Hammerwatch II

Hammerwatch 2 is not a bad game but it has a disrespectful amount of timewasting. Be ready to sift through hundreds of journal entries to read where to go, or which NPC to talk to, because the game doesn't explain anything (even for main quests). In HW1 NPCs had unique icons based on what they sell, in HW2 it's just a $ icon - hope you can remember what they sell because the game won't tell you! The map can't be zoomed out and quests aren't displayed until you're close to the relevant NPC so you'll just wander round like a headless chicken half the time. There's too much backtracking between copy/paste side areas, fighting the same enemies, and getting nothing to show for it. The loot is abysmal. Side quests aren't worth doing as you can grind more XP by killing mobs in less time than it takes to do the quest, and they're TIED TO PLAYTIME so you can fail by exploring the map. For example you need to gather 10 grapes, you find 5, then rest at the inn to respawn the collection point - quest failed, you took too long. But I literally couldn't get more grapes without resting?? If you buy/own this I would recommend ONLY playing the main quests and skip any side content. It's genuinel…

This review is from the perspective of the Wizard Class(My favourite Hammerwatch class) on Serious mode(Hardest difficulty). After finishing the first Hammerwatch Game, I was eager to give this a go. I cannot however recommend it. I finished Hammerwatch on Serious mode and despite the difficulty, it never felt unfair. Hammerwatch 2 however, is a slog to get through. There is a distinct lack of reward for exploration (The odd chest here or there if you're lucky) and if you venture off even slightly under levelled, you'll be torn to shreds, sent back a long walk away to the nearest town and lose 60% of your current gold. This makes the 'Open World' feel like very linear experience and the lack of damage dealing capabilities against large health pools, makes the combat rather tedious. No more are you getting combos and shredding through foes as you dodge and weave their attacks. Instead, you'll be constantly retreating, taking pot shots around corners to avoid getting one-shot by the 3 archers, 4 soldiers and Wizard chasing you. Currently stuck on the Thieves tower, where the boss is doing so much(and me so little) damage, that i'm not sure I can be bothered to spend the hours …

Loved the first game, even enjoyed heroes of hammerwatch, but this? An abandoned downgrade. Avoid it.

Lost all my progress, because I glitched out of the map.

Fun.

This is an incredibly good game, but likely has poor reviews because it has some major issues with performance. Big world to explore, lots of things to unlock, tons of secrets to uncover, great ability progress, the right amount of loot, fun bosses. it's an RPG, but it's not too complex. it hits a great balance. Depending on how you build your character, it kinda gives me topdown Terraria vibes at time. Game is also super pretty if you turn on the two CRT options at the bottom of the graphics menu. the screenshots don't do it justice. The menus are a little jank. It's also missing all the cool puzzles and traps from previous games. It definitely has this in some dungeons, it's just not the standard this time around. Game has it's faults but overall it's pretty great. However, about 20 hours into my playthrough with my friend his game began crashing every time we loaded a new zone. We didn't have mods or anytyhing. Just the regular ass game began breaking late into our save. Because of that, I cannot recommend this game for coop. It's pretty gamebreaking so I can't recommend the game at all really, but it should still be a good time for singleplayer.