Sledgehammer / Gear Grinder

I managed to remember half of this game's name from when I played some demo of it when I was like 8 so I decided why not buy some old ass 2008 game that I don't even have nostalgia for but just happened to remember out of the hundreds of demos I downloaded on my moms pc. The game is pretty decent fun and the super cheesy acting and story I could barely even understand was pretty comedic.

And this game has better reviews then ridge racer unbounded?
It was a peace of old russian code that was like 20 years outdated even for the moment of its release.
Didn't worse even that 30 cents I spent on sale.

I liked the original concept of this game.
You are an escaped convict who get entangled with mob clans so you fight against both the law in order to escape and mob members and bosses. You have a license to destroy everything in your path (traffic cars, buildings etc ) and even receive bonuses for doing so. It reminded me of Carmageddon that I played in the 90's.
You have a campain with many types of missions, like: armed truck races, battles with cop cars and other types of armored mob cars that attack you, slaloms, time attacks, deliver merchandize missions, protecting cargo etc.....
Some missions are better then others. With time you upgrade your truck.
Pretty simple, but very straightforward and polished. Graphics is ok.
Buy only when on sale because otherwise it's too short for the price.

Sledgehammer / Gear Grinder
pros:
fast game with modern day graphics with easy controls that moves from location A to B to C and so on,
good amount of action and special effects,
cons:
some difficult races/objectives.
some lack of instructions/objectives aren't clear.

good game.
Personal Suggested Purchase Price: $0.99 Or Less During Sale

Sledge Hammer (aka Gear Grinder) is a short but fairly fun truck combat game. The graphics aren't great and the voice-acting is pretty bad, but the action is fast and the explosions and crashes are plentiful.

There's a story in Sledge Hammer, but it's merely an excuse to get the player behind the wheel of a Mad Max-styled truck bristling with weapons and armour and destroy everything that moves. Completing missions unlocks performance upgrades and new weapons for the truck, but unlocking these usually requires gold or silver rankings on each mission. Missions can be replayed once they've been finished, so it's possible to go back to an older mission and try to improve your ranking. Skins for the truck and concept art can also be unlocked.

The gimmick with Sledge Hammer is the truck's transforming abilities. Depending on the situation, the vehicle can switch between Race Mode and Battle Mode at the press of a button. Race Mode increases the truck's speed but disables the weapons, while Battle Mode enables the weapons at the expense of some speed. Usually, a mission will only require the use of one mode to get through it, although quickly switching between the two comes in handy once in a while.

Most of Sledge Hammer's missions will use the transport truck, but the designers did add some variety: there are on-rails shooting sequences, demolition arenas, escort missions, and a minigame where the truck is used to knock over cars like bowling pins. Other missions will have the player delivering different trucks from Point A to Point B while being chased by enemies, or piloting remote-controlled cars and guiding a missile to a faraway target. While a couple of the missions are a bit hard, Sledge Hammer isn't a very difficult game; it's pretty easy to max out the truck's performance and armour ratings, making the vehicle nearly unstoppable in later missions. Not that there's anything wrong with that; it's fun to bulldoze through other vehicles like they're made of exploding cardboard or blast them into orbit with weapons fire.

Sledge Hammer can be completed in a few hours, and once the campaign is over there's nothing to do except play the story missions again. There are no achievements, so unless you really like unlocking concept art and making things blow up there's not much reason to keep playing Sledge Hammer once you've finished the story.

Sledge Hammer will provide an evening or two of dumb fun and you'll never think about the game again once the closing credits start to roll. There's not much here, but what is here is enjoyable enough.

Cool but short game about crazy freedom loving psycho driving armed truck and causing havoc on streets. You have races, car combat, police chases, time attacks and many more interesting missions to play and earn better upgrades and weapons for your truck.

It's a lovely brand of awful Russian jank. Plot points get skipped, the cutscenes are hilariously bad, and there's only one vehicle. However, there are a bunch of different gameplay elements and level types, and as I mentioned the cutscenes are awful. It's great. You can beat the game in a few hours, you won't get bored, and there are a bunch of weapon unlocks. I recommend this title.

Russian video game industry died soon after it was properly born. Together with pretty much everything else in the country. But before that, there were some pretty interesting releases that kind of deserved attention. And this is the one of them. Do you like games like Carmageddon and Interstate series? Well, then keep reading. Maybe it'll worth for you to check this game out. Maybe not, though. Just keep swimming reading.

Sledgehammer (aka Gear Grinder) was made by Targem Games, the guys behind Battle Mages and Hard Truck: Apocalypse series and you can actually see those games on posters in Sledgehammer. Even though those games were OK at best, Targem got a lot of praise for them in Russia. Because hey! The guys made games and those actually worked! At least, sometimes they did. Anyway, what is Sledgehammer? Well, like I said, it's pretty much a mix between Carmageddon and Interstate. With a little pinch of Hard Truck: Apocalypse. Like in Hard Truck: Apocalypse, you'll drive futuristic truck. Only this time the truck will also be... a transformer. Don't expect it to turn into a giant robot (there is an Optimus Prime joke in this game, though), but you'll be able to freely switch between the fast racing mode (your truck will run faster and you'll be able to use nitro) and battle mode (slow, but you'll be able to shoot things). And this alone is... kind of awesome, actually. I mean, Carmageddon-like races with Interstate-like shooting and Hard Truck-like vehicles? Sounds like a cool thing, huh?

And there's actually more in all that. There's both multiplayer mode and a single player campaign here. With single player campaign being divided in six chapters with about half a dozen missions each. Missions will vary, so, don't expect doing the same thing over and over again. There'll be different kinds of races, there'll be a bombing mission, there'll be a convoy mission, sometimes you'll need to escape, or drive through the checkpoints... in other words, even though the number of mission types is pretty limited, you won't get bored. Some missions are optional and every mission will come with three “medals” - bronze, silver and gold. You'll either fail here, or get one of those, depending on your performance. You'll be able to re-play missions for better rewards and your motivation for that will be prizes. See, in this game you'll also be able to customize your car. Nothing groundbreaking, pretty much on Hard Truck: Apocalypse level, but hey! Customizing your vehicle and putting better guns on it is always cool. There's also a story, but... it sucks.

Not really a bad surprise, huh? The games like Vangers and Pathologic that come with mind-blowing complicated stories are not what you usually expect from Russian developers. A lot of cheap nonsense about how porn star fights Osama bin Laden to get his stolen penis back (I'm not kidding, it's actually a thing), that's more like it. And this game? It's like the cheapest attempt to make a cheap rip-off of that famous Knight Rider show. You know, the one about the guy, who almost died, but ended up getting a talking car instead. Voiceover is laughable too. Remember The House of the Dead 2? “Seems like my advice had no effect. Suffer, like G did!” Yeah, that's exactly what you'll get here. Acting in this game is like... it's just... *sigh* Usually, Russian games have way, way better acting in Russian versions (just because in Russia, where everybody's poor, it's easier to hire a good actor for just a few bucks). It was like that in games like Sea Dogs (that one actually had the actor who dubbed Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies by Peter Jackson) and Rage of Mages (that one included Russian voice of Optimus Prime), but... it's not the case here. Both Russian and English acting are really, really awful. Fits the story, since, like I said, the story is a joke, but still, your ears won't thank you here.

Unfortunately, bad acting isn't the only thing that sucks here. If you've played Russian games before, you can easily guess what I'm about to say. Yeah, the game isn't really well-made. Russian video game industry started too late and developers never had enough money and experience to make something really good and polished. You know the drill. If Russian game at least starts without giving you BSODs and errors, it's considered to be a huge achievement for the developers and you should praise the freakin' sun for that. Or Beebo. Seriously, guys, praise the blue god, he's awesome. Anyhow, Sledgehammer isn't the worst example of Russian games. It works pretty fine, it doesn't crash, there's a gamepad support (that actually works pretty fine even with Xbox One controller) and all in all the game feels... OK.

There's still a lot of crap here too, though. For example, don't expect tracks to be polished (some of them are full of stuff that will lead you to cheap deaths), balance simply doesn't exist, while some goals... well... let's just say that all you had to do is follow the damn train, CJ. You know what I mean, I'm sure you do. Let's just say that those "trains" will happen here more often than you'll want to.

So... yeah... If you want something perfectly polished with a really nice package, then you should think twice before buying this. Sledgehammer reminds me a bit of another game. Russian RECOIL rip-off called Killer Tank. Some things here feel totally fine, while the others are way too cheap and unfair. Sledgehammer is a mixed bag. Some missions are cool and fun, while others are way too unfair and crappy. Up to the point where you'll be ready to rage quit it. Almost finished hard mission, almost did it, almost did it... dang, the truck you were supposed to protect stuck and won't move anymore! That's how it is in this game. If you're ready to suffer through all that, Sledgehammer can also provide you a lot of fun. Hence the thumb up. Also, keep in mind that we don't have much games in this genre anyway. So, it's not like we can be picky. But if you're like Rorschach from Watchmen and don't want to compromise, then, well... you have been warned. Like most of the other Russian games, Sledgehammer feels a lot like Soviet car. It will get you there, but don't expect a comfortable ride.

TLDR; if you want to go on a terrifying rampage in an armoured semi truck, this should do it for you.

This one has a few great points:
1. Interesting backstory with a dark edge to it, not too overdone on cutscenes.
2. Gameplay is exciting with numerous game modes and lots of playability.
3. The vehicle concept is just awesome (With first person cab view) and the weapon effects are particularly good.
4. Great customizations and upgrades, all the usual good stuff you expect.

I am happy I bought it, it was a great price and I am enjoying it tremendously.
There are a few similar vehicle combat titles that are popular, this is perhaps one of the best.

Feels and looks like something from the PS2/Xbox era, but in 1080p. Some missions are easy as pie and some are so hard you just want to end your life, but overall it was a fun short ride and I would recommend.

Better to grab it at 0.79 when it really goes on sale since it's not worth the 7.99 or 8 bucks should I say. To be honest it's pretty legit minus the the voice acting and the blant story but the gameplay isn't that bad. I'm one of those people who still play old games on Steam and want something cheap but pretty good at the same time. I can play this game when I'm bored or if I'm using a low end computer if I don't have access to my PC or if I'm on the go so this can be an exception. Graphics aren't that bad actually and it's not really a blurry mess. (I mean who plays for graphics these days?).

It's a small Carmageddon-Styled game about racing your truck from start to finish including guns, guns, guns, explosions and nitro. However the game is not good but it's not bad too.
It has that pretty good TruckMageddon style but it gets quite boring after a while, after the campaign you can't do anything, only repeat the missions, the graphics are kinda outdated and the voice dubbing/cover is not the best.
This game was originally made by Russians and its basic language was Russian which leads to some strange voice acting and voice not maching characters moves.
Overall for the price of 0,99 Euros on Steam Winter Sale it's totally worth it. A small game for couple of hours.

This game has a really good concept but the enemies even on the hardest difficulty were still extremley easy to beat. For anyone who has played Twisted Metal (The ones on PS1) and remembers Darkside, this is pretty much that. So for Twisted Metal fans I will recommend this game but overall I just won't recommend it for how easy it is.

The first impression of this game is that graphics do look rather dated, but I have never been one to get hung up on graphics. You are driving a truck that can switch between a race mode with jet engines on the back and a battle mode where it is bristling with weapons and spikes how can this not be awesome? However it somehow manages to be mediocre. As you progress through the game you unlock new weapons and upgrades for you truck. The developers have tried very hard to add a variety in the missions but they basically all come down to racing or destroying stuff. The story is okay, it strings the races together but it is nothing spectacular. This game will provide a few hours of anarchic fun but it is not one you are going to keep coming back to.

Somewhat decent game, gameplay is fun but the story is an absolute mess thanks to poor translation since this was originally in Russian.

Sledgehammer (aka Gear Grinder) is one of those weird games that can only come out of Russia... in a parallel future, where trucks can transform from jet-engined superracer into an armored and heavily armed beast, and police are packed with gatling guns and more and enforce laws with lethal force, you have been executed for slaughtering innocents with your truck, but you woke up mysteriously next to a shiny new transforming truck... and was told to get through some training so you can undergo some missions for this mysterious benefactor...

Basically you drive around like some weird vigilante who needs to cause maximum destruction. You have front bumper spikes, side spinning saws (later), front firing weapons (primary and secondary), and rear mine dispensers. Your truck can also be upgraded with better armor, transmission, engine, and so on.

The fighting is about what you'd expect in such a game... You are in 3rd person but very low, so your truck will obstruct your view ahead. Fortunately you can pretty much run through almost anything in your way, or your shoot your way through. There are missions that are pure racing (where you use racing mode, complete with afterburning engines) pure combat (survive arena for X seconds), or run-n-gun (fight enemies as you try to make it through checkpoints). The more you kill the more time on the clock you get, but the the more damage you suffer. There are a few oddball missions such as "pilot a RC bomb drone" or "max speed into a cafe".

The problem is the first level's "end mission". Instead of a boss fight, you're basically put into a gauntlet that's basically 3 missions together. First is a checkpoint race where you need to pass through little tokens to get extra time. When you reach a mall you crash through to land and found the way's blocked, and you need to kill X police cars to get out. Then it's a long run-n-gun to the final endpoint... where I've tried about 10 times, with max upgrades, and I keep running out of time (the only way to gain time is kill the cops, and they sometimes aren't fast enough so you can't kill them (or I'm taking too many go-fast upgrades?!) So I can't even get onto "level 2" (i.e. next city).

Voiceover is atrocious, storyline is outrageous, sound is... mediocre. Graphics are tolerable. This is a weird game. If you like your idea of wanton destruction, give it a try. But not quite my cup of tea.

There are elements of fun here, but inconsistent framerate and less-than-perfect controls keep it from being everything it could be. Any events that don't require precision are decently entertaining, but unfortunately those are too few and far between. I'll just go back to dreaming about Burnout Revenge getting a PC release.

Update: After changing the .exe to launch in Windows XP compatibility mode, performance is improved slightly. Still not great, and not enough to change my mind about not recommending it, but it does make the game more playable, if anyone is experiencing the same problems I am with choppy framerate.

A decent vehicular combat game, but with a truck instead of a plain car. That in itself makes it worth a recommendation for me.
The graphics are nothing to write home about but the gameplay is solid, and it's always fun driving around blowing up other cars.
The AI starts out braindead but as you progress, it begins to give more and more of a challenge.

ALthough I've only started playing this game, it's already full of promise.
I had to wonder when I first bought the game, "How much fun can it really be racing a truck?"
I hadn't accounted for the rocket jets, chainguns, fierce competition or challenging opponents.
Definitely do not regret buying this game, and look forward to completing it.

By today standards this game is dated, and so I was hoping it may still be fun. But the truth is there is very little to have fun with. The game is dated, no one plays online, the arcade singleplayer action is too easy. In just a few minutes I went through 1/3 of the races, all in first place or top speed through. Wish I could say something about this game was fun as racing with semi trucks is a really fun idea, espicially since I'm a truck driver. But sadly there is nothing I can say that is good. Even the music wasnt great for its time, and when someone was talking they talked unbearably slow or generic. 1 out of 5 stars.