Sledgehammer

About

"Sledgehammer" is a high-speed racing game that combines action and demolition. Experience hours of gameplay in the single-player campaign, which features six minigames, or take the destruction online with up to eight players in cooperative and deathmatch modes. Upgrade your truck's melee, weapons, and armor to become an unstoppable force on the road.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

74%

Audience ScoreBased on 86 reviews

story12 positive mentions

graphics4 negative mentions

The game offers a unique concept of driving a transforming truck that can switch between racing and combat modes, providing a fun and chaotic experience.
Despite its age, the gameplay is enjoyable with a variety of missions that keep players engaged, including races, combat, and unique challenges.
Players appreciate the ability to upgrade their truck and the satisfaction of causing destruction, making it a fun, albeit short, experience.

The graphics and voice acting are dated and often criticized for being poor, detracting from the overall experience.
The game suffers from difficulty spikes and inconsistent controls, leading to frustrating moments during missions.
Once the campaign is completed, there is little incentive to continue playing, as replaying missions lacks meaningful rewards or achievements.

story
102 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
80%
8%
The story in "Sledge Hammer" is often criticized for being poorly executed and lacking depth, serving primarily as a flimsy framework to connect various missions. While some players find the premise amusing and the missions entertaining, the overall narrative is described as cheesy and confusing, with subpar voice acting and translation issues detracting from the experience. Despite its shortcomings, the game offers a variety of mission types that keep gameplay engaging, though many feel the story itself is forgettable.
- “Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today.”
- “Interesting backstory with a dark edge to it, not too overdone on cutscenes.”
- “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 super racer 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...”
- “There's also a story, but... it sucks.”
- “Somewhat decent game, gameplay is fun but the story is an absolute mess thanks to poor translation since this was originally in Russian.”
- “Voiceover is atrocious, storyline is outrageous, sound is... mediocre.”
graphics
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
71%
17%
The graphics in the game are generally considered outdated and not impressive, with many users noting they are "so-so" and not in HD. While some appreciate the game's fast-paced action and find the visuals tolerable, others feel that the graphics detract from the overall experience, especially when compared to modern standards. Despite this, many players emphasize that they prioritize gameplay over graphics.
- “Fast game with modern day graphics with easy controls that moves from location A to B to C and so on.”
- “Graphics aren't that bad actually and it's not really a blurry mess.”
- “The graphics aren't 1080p/HD, but that’s not what I wanted, or what my computer could handle.”
- “The graphics aren't great and the voice-acting is pretty bad, but the action is fast and the explosions and crashes are plentiful.”
- “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.”
- “The first impression of this game is that the graphics do look rather dated, but I have never been one to get hung up on graphics.”
gameplay
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
42%
8%
The gameplay is generally praised for its excitement and variety, featuring numerous game modes and engaging mechanics, particularly in driving and combat elements. However, it is marred by poor voice acting, a convoluted story, and subpar graphics, which detract from the overall experience. Despite these issues, players find the gameplay enjoyable and fun.
- “Gameplay is exciting with numerous game modes and lots of playability.”
- “The graphics are nothing to write home about but the gameplay is solid, and it's always fun driving around blowing up other cars.”
- “Somewhat decent game, gameplay is fun but the story is an absolute mess thanks to poor translation since this was originally in Russian.”
- “However, there are a bunch of different gameplay elements and level types, and as I mentioned, the cutscenes are awful.”
optimization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
38%
The game's optimization allows players to unlock performance upgrades and new weapons for their truck by achieving gold or silver rankings in missions, though some missions may present a challenge. Overall, players find it relatively easy to max out the truck's capabilities, making it highly effective in later stages. Additionally, launching the game in Windows XP compatibility mode offers slight performance improvements.
- “Completing missions unlocks performance upgrades and new weapons for the truck, but unlocking these usually requires gold or silver rankings on each mission.”
- “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 armor ratings, making the vehicle nearly unstoppable in later missions.”
- “Exe to launch in Windows XP compatibility mode, performance is improved slightly.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The music in the game is described as relaxing and of good sound quality, providing a soothing experience for players. However, some reviewers feel that the music was not particularly impressive for its time, and the dialogue delivery was criticized for being slow and generic.
- “I relaxed for 5 minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.”
- “+ Good sound and music”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
150%
Users report significant stability issues, particularly with missions like "race in disguise" and "running fight," which are described as buggy and troublesome. These problems detract from the overall gameplay experience.
- “This game is plagued with bugs, especially in the missions 'Race in Disguise' and 'Running Fight'.”
- “The stability issues make missions like 'Race in Disguise' and 'Running Fight' incredibly frustrating.”
- “I encountered numerous bugs during the missions 'Race in Disguise' and 'Running Fight', which severely impacted my experience.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
150%
The humor in the game is characterized by poorly executed cutscenes that many players find amusingly bad, contributing to a comedic experience despite the narrative's shortcomings. However, the repetitive nature of the gameplay, highlighted by the limited vehicle options, detracts from the overall enjoyment.
- “The cutscenes are hilariously bad, adding a unique charm to the game.”
- “The humor in the plot points is so over-the-top that it keeps you laughing.”
- “The absurdity of the situations makes for some genuinely funny moments.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's replayability is considered limited, with some users noting that while it offers a slightly improved experience, it does not significantly enhance overall enjoyment or address performance issues like choppy framerate. Consequently, many reviewers remain hesitant to recommend it.