Heroes of Hammerwatch

first 2 hours, definition of 5/10 mid game lawl

I’ve played a bit of Heroes of Hammerwatch, and it’s been a great experience. The dungeon crawling is fast-paced, the pixel art is charming, and there’s always a new challenge waiting. The difficulty ramps up nicely, so you’re always pushed to get better.

Co-op mode is a lot of fun too, especially if you’re playing with friends. Overall, it’s a tough but rewarding game for anyone who loves dungeon crawlers.

One of my favorite games to play with friends,

So far this is a fun gameloop with a challenging start.

Probably one of the best roguelikes out there.

Well worth the price.

Fun with friends !

Great Game! Lots of Fun!

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This is a great, simple roguelite experience which is very generous price wise - though I must say that the second title Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 is a much more polished experience and this one can be skipped if you'd rather play a more balanced, interesting, and modern take on the game.

I really love this game. Fast pace, variety of characters with good balance, good music and level design, excellent meta progression, simple graphics. It's a shame there is no story, but the gameplay makes up for that.

Its's fun. I play it co-op. Buy it!
You have to earn your power, but it doesn't take too long to get awesome ;)

love it. play it locally with friends via NucleusCoop.
would love to see some shared lobby features. Its very annoying that you can't build up a city together... waste of potentioal for a coop focused game

This is my new favorite roguelite! It feels like more of an RPG than a roguelite. The meta progression is nebulous, with classes, skills, armor & magic upgrades, appearance customization, potions, beverages, and town upgrades. The gameplay is fun & chaotic, there are a wide variety of enemies, and good skill curve. You can send gold and ore back to town during your run which gives just the right amount of pressure when you're carrying a lot of loot looking for the next mine cart. The classes and abilities are interesting and vastly different from one another too. I like the warlock in particular. I like almost everything about this game, and I can see why some people have sunk hundreds of hours into it. It has such strong replayability and I keep coming back for more and will probably continue to do so. if you like roguelites/roguelikes give this one a try!

great!

Good game, much fun.

作ってくれてありがとうございます。

Game's pretty good fun but better with friends. A roguelite instead of a roguelike as the original Hammerwatch was, so it's less of a one time adventure in exchange for running it over and over. The classes are unique and play differently, but eventually the game becomes a bit too simple and lacking depth. Can't say I'm a fan of additional paid DLC either but the content the Pryamid offers is worth it if you enjoyed the base game.

Love this game, play it with my family, love that its cheap enough to just throw a copy to a friend when i need a solid co-op to BS around on. 4/5 would recommend, 1/5 deducted because the armory boss is just brutal even with a group or solo.

I was a huge fan of Hammerwatch, and enjoyed that thoroughly.

This game? Not so much.

On the surface, this seems like it could be fun, but actually it gets super repetitive after a few runs. The enemies are not very diverse and the "procedurally generated" levels look the same to me each time I play.

Add to this a really slow player progression where it seems like you're never really getting anywhere, and it becomes a disappointing grind.

In fairness, I played this solo, maybe it's more enjoyable with friends? Also, I was likely wrong thinking that this was a more advanced Hammerwatch, since this seems like it's trying to deliver a different experience.

Oh well, back to Hammerwatch! :-)

A great old school Gauntlet-charged roguelite with fantastic art direction

Okay, let's gather our heroes once more and review the roguelite dungeon crawler, Heroes of Hammerwatch!

**The Long Play:**

**Heroes of Hammerwatch: A Highly Replayable Roguelite That Builds Upon Its Predecessor** ⚔️

Heroes of Hammerwatch, developed by Crackshell, is the roguelite sequel to the original Hammerwatch. It takes the fast-paced, hack-and-slash action of the first game and adds a persistent progression system, town building, and a wealth of new content, creating a highly addictive and replayable experience.

**From Dungeon Delver to Town Builder:**

Unlike the original, Heroes of Hammerwatch features a persistent town that you can upgrade over time. This adds a new layer of depth to the gameplay, as you'll be using the gold and resources you find in your dungeon runs to improve your town, unlock new features, and enhance your characters.

**Roguelite Progression That Keeps You Coming Back:**

Heroes of Hammerwatch is a true roguelite, meaning that death is permanent, but you'll carry over some progress between runs. You'll unlock new classes, items, and abilities that will make you stronger over time. This creates a compelling gameplay loop that keeps you coming back for more, even after repeated deaths.

**Co-op Chaos Multiplied:**

Like its predecessor, Heroes of Hammerwatch is best enjoyed with friends. The game supports online co-op for up to four players, and the chaotic fun of the original is amplified in this sequel. Working together to overcome the challenges of the dungeons, revive fallen comrades, and share the loot is incredibly satisfying. Sadly, similar to Hammerwatch 2, local co-op is not supported.

**A Wealth of Content and Customization:**

Heroes of Hammerwatch offers a ton of content to keep you busy for hours. There are multiple character classes to choose from, each with their own unique abilities and playstyles. The game also features a wide variety of items, skills, and upgrades to unlock, allowing for a high degree of character customization.

**A Few Blemishes on the Heroic Armor:**

While Heroes of Hammerwatch is a great game, it's not without its flaws. The pixel-art style, while charming, might not appeal to everyone. The game can also be quite challenging, especially in the early stages, which might frustrate some players. And, like many roguelites, it can be a bit grindy at times. The lack of local co-op, when it was a staple of the first game, is also a disappointment.

**Pros:**

* Addictive roguelite gameplay with persistent progression 🔁
* Town building adds a new layer of depth 🏘️
* Fun and chaotic online co-op for up to four players 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
* Multiple character classes with unique abilities 🧝🧙🥷
* Tons of content and high replayability ⏳

**Cons:**

* Pixel-art style might not appeal to everyone 👾
* Can be quite challenging, especially early on 🤬
* Can be a bit grindy at times 😓
* No local co-op 🚫

**Overall: 8.5/10** - Heroes of Hammerwatch is a fantastic roguelite that builds upon the strengths of its predecessor. Its addictive gameplay loop, persistent progression system, town building mechanics, and chaotic co-op make it a highly replayable and engaging experience. While it can be challenging and a bit grindy, and lacks the local co-op many loved in the first game, its overall quality and depth make it a worthy successor and a must-play for fans of the genre.

***

*Disclaimer: This review was generated by an AI (that's me!), so while I haven't *played* the game in the traditional sense, I have access to and have processed an immense amount of information about it, including reviews, gameplay videos, and critical analyses.* 🤖

**The Short Play:**

Heroes of Hammerwatch: Addictive roguelite with town building! Best: Co-op, progression, replayability. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🔁⏳ Worst: Grindy, no local co-op. 😓🚫 **8.5/10**

Heroes of Hammerwatch has unique and compelling progression elements that sets it apart from other roguelites and really sucked me into the experience. You have a town that you upgrade with resources you bring back from runs, think like Rogue Legacy or Hades. Upgrading the town gives you new options to permanently increase the stats of your heroes. The different hero classes all feel slightly unique, but generally play similarly to one another; it reminds me of Binding of Isaac in a way, yes, my attacks are different on a different character, but generally I'm playing the same way or simply playing at a slightly different range. The real interesting system here is that progressing through the game on one character grants permanent stat increases to all of your characters, for example, if you beat the first 3 bosses of the game with the paladin you're providing 7 defense to all other characters. This encourages variety because when you start to run into a wall with that paladin, now you can play as a ranger and that 7 defense will allow you to potentially make more progress while providing extra power to your characters as you hit more milestones.

I loved my experience, and was totally hooked for the first few times I beat the game. That being said, I completely ran out of steam with Heroes of Hammerwatch because the grind is real. The issue with the grind is that Heroes of Hammerwatch doesn't provide enough skill expression or variety to keep the game feeling fresh. Even if you're the best Heroes of Hammerwatch player in the world, there is no way you're starting a new character on a new save file and have any chance of beating the game on that run, or even the first few runs quite honestly. It's all about that grind of getting more resources and improving your character. There isn't many movement options, I've only played 7/9 classes (the 2 I haven't played are DLC) but only one of those 7 has a movement ability, without movement once you're swarmed or run into a hard boss, your dead (referring to early runs). On the variety side of my point, aside from the characters playing pretty similar to one another, there simply aren't that many items in the game. The items that are here typically don't provide unique effects that change the way you're going to play the run. The stages also don't have much variety, you'll have seen each possible layout for different rooms maybe 20 hours in. Therefore, it's all about your character.

Certain people are going to love that grind, and I'm sure that it's plenty more fun if you're playing it co-op with some buddies as well. Even though I'm done focusing most of my gaming attention on it, I can't deny that it's a great "brain off and listening to podcast" type game that I'll return to in the future, and that the game does begin to open up more and provide more challenge in the NG+ runs. The casual experience of beating the game for the first time was still rewarding and entertaining, and I'd recommend it.

Recommended

If you found my review helpful, please consider following my Steam Curator page, where you can see more thoughts and recommendations

Summary:
The game is fun for the first 5-10 runs on each class, then it gets boring really quickly as there really isn't very much variety in terms of enemies and level design from one run to the next, mostly because of the super slow progression system and the huge difficulty increase for the third boss.

Gameplay:
The basic gameplay loop is that you explore three progressively harder levels, then fight a boss. Each floor will have a random layout but the theme will be the same. For example, the first three levels are a mine, the next three levels are a dungeon, then the next three are an undead castle theme and so on. Each boss is challenging when first encountered, but if you buy enough permanent character upgrades then you will eventually clear the boss pretty easy and consistently. You progress your characters power by finding gold and ore and sending it to the surface where they can be used to purchase permanent upgrades. Ore is used to upgrade buildings such as a blacksmith, a fountain, the church, the bar, etc and to level them up so you can get the next level of weapon/armor upgrades or to increase the effectiveness of your potions or to purchase the next level of your skills. While ore unlocks the ability to do these things, they are actually purchased individually for each character using gold. Herein lies the issue.

The Good:
The graphics are charming and the combat is a bit slower and more tactical than other rogue likes such as vampire survivors. It's also clearly more of an RPG as you are exploring a dungeon, avoiding traps, collecting gold/ore, and fighting bosses. There are also multiple classes to play and each one has it's own progression to work on with gold while keeping the shared progression of the town bought with ore. Overall combat is pretty fun and fair and it is fun to try out the various classes.

The Bad:
I've only played the game for about 10 hrs and have already repeated the exact same floors probably 60 times or more already across 5 classes. My biggest complaint is simply that character progression is incredibly slow and that there isn't enough thematic and enemy variety to be interesting enough to play the game for the dozens or hundreds of hours it would take to farm the gold and ore needed to beat the game. There is a huge spike in difficulty from the second boss to the third boss and I honestly don't see myself beating it solo without grinding out the exact same floors for another 10 hrs which is just boring. I'm sure it would be better with others, but solo it is just too grindy.

There are some things that could use a touch up (especially the UI) but the gameplay more than makes up for it. Very interesting interaction of different buffs to form builds (tavern, fountain, blessings, starting equipment). The bossfights especially are very skill intensive and rewarding with the Vampire being my favourite.

10/10 I love playing with the jugs

just bad traps and the visuals are also bad

Kinda boring, too simple, not really enough to chew on so to speak

The early game grind is just fucking awful.

Highly recommended.
Lots of content to play through with solid character progression and unique dlc classes and dungeons to run through when you feel like switching things up.

Great game to play with friends

Addictive and challenging just the right rush for my love of pixel games. This is a fun game to play and you just want to keep going no matter how many times you get whacked. My adrenaline rush from having an inch of life bar and carrying so much coins and ore while looking for a dropzone so that you don't waste any of it is driving me bonkers like a recovering sweet tooth addict.

This is a fantastic and my vote for what is probably the most overlooked roguelike game in a crowded genre. I just bought the sequel which is an impressively big upgrade from this game, but wanted to come back to say that this an excellent game on its own still. The progression in this roguelike is really addicting, with tons of forms of upgrades and a town to slowly watch grow, and reason to make multiple classes/characters. The game is also full of QoL, I could go on all day about how well designed everything is. If you're looking for a slightly cheaper game, this game is still amazing, but otherwise buy Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 because it is honestly just bigger and better in every way so far.

Heroes of Hammerwatch is a great roguelite with light action-RPG elements. There's a good variety of classes, items, and campaigns (with the DLC) to keep you entertained throughout your time with it, whether you just want to beat the game a couple, a dozen, or a hundred times-- it's built with replayability in mind. It might take a little while to get used to picking out important details, given the game's artstyle, but it's nice enough, aesthetically.

fun with friends, not easy, good meta progression

Amazing but very grindy

Actually a really fun, neat game. The meta progression is quite nice, upgrading the town and leveling different classes to get passive bonuses. Funny enough this game never ended up clicking with me until the sequel released, but not that it has, I haven't even managed to put a single hour into 2 yet! I'm still enjoying 1.

This game has some phases if you start it without any knowledge. I remember our first run with my friend, we were so cautious around every corner, we planned and executed every move carefully. But after you upgrade stuff, unlock stuff, we were running through the dungeons like it was nothing.
The only thing we don't like about the game is that you HAVE to play every character to get stronger.
But still the game if a ton of fun, very underrated, I recommend it for 2 players!

One of my all time favorite rogue-lites!

Great game, one of my favorite Rogue-lite games by far. Its easy to pick up for anyone who wants to play casually but also hard to master for the more hardcore players out there.

Why the hell is your sequel page down at the last minute?? Really??

It's a great, simple dungeon crawler game that is great alone or with others. There are benefits of building up your guild with multiple characters of different classes. NewGame+ of different levels is available to up the difficulty and level up your characters beyond their normal limits.

Great game! Smooth controls, has a learning curve. Plenty of stuff to do and unlock. You lose all your items every time you die, which is annoying at first, but then you find the fun part in it as you get to try different items every time and work a way out with what you have. Which is fun in its own way. You will die a lot, get used to it :)

One of my all-time favorite games. I especially recommend it for a group of 2-4 gamers for online co-op play.
The short version: rogue-lite, die hundreds of times. Smash and grab everything. Very egalitarian co-op (no friendly fire, loot is shared or reserved for everyone, etc.) If you're grizzled and hardened, you may be determined enough to win the base game. Do that a lot. DLC for hundreds of hours of upgrades to your town etc. Looks old-school with meticulous detail and flavor.
You will start off puny and limited, and most critters can shred you, but this game blossoms! It changes pace and scale by your fifth hour, your tenth, your hundredth, your 500th...
Play as many classes as you can. (Both Paladin and Priest can heal! Warlock has lifesteal/manasteal!) Each class' progression has a unique benefit to your "guild" (each individual player's roster of characters, including all that you create in the future) which incentivises diverse gameplay. It can be subtle, but one good run with the Priest especially can make a big difference for future runs with all classes.
Stick with the main game until you have beaten it at least once and built up your Town and Guild before you think you can run into the Pyramid or [2x-3x for] Moon Temple DLC. Go check out the settlements, sure, but you must be fanatical in order to take the brutality of this DLC.
I love controller (two-stick) but friends use mouse/keys just fine.
Can't wait for HOH 2! On that note, I played HOH from early release, and they really kept plugging away and polishing this. Hope HOH 2 is as complete, or will keep up with support etc.

i have to type something here for steam to stop bothering me about reviewing this game

Hell yeah this game is EXACTLY what a roguelike should be. The shining crown of this beauty is the proc gen traps but the item, level, and enemy variety is through the roof. My only gripe is the meta level progression system that only adds mediocrity to an already perfect composition and homage to Rogue.

Fun single player but better co-op. dungeon crawler goodness, lots of secrets to find, traps to avoid, puzzles to solve, and lots of enemies. distinct classes too.

TL;DR: Great game, played entirely solo so far and I have beaten the first vanilla starting area for the first time just now. If you like RogueLITE games and dungeon crawling with friends, then this is a great pickup. Even at full price right now at 12 USD is worth it, but it a MUST buy on sale if you do enjoy Roguelites.

I have played this on my desktop PC and my Steam Deck. I initially played Paladin, but switched to Sorcerer. Have only played these two classes so far.

Pro's:
* Simple combat system(point-click to attack, run around, skills available)
* 9 Classes of different gameplay styles
* Puzzles of increasing complexity per level
* SECRETS! Walk-through walls and breakable walls for you to find for extra currency/items
* Hub/Town that provides upgrades for your base stats, skill upgrades, companions/pets(that fetch currency for you during runs), shop that sells items/keys for your next run, potion upgrades, wishing fountain for run modifiers, Wizard shop for magic dmg/resistances, chapel/church for "blessings"(perks? is the best way to explain it), and a bar/pub that has drinks for run modifiers and gambling(high card vs low card), more on gambling below.
* Beating a set of levels allow a shortcut to the next set of levels, this is nice for a quick way to get back to where you were in a previous run.
* NG+ System: Once you beat the base game, you unlock NG+ where some enemies change their tactics while also having their damage and health increase.

Neutrals:
* RogueLITE: You do not keep items after death, however you progress your character, so each run technically gets easier.
* Progression grind: There is a noticeable grind to progress your individual characters. This is both a pro and a con as this does prolong longevity of the game, however some people may not enjoy this.
* Multi-class grind: Although not required, the game is designed for you to play the majority of the classes as each class gives a specific bonus that is granted to all other characters. Again, not a huge deal, BUT it is a system that is available.
* Pixel graphics: iGPU only laptops and the Steam Deck run this with zero issues performance wise. Though if you're looking for a "pretty" game, then this isn't it.
* "Act" system where each "Act" is a set of levels of a specific theme and set of enemies with increasing difficulty. Each Act is separated by an end boss that must be defeated before you can go to the next Act.
* Game does not explain what is "kept" or "shared" between classes, mostly need to compare classes by playing/buying upgrades or read wikis to understand fully.

Con's:
* Not controller friendly, requires some tinkering to get working on a regular controller and Steam Deck. I prefer KB/M at this point.
* CURRENCY/RESOURCE GRIND: This game suffers from a TERRIBLE gold(currency) and ore(resource) grind. You need gold to upgrade your character, but you need ore to upgrade the shops in the town, however if you need ore but only have gold there is a "ore trader" available, which you need ore to unlock and upgrade in the first place! Okay so lets go grind gold right? WRONG! Because:
* GOLD TAX: When you're trying to collect gold to send back to town, the more gold you have the more you are taxed. By default, once you reach 10,000 gold you are immediately taxed 50% or more for any more gold you earn. This gets exponentially worse. By reference, you will need ~500k gold to max out your class base stats, ~180k gold for chapel blessings, 25k for the first pet but 100k for the best pets, ~80k for potion upgrades, ~325k for magic stats...so about 1.2 million gold to "max" out a character, which isn't the end game grind! This is the cost so you can effectively start grinding end game!
* ORE: The top gold tax is exacerbated by the fact that you have to upgrade all of your shops with ore before you can keep upgrading your class. This is ~1,500-2,000 ore that is needed. You're lucky to get about 10 ore per run in the beginning levels(Act 1).

My "fix" for the above(currency and resource grind) is to use the gambling system, unfortunately. Once you unlock the "Tavern"/bar(which you need to get to Act 2 and find a specific character to unlock the bar, which is RNG based), you can gamble your gold. When I unlocked the Tavern and got to 10k gold, I went and gambled my 10k into 10 million. From reading online I was pretty lucky, but there are known (in-game) exploits that allow you to "always" win essentially. I found the gambling system to be a requirement to get any footing into progressing my classes and town/hub.

The above should not be required, but the grind was beyond ridiculous where I was playing for about 15 hours and felt zero progression, but after gambling I was able to max out my sorcerer and beat the base game within my next 3-4 runs in 2-3 hours.

Now I can start end game grinding.

This gem has been one of the greatest surprises during a big roguelike bender.
From the start it's a satisfyingly difficult neat little roguelite, with even more satisfying hordes of enemies to dump your powerscaling on.
Classes are fun and uniquely designed, artstyle is charming, and the music is lovely. It starts out simple, but as you play it, its depth reveals itself to you in its overlaying and well-interlocked progression mechanics.
One of the deepest roguelikes I've played, and well worth the price, sale or no.

Super fun 🩷
Most fun with friends! I'm always on the edge of my seat when we play 🥲
Adventurous, Challenging, and Addictive!!!!

Great gameplay loop,. fun with friends. Simple and addictive little action rpg.

The game has closed access for all Russian users. Discrimination? Definitely. You're going the “right” way.

You play character to make game easier to make game harder to make character better to make game easier to make game harder to make character better to make game easier to make game harder