Heroes of Hammerwatch: Ultimate Edition, developed by Crackshell and published by the boys of the BlitWorks, is the sequel - with a more expanded and adventurous world - to the classic Hammerwatch released way back in 2013. After the releases for PC, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, this 16-bit roguelike finally lands on the home console Sony, PlayStation 4, in a new and exciting adventure that takes us back to the city of Outlook where we should climb the very dangerous one Spire abandoned to recover the treasures hidden inside and rebuild the city around it. This new chapter of Heroes of Hammerwatch is not the classic roguelike for a couple of hours and on, on the contrary, there it will take a long time to get to the bottom of it to it and unlock everything. An exciting and extremely exciting title punitive, which will test you from the very first hours in-game. Net of some flaws due to its indie nature, this new incarnation of the game on the Sony console definitely deserves your attention. Let's find out why together.
A fast and punishing roguelike
As we said at the beginning, if you are not careful, Heroes of Hammerwatch: Ultimate Edition will punish you, and it will not be a light thing. In fact, if you die in the dungeon hall, you will lose everything you have found, from coins to minerals, up to your precious objects, thus having to start over from the town that will act as a central hub. However, don't despair: your earned EXPs will remain intact. Thus, in the event of your departure, you will not have the fear of losing anything important, apart from the objects in the inventory, but of those you will find many others.
From a structural point of view, i procedural dungeons they will encourage the player to continue his exploration, in order to always discover new things and thus expand his arsenal. This will make subsequent runs easier and easier. Interesting is therefore the possibility of being able to influence multipliers and other statistics within the dungeon thanks to the fountain in the city, but features to be unlocked. This, in fact, through a system of Favor / Disfavor will provide us with bonuses or malus at our discretion: a great way to give more choice and variety within a roguelike title.
The minerals collected will serve the reconstruction of the city, a very important element since as we proceed in the main quest new characters will be unlocked, to be used in subsequent runs, while maintaining the progress of the buildings we have built, as well as the objects updated by the merchants. It will then be possible to unlock new functions to make our path inside the dungeon more "interesting", while we will meet a master of skills which will teach us new and powerful active and passive skills. With the coins we could finally buy new permanent upgrades for the character. However, growth is slow because it is necessary to raise money to improve the basic equipment - mainly attack, defense and speed - and experience to activate new active and passive skills.
An old-fashioned game
Pad in hand, this Heroes of Hammerwatch: Ultimate Edition is extremely smooth and fast. The 2D Pixel Art graphics lends itself really well to the spirit of the game, which as a good roguelike promises to be very long if you want to maximize all the stats. The rendering is still colorful and very pleasant, even if when you are together with other players it is easy to lose sight of your character. The sprites and textures are basic and deliberately pixelated, but overall they are perfect for the type of game and are not reused in an exaggerated way despite the procedural generation. As for the soundtrack, this one does not stand out too much, although each melody accompanies the different phases in a pleasant way. These are not memorable, nor will they burn into our minds, as happens for the music of other titles with similar aesthetics, but we must recognize that the sound effects are well diversified.
This new incarnation of the title is certainly an old-fashioned game, but with a modern heart, full of surprises and new things to do. Lovers of the genre will easily find themselves at home although, even in light of the most recent productions such as Hades, we cannot speak of the best incarnation of roguelike, indeed. For new players, however, it will be a pleasant introduction to the genre. Another aspect not to be underestimated, the possibility of experiencing the adventure together with our friends through online coop multiplayer. The Ultimate Edition version then contains the 3 DLC released, namely Heroes of Hammerwatch: Witch Hunter, Heroes of Hammerwatch: Pyramid of Prophecy and Heroes of Hammerwatch: Moon Temple. Adding all these aspects, Heroes of Hammerwatch: Ultimate Edition turns out to be a enjoyable title, even if unable to excel in any aspect. A fun and dynamic title that, net of captivating graphics but without art or part and a story that serves only as a glue between one dungeon and another, will give you several hours of challenge and fun.
