Game Link: Joining the Hammerfall Bandwagon

I think that the FunMotion blog entry about this game started it. The Hammerfall v0.21 demo posted on a Russian GameNow.ru forum by a user with nickname GKosh has raised interest and inspired numerous blog post among indie game bloggers recently. I dl’d the demo and now it’s official: I’m joining the bandwagon. Hammerfall is indeed a very promising and innovative action game demo for Windows machines.

Steampunk Action

The player controls a stempunk-style flying copter thingy which drags a massive rock on a chain behind it. The basic idea is to swat at enemies by swinging this rock-in-a-chain. The copter is controlled with the mouse; the rock follows behind following the laws of physics (yes, this game uses physics engine, too). The player can swing the rock into action with a circular flying motion.

The game has two basic modes of action: a duel with another copter or a defense against a multitude of insect-like creatures hailing from above. These are varied in different missions (for example, escorting a big air ship). The player can also equip his copter with different kinds of weapons, for example a swinging sword.

Polish

Hammerfall gets full points for presentation and style. Although the action is restricted to two dimensions the graphic engine peruses all of the visual effects available to state-of-the-art 3D games. Music and the sound effects are top notch, too. Not that there’s nothing to improve; the game jammed near to halt couple of times I was playing. In addition to that, the assignment of throw your weapon away function to the right mouse button, which in itself seemed to have no use, botched my gameplay session a couple of times when I hit it accidentally.