Hammerfight

By: Derek Yu

On: October 30th, 2009

Hammerfight came out unexpectedly on Steam this week. Formerly known as Hammerfall, the game is set in a unique fantasy world and puts you in control of a flying machine that can be equipped with various knives, swords, flails, hammers, axes, and guns. Use the mouse to fly and to fight – Hammerfight employs a physics engine to let you swing weapons using the motion of your machine.

This game is strong and very manly in an ancient sort of way, kind of like Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. Because of the direct control you have over swinging your weapons, getting a solid hit in Hammerfall feels REALLY good, and you’ll be doing a lot of it during a variety of manly activities like hunting giant cave worms with a ball and chain or fighting for your life as a slave in the arena. After each battle, a victory screen will pronounce your glory and say things like “You are now known as Derek the Barbarian,” or “You are the Worm Slayer,” or something like that. Also, as you progress, you’ll get decked out with all manner of sweet flying machine armor, and have banners hanging off of you that flap around as you kick ass. It’s awesome.

When the game was still called Hammerfall there was a playable demo available. Hammerfight is still the same great experience, but with all the polish it needed to be a full commercial release. (For one thing, the English text has been cleaned up considerably, making the storyline much more easy to follow.) It’s just as gorgeous, detailed, fun, and challenging as it was before, just better.

Hammerfight is a masterpiece, and $9.99 is a bargain. Go grab it!

TIGdb: Entry for Hammerfight

Posted in Action, Highly Recommended, Multiplayer, Steam, Windows | Tags: KonstantinKoshutin

http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

wow one of the few cases where the conversion rate on steam is done right, it costs 6.99 EUR
klabelkholosh

i am buying this TODAY, hunger and clothes be damned
Hypersapien

Anyone think that the nice people at Bethesda had a little chat with them about the original name?
notme

Why Bethesda? There’s a band called Hammerfall as well …
Foppy

And a town in Arathi Highlands. :)
Melly

Whooo yeah baby! I’d have bought this yesterday, but an issue with a Steam update prevented me, and the Torchlight demo gripped me and made me waste too much time.

I loved this thing’s demo back in the day, and if it’s still just as good I’ll be hooked.

Let the hammer fall bitches.
Me_SuperMac

There was no English version of the demo on their website when the game came out a few days ago. So I just grabbed the russian version to see how the game felt. It is very good and fun, even though I didn’t understand what was going on because of the language :(, the characters say things and there seems to be like a story to it, appart from the figths, which are the cherry of the pie. Anyway, if I enjoyed it even if i didn’t understand a thing, i will enjoy triple when I get the English version (or when I take Russian classes, whatever comes first). Good stuff.
Mischief Maker

Is this a steam exclusive? :(
GC

It looks fun, but if the demo is any indication, it’s really painful to play.
Zixinus

GC

Actually, you need to mess around with the sensitivity settings a bit and you need to get used to every different weapon. Once you do however, the game can become tremendous fun. Once you get used to it, you’ll be beating worms and champions with a piece of rock like there is no tomorrow.

I do recommend the game. The English version is fairly well-translated and does offer more than the demo.
GC

Variable sensitivity? Brilliant!
Me_SuperMac

I’ll be getting the English version today when I arrive home. The game has a certain level of difficulty, as said above, but it’s fun and well done. I forgot to say that my main concern was that it seems to be one of those games in which it’s simply more fun to play against another human, like in any console fighting-game. It seems that there is the option to connect another mouse to your computer and play with another friend, but that does not seem the optimal option. But I’m talking without having played the full game, or even the English version :P, so I have obviously missed several things about this game. Maybe someone can clarify this for the rest of us.
Charlton heston

It’s all because of those colored folks you know
ivan

for mother russia!
http://www.twitter.com/goodmorningcpt Allen

Bummer that it changes my mouse settings with windows every time I start it up. It disables “pointer precision” in my mouse settings, which I think disables mouse acceleration. Not sure. Little annoying.

But I’ll put up with it since this game is great.
http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

the game is great, very polished, cool atmophere, furious gameplay. Too bad the resolution is SO LOW :
Strange

I feel more manly already.
Ezuku

There’s dual mouse support and two player mode?
Mooseral

I suppose the second mouse would be handled externally to Windows, as a kind of analog input adapter? Windows itself certainly doesn’t come stock with dual mouse support, though it would be nice if 7 allowed it what with the whole multi-touch thing.

Seems like an unlikely way to do a second player though, in an unlikely multiplayer game… would be interesting if such a mode existed however, certainly.

Also, low res: I personally like the oldish game vibe, and it would probably have a different atmosphere if the res was different. Not to mention added effort of establishing realisticish atmospheres at higher resolutions.
Phasma Felis

This game is completely awesome, but depresses me because I was *almost* in the credits.

I played the demo a few years back, and was so impressed that I felt my way through an all-Russian message board just to get in contact with the devs and offer help punching up their translation. They agreed and sent me a script, but just after I got started I lost my job, and then got a new job, and my life went all screwy and I completely lost track of the game.

So now here it is actually released, and I never did get back to it. :( I’ll have to get it and see how the dialog worked out…
Seol

@Mooseral: Actually since XP you can get multiple mice data through Raw Input, if your are curious about the gritty programming details you can check http://www.jstookey.com/arcade/rawmouse/
Mooseral

Huh. Thought it might work something like that, but good to know.
savethedinosaurs

Is that the in-game soundtrack or is that music just for the trailer?
AGuy

That’s the ingame soundtrack for some of the arena fights, I think
http://www.koshutin.com/downloads/hammerfight_demo_eng.exe MisterX

An english demo is finally available. Either go to the homepage, click “Change to eng”, then “demo version” in the lower right corner and then click the download link. Or just click my nick here, I’ve included the direct link.

Judging from the demo, Hammerfight is really cool and extremely polished. But, after all the combat seems to be highly limited and thus repetitive, and I disliked how very short each level is, at least in the demo. And when I tried the english demo just now I found the escort missions rather frustrating.
Still, for the price you surely can’t go all too wrong :)
Zixinus

The escort mission can be pretty frustrating, I give you that.

All the battles are usually just one big battles. Unlocking the arena, grim and hammerball(!) modes does extend the challenge a bit.

What I am personally am frustrated at, is the explosives. If they happen, you are essentially blind for a few moments and they have a large radius of damage. The canons spewing fireballs and firecrackers especially becomes annoying. But the siege bomb… gods, I wish the enemy would take damage from its own explosives. That way, it wouldn’t feel like “you’re too good at this game, here are some explosives to annoy the hell out of you”.
Patrick

I have a shitty mouse and no mouse pad, which doesn’t really hinder me in most games, including FPSs. Hammerfight is definitely an exception. I’m going to have to stop playing until I can get a swanky mouse and pad, and repair the holes I’ve punched in my walls.

And regarding explosions, I’m pretty sure that enemies take damage from their own bombs. I’ve knocked the firecrackers back toward the worm-blimps that shot them, blowing them the fuck up nicely.
Zixinus

They never seem to take enough. Usually, my arena fights are usually decided based on how many enemies do I get using fireball canons or explosives.
Anvilfolk

The dev posted on the Steam forums saying that currently multi-mouse support is only for 32 bit OS’s.

The game is a blast to play. A tad on the difficult side. I spent hours on a single level, but finally managed to beat it. It does get frustrating, but the combat, though repetitive, hasn’t stopped being fun at all.

There’s definitely a couple of issues to sort out, but it’s still absurdly fun, just because of the gameplay. Add the art, the music&sound, the story and background, and as far as I’m concerned, you can’t go wrong with buying it :)
Parasiet

Yeah I agree on the explosives, I’m on arena level 17 or something and I refuse to buy potions, but i just keep getting guys with killer guns where the entire screen is filled with explosions damnit. Anyone knows at what level you get a relic weapon in the arena? Because I miss 1 relic weapon and think the Arena is the place to unlock it…
Zixinus

I second Parasiet. The firecrackers are impossible to avoid and are usually the one thing that kills me in the area that I could have avoided. It is especially jarring on the closed-map environments.

This especially comes around in Grim mode, where you are more likely to be damaged by the NPCs on your side than by the monsters.

I wish there would be a mod or something to disable firecrackers entirely.

Oh, and the Hammerball mode needs to have stronger invincibility. Freqvently, I lose because I die, not because of the score was against me.
Anarkex

I’d kill for an instruction manual. I’m about four levels in and getting a little farther each time I play, but I have no idea what half the stuff onscreen does. Combine with? Left clicking does… something… usually it makes me drop my weapon and lose the round, though. Apparently there’s a way to buy stuff, and change my weapons? TELL ME THESE THINGS, GAME. Usually the objectives are very obscure and leave me floundering about for a few lives trying to figure out what I need to do to move on. The HUD covers up much of the screen and enemies just chill out outside of your range of vision like “c’mon, bro, let’s do this”.
Also the erratic movement of enemies is quite often responsible for my death. Swing at one worm, get gangbanged by two more. Gravity works very oddly on your weapon, and on you. But while I must say I don’t entirely know how I feel about the actual combat, there is a lot of subtlety to it and I rarely feel like I win without deserving it. Controls would have been infinitely better with a joypad. Sorry kids. Especially an arcade joystick, without which similar game Triggerheart Exelica is practically unplayable.

And that’s my stream-of-consciousness discussion post on Hammerfight.
lp

Parasiet: Well, try using armor and gems (especially the red ones) more efficiently (for example you can bind some key to armor-cover). Also most of explosives can be avoided quite easily. And for offensive – daggers are not a bad choice either…
D-Rock

Has anyone managed to get it to work on windows 7? The original demo when it was still hammerfall works, but when i install the demo for hammerfight, its like the mouse just doesn’t work. I cant read russian, so idk what its says about it when it loads the main menu. I really like the game and want to buy it off steam but idk if its going to work…
any suggestions?
http://www.koshutin.com/downloads/hammerfight_demo_eng.exe MisterX

An english demo is available (just click my nick or go to the homepage). I’m using Win7 and managed to play it.
Parasiet

I’m running this also on windows 7 enterprise, works like a charm. Yeah and the firecracker thing isnt really avoidable, I have the golden armor, and not using any gems atm. I think you cant remove them so I want to get a good one first, purple was nice in the machine ball weapon, but i dont have one loose.
AGuy

how the hell do you beat that tentacled fucker that shoots purple lightning, this is something I’d like to know
Davioware

I love wielding dual morning-stars/maces and swinging them in opposite directions to scissor-rape-and-crush opponents.
“Sludeg the Merciful”

I don’t like how they changed the dialogue and texting. The game and setting doesn’t really feel as exotic with the perfect english that is now.

“This pain!”
ngajoe

AGuy: I knocked his dynamite back at him to weaken him up a bit. It sort of worked.
ngajoe

AGuy: I knocked his dynamite back at him to weaken him up a bit. It sort of worked.
Rockvillian

This game gets in your brain something fierce.
Zixinus

Anarkex: Strange, I found out most of the game controls from the original Russian demo. Left click (unless you’re southpaw) will open you up, allowing to connect certain two weapons or activate your selected objects (like armor) or just collect weapons or armor from the ground (or even mid-air). Holding down right click and flinging your weapon then letting go of right click mid-fling will toss your weapon.

I don’t get what you don’t understand about the objectives. They could be clearer, yes, but usually they say it clearly enough.

I do agree that the HUD can be a little blocking, especially on the arena levels.

A joypad might work, but only if you have two analog sticks.

“Sludeg the Merciful”

Well, for a good deal of us, its as exotic as it gets because the subtelties of the Russian escapes us, not knowing Russian.

AGguy: yes, you have to knock the barrels back. Don’t be afraid to get into the monster’s view a bit if you want a good swing.
dbeals

An awesome game.

Mooseral: Windows actually does come with support for multiple keyboards and mice, it just takes a little bit of work on the software developer’s end. A game can make use of every different mouse and keyboard hooked up through USB ports.
http://www.twitter.com/goodmorningcpt Allen

I received the title of “ALLEN the TURTLE” because I bought 6 pieces of armor :)
ngajoe

Has anyone figured out how to be victorious with the Hammerball Mode? Those damn wormbots get me every time. D:<
Patrick

I was able to play it pretty well with the nub on a laptop’s keyboard, much better than the trackpad. My finger really hurts.
“Sludeg the Fierce”

@Zixinus
Well, I don’t read russian either, but the dialogue in the old english demo affected me more than the text in the game now.
Randy

I hate the developers of this game for making it SO addictive and yet SO frustrating.
The item buying process is the worst I have ever seen.
You can get an amazing weapon and it is incredibly easy to just drop it accidentally right after you beat a level. You will never get it back. Now you have nothing.
Why does this awesome game have such glaring flaws?

I hope everyone gives them money so that a Hammerfight 2 can be made where these problems will be addressed and this game gets the experience it deserves.