Heroes of Hammerwatch II

Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 feels like it sums up what a great rougelite should be. It combines a main gameplay loop that's tough with a slow stream of upgrades that keep pace with your skill. I've yet to feel particularly overpowered, but I have noticed the early zones getting easier as I finish more and more runs. It's simpler in many ways than recent rougelite hits but there's depth to the game that has kept me playing.

I never played Heroes of Hammerwatch one, but I did play the even older Hammerwatch, which was released way back in 2013. I think I picked it up as part of a humble bundle and remember it being fun but punishing. Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 keeps that same challenging feel with a host of quality-of-life improvements based on the last decade of best practices.

I played a little with the mouse and keyboard but found the game works well with a controller. Some skills are a little more annoying to aim, but having access to all the buttons on a controller certainly helps make dishing out successive spells easier.

You start each run, waltzing into a forest. You'll find some big bugs and wolves as your first enemies. They run at you, and you fire back with skills and weapons and slowly whittle them down. Your basic gear and skills can get you pretty far even on your first run but being a rougelite, you'll be back in the hub sooner or later.

The team balanced the enemy's progression reasonably well. They've hit the sweet spot where things are challenging, and deaths often feel like they're your fault for moving outside your comfort zone. I never felt the enemies were unfairly difficult or that there were too many. Knowing that my runs ended due to skill issues makes it easy to turn around and dive back in.

When you die, you keep your gold, equipment and a few resource types while trinkets and some upgrades reset each run. There is a somewhat punishing mechanic that part of your loot is 'donated' to the team that revived you, and upgrades down the line reduce the amount you lose to tax.

Each of the resources is introduced slowly. You'll find gold and wood in the early areas, with stone and other more advanced materials unlocked in later stages. Unlike so many other games, early resources like wood continue to be useful but scarce as you progress. You're unlikely to end up with an inventory willed with thousands of planks of wood and nothing to do with them.

Back in the town, this games meta progression hub, you'll start to unlock buildings which open up perks or new stores. Upgrades to your gear, skills and spells are all available. Some cost gold and resources, other cost skill and stat points which are unlocked by leveling up and completing achievements.

There are plenty of stats and spells, with more unlocked as you progress, but this isn't a game that requires a build guide to be fun. Most of the classes are well-balanced and interesting enough that I was compelled to try a few classes. Your town progression is shared between characters, so you're not starting a brand new game when you do.

There's multiplayer and a lobby system in the game that I have yet to check out. I can see how the game would be fun with others, especially if you're all running different classes. I usually play in odd snippets of time between other things, so I haven't burdened other players with my sporadic gaming schedule just yet.

For whatever reason, Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 was the kind of game I needed right now. This year is stacked with massive releases, and having something small and simple but still deeply fun is great. Sometimes, I need to be able to jump into a game, play for a little while, and then jump back out, and here I got just that.

(on an unrelated note, the developer's website is pretty wild: https://www.crackshell.dk/)