesting gameplay mechanic that's extremely satisfying when it works. (Emphasis: when it works.) The idea is that your mouse controls a robot with a weapon hanging from the bottom. By sweeping your mouse in circular motions, you simulate centripetal force, which causes the weapon to whirl around your little robot. Once you get the weapon in motion, you need to bring it crashing into an enemy to deal damage. I can honestly say that it is extremely satisfying to get your weapon whirling at an incredible speed and slam it into an enemy with such force that it sends them crashing into the wall or floor, damaging the environment and leaving the enemy stunned.

    So what's the problem? There are actually several. The first is that the game tries too hard to be more than what it is. It tries to have characters, an epic story spanning across multiple chapters (which are really just encounters), and challenges. In some games, this isn't a bad idea, but when the core mechanic of your game boils down to sweeping your mouse to smash stuff with a hammer and not much else, the "epic" characters and story feel like they're trying too hard and just end up frustrating you as you click like crazy to skip through them in order to smash more things with a hammer. Honestly, this game would have been one hundred times greater if it was nothing more than you and a friend or AI-opponent trying to smash each other with hammers in stand-alone versus matches or in multi-robot elimination matches. But that's not what happens here. The "challenges" are another issue...

    Generally, putting challenges in a game is a great idea. But the idea of a challenge is that it is a CHALLENGE that you give the player once they have either mastered or grasped the general principles of your game. Hammerfight gives you one tutorial match (one enemy), then a real match (one enemy), then a battle (multiple enemies plus allies), and then it immediately starts giving you challenges. For example, you are chained to the center of the screen without a weapon and must dodge an enemy with an incredibly powerful weapon for a set period of time. Why am I doing stuff like this already? I barely have the hammer-swinging principles down, and now I'm doing frustrating challenges that have nothing to do with fighting things with hammers. In short, these "challenges" come annoyingly, frustratingly early and make you feel like the real game is lying forgotten in a previous chapter somewhere.

    Lastly, sadly, the hammer-swinging mechanic, which is such a fun idea and has such potential, just ends up not being used very well. When you start the game, immediately all you want to do is swing heavy objects around and smash things with them. But your enemies spend---literally---half of any battle flying off the screen where you can't reach them. When they are on screen, they move with incredible finesse and maneuver their weapons with precision. Or it at least seems that way, since your robot controls like a brick with a drinking problem. I discovered that controlling the robot is slightly less annoying if you don't let the game automatically calibrate your mouse and instead manually set the mouse sensitivity extremely high, but that unfortunately doesn't fix all the problems. (e.g., the game not informing you that you're not allowed to even *graze* walls or floors without taking damage or that you will still take damage from an enemy's hammer, even if--realistically--it's not moving fast enough to hurt a giant steel robot. But whatever.)

    So, in short, it's a really brilliant idea, and you're sure to enjoy the game you will no doubt *think* it is going to be, but like me, you'll probably end up disappointed in what the game actually is: a great idea for a mechanic put to poor use, and a casual smash-fest trying too hard to sell itself as an adventure game.

    For the curious, I would recommend trying it if it's on sale for cheap, but definitely don't pay $10 for it.    … Full Review »
  2. alex77456
    Feb 28, 2013
    9
    Once you get used to the controls, it gives incomparable experience; difficulty becomes not as insane as seemed on the first sight.
    It's a    Once you get used to the controls, it gives incomparable experience; difficulty becomes not as insane as seemed on the first sight.
    It's a unique game, even with it's own flaws. There's nothing else that will give you same experience, that will make you keep moving the mouse in circular motion even after you exit the game.    … Full Review »
  3. Elc1247
    Aug 24, 2011
    2
    Given that the game was included in the humble indie bundle, I expected a half decent game. however i was sorely disappointed. it may be anGiven that the game was included in the humble indie bundle, I expected a half decent game. however i was sorely disappointed. it may be an original idea, and is different from pretty much anything else out there, but it does not mean that it actually pulls it off well. the controls are the main point that really turned me off, Its nice that you use the mouse to move around, but given that I failed the very first level (non-tutorial level) at the very least 10 times, it says something. thankfully I have a mouse where i can change the DPI, so i set my DPI to 500 for the calibration, then played the game at 3200DPI. at that point, I could actually play and move around. it seems like the game was made for people that use their ENTIRE desk as the mousepad, so if you want to play and be able to actually be able to WIN easily, clear off your entire desk, and start with your mouse in the middle, at the maximum DPI you can possibly set it as, then you can actually PLAY the game. the controls are not the only problem, the visuals are also a problem. There are levels where its somewhat hard to tell where the walls are, and if you smack into a wall, you take damage and get stunned, not only that, but sometimes theres just so much going on in the screen that you can barely make out where your character is, ive lost track of where my flying machine was after getting hit and dragged into a mess more than a couple times.

    The game is buggy, the controls are just horribly done wrong, and the difficulty makes ATLUS games cry in shame. Its an interesting idea that is executed very poorly. I guess they never got anyone to really test the game and give feedback. If I had the option of separately buying this game from the HIB3, I would not even consider paying for it.    … Full Review »
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