Hammerfight

About

"Hammerfight" is a single-player historical hack and slash game with an interesting plot and outstanding game mechanics, centered around realistic physics simulation in its 2D battles of flying machines. The game features high-quality art, breakable objects, and over 5

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

73%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,242 reviews

story89 positive mentions

stability37 negative mentions

Unique and innovative physics-based combat that feels satisfying and rewarding.
Engaging atmosphere with interesting world-building and a variety of weapons to choose from.
Challenging gameplay that encourages skill development and mastery.

Controls can be frustrating and difficult to master, leading to a steep learning curve.
The story can be confusing and poorly presented, making it hard to follow.
Bugs and glitches can disrupt gameplay, causing frustration and unfair deaths.

story
343 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
64%
10%
The game's story is described as convoluted and difficult to follow, often hindered by poor translation and overwhelming text. Despite these challenges, many players find the narrative surprisingly deep and engaging, featuring multiple paths and endings that enhance replayability. While some appreciate the unique setting and character development, others criticize the story for being disjointed and overshadowed by gameplay mechanics.
- “The story is way deeper than I ever expected some old flash game to ever be, real unique and great.”
- “Years later and I still keep coming back to this incredibly fun, story-rich, immersive game.”
- “A surprisingly rich (if short) story, and game mechanics that are easy to understand, but difficult and ultimately enjoyable to master.”
- “The story (or at least the parts I managed to struggle through) was fired at you in moving speech bubbles in a font that made my eyes want to bleed, sometimes during a fight.”
- “The story is completely bonkers and relies on made-up words to create the sense of an otherworld, but as a result is just confusing as all hell.”
- “The plot appears to be involved, but ends up being a disorganized and fuddled mess, leaving the player with not much care as to what is actually happening.”
gameplay
254 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
57%
6%
The gameplay of this game is characterized by its unique and innovative mechanics, primarily involving physics-based combat that requires mouse control to swing weapons effectively. While many players find the core mechanics satisfying and addictive, there are significant criticisms regarding the controls, camera issues, and a lack of clear tutorials, which can lead to frustration. Overall, the gameplay experience is a mix of chaotic fun and challenging mastery, appealing to those willing to invest time in overcoming its learning curve.
- “Stylish presentation, compelling worldbuilding, high quality music, gripping plot, and unique gameplay make this game stand out for me even 15 years later.”
- “Unique aesthetics, unique gameplay, easy to learn, hard to master.”
- “The core mechanic of this game (a brawler fight with flying machines and attached weapons) is loads of fun.”
- “Gameplay loop is 'flail your mouse around and hope the game goes away'.”
- “The tutorial for major game mechanics isn't even explained to you until you're about 1/3 through the campaign already, and the taunting mechanic is never explained at all, you just have to figure it out for yourself.”
- “The strain on the hands, the eyes, and the gradually building up frustration is not quite being made up by the unique mechanics and gameplay.”
graphics
98 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
47%
15%
The graphics of the game are a mixed bag, with many players appreciating its unique art style and aesthetic, which evokes a retro or old-school charm. However, several reviews criticize the visuals for being cluttered, low-resolution, and at times obscuring gameplay, leading to frustration. Overall, while the graphics may not meet modern standards, they contribute to a distinctive atmosphere that some players find engaging.
- “Hammerfight uses a gorgeous, pre-rendered graphical aesthetic with multiple parallax background layers and subtle lighting that, much like Highfleet, gives the game a unique and oddly realistic appearance.”
- “The graphics, especially the particle effects, are quite nice, and there's a surprising amount of destructibility to the environments.”
- “The amazing setting, crisp visuals, and above all, the unconventional gameplay makes this a one-of-a-kind experience not to be missed.”
- “Firstly, the graphics are awful (and I don't mean fidelity or the quality of the art): the levels and visual effects are cluttered with unnecessary detail that only makes it more difficult to see what's going on, with no benefit to overall aesthetic appeal.”
- “The graphics were also atrocious at fullscreen resolution and only looked semi-clear during windowed mode, something that any modern-day title should be ashamed of!”
- “Horrible graphics, worse than many flash games.”
stability
37 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is widely criticized, with numerous reports of bugs, glitches, and frustrating controls that significantly impact gameplay. While some players find the glitches add a humorous element to the experience, many express that the issues can be game-breaking and detract from overall enjoyment. Despite these problems, a few users still recommend the game for its fun mechanics, albeit with caution regarding its unstable nature.
- “Inconsistent, buggy, frustrating - don't even bother playing the campaign after you unlock arena.”
- “I say frustration because without a shadow of a doubt, this is one of the most buggy and janky games I have ever played, filled with small and large annoyances and questionable design decisions that plague me even after I have become familiar with each and every eccentricity.”
- “It's hard to remain civil and composed having paid for what is, effectively, a worthless piece of shit because you can't win the game without playing the same mission 10x or more... simply because of the random glitches, terrible mouse control (your slider works backwards and doesn't make any sense), and crashing... as well as the severely mentally handicapped AI.”
music
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
64%
25%
11%
The music in the game is generally praised for its quality and fitting atmosphere, enhancing the overall experience with a unique and moody soundtrack that complements the gameplay. While some reviews note that the music can be repetitive, many highlight its pleasing nature and ability to immerse players in the game's compelling world. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong aspect of the game, contributing to its stylish presentation and engaging narrative.
- “Stylish presentation, compelling worldbuilding, high quality music, gripping plot, and unique gameplay make this game stand out for me even 15 years later.”
- “The gameplay is phenomenal with an excellent soundtrack to boot.”
- “The art and music are beautiful, the world is a steampunk middle-eastern environment that is unique and to me personally a great joy in the face of endless medieval European environments.”
- “The music was lame and unexciting, the enemies could be annoying and unpredictable at times, and there is little variety in the gameplay.”
- “Look, this game came out in 2009, doesn't have adjustable resolutions or 16:9 support even, but what it does have is, at its core, is possibly the best physics based combat system I've ever seen in terms of raw satisfaction, there's like a bajillion different weapons and each of them have a distinct feel to use, as well as a bopping soundtrack if you can get past the jank there is a gold nugget buried in here.”
- “The music/effects work well.”
replayability
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
59%
18%
The game is praised for its high replayability, featuring unique mechanics, branching storylines, and various gameplay modes that encourage multiple playthroughs. Players appreciate the depth of combat, diverse weaponry, and the dynamic world, which collectively enhance the overall experience and keep players engaged long after the initial campaign. Despite some criticisms regarding the extent of replay value in certain aspects, the consensus is that the game offers significant replay potential for those who enjoy its mechanics and story.
- “Mad respect for the developer creating such unique games, that while extremely challenging, have so much depth and replayability.”
- “Easily one of the most underrated games on Steam, pretty much endless replayability with a great story to begin with (even has branching plot points!), the gameplay is very much innovative and the potential for this system is really big.”
- “With the quite sizable armory you build up, missable weapons and armor, and alternate endings and mission choices, the game has quite a huge amount of replay value.”
- “For $5 it's okay, just don't expect a whole lot of replayability.”
- “The story is fairly cliché, but it does offer branching paths that not only change the overall difficulty of the game but give it replay value and a feel that the player is somewhat in control.”
- “Adding to the replayability.”
atmosphere
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
58%
17%
25%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its vibrant worldbuilding and unique diesel-punk aesthetic, enhanced by impressive visual effects and a moody soundtrack. While the narrative can be disjointed and difficult to follow, the overall setting and art contribute to a captivating experience that many players find immersive and engaging. Despite some critiques regarding gameplay difficulty, the atmospheric elements remain a standout feature that enriches the overall enjoyment of the game.
- “It has incredible atmosphere, such vibrant worldbuilding with such little dialog and exposition.”
- “Smoke and spark effects and plenty of gears and mechanical details sell the diesel-punk atmosphere.”
- “Hammerfight features amazing atmosphere, stylish narrative (with a branching storyline), moody soundtrack, interesting story and backstory, and unique, super-fun, action-packed dynamic gameplay.”
- “Putting aside the personal dislike of the game's overall atmosphere, I find that the gameplay itself is rather hard and very unforgiving.”
- “The atmosphere, setting, and central mechanics are very good though; this game really deserves to be fixed.”
- “This is one of the few games I've played that really has atmosphere!”
humor
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in Hammerfight is characterized by its clever and absurd physics-based mechanics, leading to hilarious moments such as outrageous enemy interactions and amusing glitches. Players appreciate the game's ability to evoke laughter through its chaotic gameplay and quirky design, despite acknowledging its clumsy controls and technical issues. Overall, the game is seen as a source of fun and laughter, making it an entertaining experience despite its flaws.
- “The game has hilarious moments, a requisite for all good games.”
- “It's also quite hilarious to ram enemies with 100,000,000 sharpness shields, get free hammer coins, or have the arena announcer call you absurd names.”
- “Hammerfight is fun and funny - I literally laughed out loud when first playing this game.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and frustrating, often requiring multiple playthroughs to unlock content and deal with cumbersome mechanics like gem farming and item trading. The design choices, such as a locked resolution and limited level selection, contribute to a sense of annoyance rather than challenge, leading many to recommend editing items instead of engaging in the grind. Overall, the grinding experience detracts significantly from the enjoyment of the game.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “I'd recommend not farming them and just editing them onto your weapons once you finish the main story.”
- “However, the gameplay was just overly frustrating and tedious.”
- “It's full of perplexing design choices: really hard at the beginning, need 2 mice to trade items between profiles, can't un-equip gems without editing the game files, gem farming is really tedious (just edit them, it's not worth farming), can't manually select levels in the arena, runs at 50 fps (why?), need to play through multiple times to unlock every game mode and weapon, and the giant HUD gets in the way a lot because the game is locked at 800x600.”
- “I enjoy a good challenge, but to go from levels that were challenging but possible to achieve in, at most, two or three repeats to something that a full day of cursing, teeth-grinding toil couldn't conquer isn't so much challenging as it is frustrating... and, of course, due to the game's linear nature, it makes it impossible to continue the game.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
80%
20%
The emotional aspect of the game is mixed; while some players found the story impactful enough to evoke tears, others felt frustrated and punished by the challenging gameplay and controls, leading to a sense of rage rather than emotional engagement.
- “It has a good story; the end almost made me cry.”
- “Not only was this rather rage-inducing, but it made me feel like I was being punished by the game for simply playing it.”
- “The controls made me cry.”