Hammerwatch
Hammerwatch
Game
Game2023
Hammerwatch II
Developer Crackshell
Hammerwatch 2 is a 2023 action role-playing video game developed by Crackshell and published by Modus Games. It is the sequel to Hammerwatch and Heroes of Hammerwatch. It is available for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. Ports to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox Series X/S were released on April 23, 2024. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
229 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 28, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
55
Mixed
101 positive · 81 negative
95% range 48–63%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 101 | 81 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 10 | 1 | 22 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 5 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
784 of 1,214 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
56% recommend · 102 yes, 81 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 183 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (1,377 of 2,234 positive).
Many players enjoy the game's classic RPG feel and combat. [1][2][3] Some reviewers report game-breaking bugs and lack of developer support. [4][5][6]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
Before purchasing, know that the publisher has abandoned this game. The developer is no longer authorized to patch or add content. A friend and I played the campaign via co-op on the second hardest difficulty with relatively no issues until a point where he'd crash during every stage transition (there are MANY of these). After searching the official Discord, we discovered this particular crash bug has been around …
- [16]
I really want to be able to recommend Hammerwatch 2, but there are some confounding choices made by the developers which make it a tough game to sell. Additionally, they've chosen to abandon the game in a rough state and move on to their next title. I'm a huge fan of Crackshell. I understand that some of the issues they faced are due to their publisher, but they chose to work with the company in exchange for the …
- [1]
While I have yet to finish the game, at around 16 hours in playing on the hardest difficulty I cannot for the life of me understand the legion of negative reviews. While it seems the game has its share of odd bugs, thus far I have yet to encounter a single one. Likewise, while I have not touched multiplayer, the general sentiment seems to be that the game is simply not Heroes of Hammerwatch and the multiplayer …
- [3]
I haven’t played the first Hammerwatch, so this review is based solely on Hammerwatch II. This is an open-world, top-down, co-op dungeon crawler RPG with four playable classes: Paladin, Rogue, Ranger, and Warlock. Each class has unique skill trees with multiple build options, which makes leveling up feel rewarding and exciting. Combat is fun and engaging, and the large map offers plenty to explore. You’ll almost …
- [2]
Honestly, I hesitated to try this game solely because of the reviews, but it is a ton of fun IF you like the structure of the game (different than Hammerwatch I). If you enjoyed the original for it's combat and dungeon crawling, it has that, but it's much more like Diablo I & II in it's progression and challenge level. It has towns and vendors, loot with affixs and rarity, character customization (your Class & …
Summarised from 34 of the 237 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Hammerwatch II talk about tactical combat and class customization are praised; those who didn't talk about game-breaking bugs block progress in co-op. Which matters more to you?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Hammerwatch 2 received "mixed or average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Although they found the multiplayer and character progression fun, RPGFan recommended that fans avoid Hammerwatch II, which they said is "stuck in the past" due to poor design decisions. They also criticized the writing and what they felt were poorly made dungeons, which they said made it "a slog of an adventure". PC Gamer said the old-school design may annoy some players, but they found the game fun enough to overcome the frustrating elements. Rock Paper Shotgun enjoyed how the game could be made as simple or complex as one desires, though they said it can feel unpolished. Nintendo…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 229 · most liked firstBefore purchasing, know that the publisher has abandoned this game. The developer is no longer authorized to patch or add content. A friend and I played the campaign via co-op on the second hardest difficulty with relatively no issues until a point where he'd crash during every stage transition (there are MANY of these). After searching the official Discord, we discovered this particular crash bug has been around for awhile and is caused by a unique item dropped by the giant spider boss. As…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Be me, playing game with my bro. Having a blast. Suddenly can't go forward anymore. Ask on the Discord channel. "Oh yeah you need to download some shaddy .exe to bypass the bug. Otherwise you start over and hope you don't get it again." Close the game. Write negative review. At least I had fun with my bro.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →From the few hours I played the game isn't bad. It lacked the fun exploration of Hammerwatch 1 and felt watered down by having content spread so far out. But the primary reason I don't recommend it is having quests tied to total play time. I understand timed quest after accepting them, I understand narrative "points of no return" that auto-fail quests, and I understand having aspects of the game tied to day/night cycles. All of those can make for fun games, and I think sometimes it can even be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New game recommendation: Heroes of Hammerwatch II ARPG roguelike with meta progression in the form of town building. This game currently has it's hooks in me DEEP
positive · AI labelView post →I really want to be able to recommend Hammerwatch 2, but there are some confounding choices made by the developers which make it a tough game to sell. Additionally, they've chosen to abandon the game in a rough state and move on to their next title. I'm a huge fan of Crackshell. I understand that some of the issues they faced are due to their publisher, but they chose to work with the company in exchange for the benefits a publisher provides, same as they've chosen to move on and leave…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I demand an explanation. How is this a game that is incomplete but "Heroes of Hammerwatch II" just dropped today... Was this stolen? "Heroes of Hammerwatch" was so good! How did we get this incomplete game but then another drops? Was this a cash grab? Please explain before myself and so many others assume the worse.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A big no. I really love the Hammerwatch 1 but I don't know what happened after the first game. I feel like the game's bad aspects are being deliberately highlighted for the next games (heroes of hammerwatch including). Map design became terrible, combat became bad, balance is forgotten. The game is constantly trying to take your fun away from you. "Did you die? How unfortunately. Now give me %20 of your gold and I'll re-spawn all of the mobs again." As if that weren't enough, quest mechanics…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →*Warning: Spoilers* Atrocious, Horrible Game, and one of the worst I played this year. I liked the first Hammerwatch game very much. It was a simple RPG with Retro graphics in which you collect coins, kill monsters, and progress to the next floor. Easy to understand, hard to master. Then, when I learned about Hammerwatch II, I got excited immediately. This excitement, however, was the biggest mistake I made this year and the slap in the face from this game left me crying on the floor like a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Three times I started to play this game. Three times, my progress was blocked by some bug or glitch. The game's last real patching work still appears to be back in April, almost a full year ago. I will not start a fourth attempt to play this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved Heroes of Hammerwatch. I read the negative reviews and most of them seemed to be about Co-op issues, something that didn't matter to me, so I ignored them. I shouldn't have. I gave the game 14 hours, but I enjoyed not a single moment of that time. -The open world aspect adds lots of time without adding any fun. -The items are few and far between, with the stats being incredibly boring. -The skills aren't fun to play around with. I don't understand this point at all, because of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We were really looking forward to this game - the tutorial island was excellent. Unfortunately, there were so many issues with the main game; gameplay, mechanics, performance, you name it. It was then abandoned. Do not buy.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd love to give this game a recommendation, because the gameplay is really neat and the art looks nice as well. But I can't look over the lack of developer support. If you want to play in coop, the game crashes basically every time for the guest player when you load a new area. The bug is well documented in their Discord server, but there hasn't been any response - not even an acknowledgement - from the developer. If they ever fix this issue, I'm glad to update my review. But it doesn't look…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly just a let down. I was really looking forward to this title but the gameplay just felt so painfully linear while trying to pretend to be sort of 'free roam' with arbitrary invisible walls and obstacles. This just means you'll spend an hour wandering around before looking up that you had to go to this one specific spot in a zone to progress at all instead of being allowed to explore like the wide open map seems like it wants to encourage, but in practice, it doesn't.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loved Hammerwatch 1 and Heroes of Hammerwatch. Bought this on a decent sale, wasted money. All the RPG elements added to Hammerwatch 2 are not fun. The quests are walls of text in pixelated font, telling you to walk from A to B to A to B to A (yes, really). The purple fog is absolutely BLINDING and a very questionable design choice. Our co-op run had to be abandoned once the constant crashes started. Ultimately this game had plenty of potential, but feels underdeveloped.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I have yet to finish the game, at around 16 hours in playing on the hardest difficulty I cannot for the life of me understand the legion of negative reviews. While it seems the game has its share of odd bugs, thus far I have yet to encounter a single one. Likewise, while I have not touched multiplayer, the general sentiment seems to be that the game is simply not Heroes of Hammerwatch and the multiplayer experience does not align well with this predecessor. Bugs there may be, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Complete rip off, instead of finishing this game the devs abandon it in favor of Heroes of Hammerwatch 2. So many game breaking bugs and issues that they said were getting fixed but instead they just release another game with a similar title. I have been waiting for a full play-through due to the fact that most of my attempts end up getting progress locked by a broken quest and I cant finish the story......This is not what you would call a finished game. Shame Devs!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, I hesitated to try this game solely because of the reviews, but it is a ton of fun IF you like the structure of the game (different than Hammerwatch I). If you enjoyed the original for it's combat and dungeon crawling, it has that, but it's much more like Diablo I & II in it's progression and challenge level. It has towns and vendors, loot with affixs and rarity, character customization (your Class & appearance) and progression with Levels, Attribute Points, and Skill Points, with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes I voted positive for this one because I enjoyed the game fully. Yet I can say that it is quite a slightly above the average due to the current state. And there is a reason behind about what actually happened with all due to the business problems there the main developpers and their publishers. You see, maybe some of you saw this from other games, but Hammerwatch 2 is a no exception with this problem around. Whenever you lose your publisher, the developper company can not working any…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hammerwatch 2 is not a bad game but it has a disrespectful amount of timewasting. Be ready to sift through hundreds of journal entries to read where to go, or which NPC to talk to, because the game doesn't explain anything (even for main quests). In HW1 NPCs had unique icons based on what they sell, in HW2 it's just a $ icon - hope you can remember what they sell because the game won't tell you! The map can't be zoomed out and quests aren't displayed until you're close to the relevant NPC so…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DO NOT BUY . The game is so buggy that the whole multiplayer experience is trash. Level design is basic. Game design has a lot of bad decision. Exemples : Keys are useless for many hours and then you need 25 keys for thief hideout, if you don’t have any, you need to kill yourself or take few minutes of backtracking. Quests are basic. Melee fight is clunky, lot of fights are messy. Lot of backtracking in general. Gameplay repetitivity could be good if the gameloop was good, not the case here.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game offers an enjoyable experience and stands as a definite evolution over Hammerwatch 1. While it introduces some fresh mechanics and improvements, I’d still rank it slightly below Heroes of Hammerwatch in terms of overall depth and replayability. If you’re a fan of the previous games, you’ll likely find a lot to enjoy here; the gameplay retains that classic Hammerwatch charm with some added polish, and sticks an open-world layer on top of it. However, my experience was marred by a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just beat the game. Kept waiting to find out what justified the mixed reviews. The game never crashed on me. There were a handful of bugs -- graphical glitches, weird pauses, and points where my dogs wouldn't attack anything -- but nothing crippling. The graphics were lovely, the sound pleasant (albeit the player character's voice was awful). Control felt reasonably smooth; I used mouse and keyboard. Can't speak for the multiplayer aspect, since my buddy refused to play with me, but I thought…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has an enormous amount of bugs and glitches that can easily end your run with nothing to do about it. The boss fights are absolutely terrible, with bosses being able to have 3+ abilities on the screen, rendering the game into a bullet hell with no counterplay unless your character is overtuned/overleveled for the stage. The story progression is horrid, with 80% of the quests being fetch-quests, making you run across the whole map multiple times with no real gameplay in between, and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game has tons of bugs, gamebreaking problems, etc... and has been abandoned and left to rot both here and in all consoles. Avoid purchase, you have been warned!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Could not get multiplayer to work. Tried multiple fixes suggested online. Please release a functional product.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After 9 hours, I'm quitting the game. It's a shame because I had a fantastic time with it for a while, but some very intentional and annoying mechanics completely throw it off. Every single time you die, you are required to give up between 30% of ALL of your gold to restart at the most recent savepoint (whenever you last enter/exit a dungeon). This means that if you so happen to stumble upon an area which you're way too under-leveled for (which is EXTREMELY easy to do, as this game never tells…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is abandoned
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So I might have guessed wrong about Plato, but it's ok as we managed to finish up the game with a good chat to Zipp the raccoon in his café! Big love to @inkvoice.bsky.social for the raid! We raided out to @writesout.bsky.social playing Heroes of Hammerwatch II with friends! CAW!
neutral · AI labelView post →Do I recommend this game? Yes and no. Even though I'm not a huge fan of the Hammerwatch series, games like this have great potential. BUT regarding the negative reviews, I’d say these players don’t enjoy a long-term RPG journey—they just want a hack-and-slash experience like in rogue-like games. The devs opened up the workshop, which was like a holy grail for this game style. And guess what? Those players' comments ruined the game, and the devs gave up. That's how this game ended.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game is designed like garbage BAD -Its a cash grab with unfun mechanics, unfixed gamebreaking bugs which will ruin your savefile -Huge amounts of fetch quests (which is made even more unbearable since you walk very slowly and have no fast travel) -Unintuitive progression -Lame world map despite having a purely linear main quest -Boss fights are stupid bullet hells that do no good at telegraphing the enemy boss attacks and just fill the screen with stuff -Final boss fight puts all the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played this with my wife. Not the best RPG you'll ever play, but it does feel like a more classic top down rpg and it feels like a blast from the past. It is fun enough for its price. I notice some people here complaining that the game is abandoned, but I don't see the issue since the game is finished and there is no reason to keep working on it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ditch the day/night mechanic where the entire game except dungeons basically shuts down.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The fact I bought this thinking it would basically be heroes of hammerwatch 2, just for them to abandon it and rush out actual heroes of hammerwatch 2, is crazy. The fact we weren't given keys for the new game having bought this one for literally $30 is insane.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I haven’t played the first Hammerwatch, so this review is based solely on Hammerwatch II. This is an open-world, top-down, co-op dungeon crawler RPG with four playable classes: Paladin, Rogue, Ranger, and Warlock. Each class has unique skill trees with multiple build options, which makes leveling up feel rewarding and exciting. Combat is fun and engaging, and the large map offers plenty to explore. You’ll almost certainly miss things unless you’re aiming to 100% the game. Boss fights are…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game really grows on you. I wasn't sure about it at the beginning, but by the end it had become one of my favorite RPGs. If you're on the fence, don't listen to the negative reviews and give it a go, you'll probably love it. It's a little rough at the beginning. The difficulty and balance is way too harsh, especially for melee characters. The lategame is too easy, if you make a half-decent build. The trouble is that you can't switch difficulty once you select it at the start. So make…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I won't bother you with a well rounded review, so there is timeline that will describe this game at hardest difficulty (spoilers ahead). - Exited for the game - Interesting new world - Burn everything alive with mage a loot every possible stuff - Oooh, dungeon with boss in it -- Cue dead in one shot - Oooh, 2nd act with dugeons and loot in it -- Cue another random one shot - Uhm, this dungeon feels... familiar -- Oh, it's mostly copy-paste, bet there will be secret crack with EXP/…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is fun but always crash, it's terrible bug
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Only recommended in co-op. Hammerwatch 2 expands on the original with a much larger and more open world, considerably more freedom. Horewer, this openness comes at a cost: the game feels empty, with more travelling, farming and grinding. 100% steam achievements Time : 75.1H Completion Difficulty : 6/10 Playthroughs : 5 Missables : None Notable requirements : Complete the game on the highest difficulty and with all classes, kill-related achievements.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hotfix 2 for Heroes of Hammerwatch II is now live! 🛠️ Further improvements to pets, summons, survival mission enemies, and more. Thanks to our players for your feedback, suggestions, and reports 🫂 Read the full hotfix notes 👉 bit.ly/HoH2CRHotfix2 #IndieDev #IndieGame #ARPG #Roguelike #PixelArt
neutral · AI labelView post →There are a lot of bugs ingame, some of them are game breaking. The general idea is awesome, but it's unplayable at the time I've played (2024)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hammerwatch II - Gameplay Trailer. Launching on PC August 15, coming to consoles later. For more details, check the [Gematsu Story](https://www.gematsu.com/2023/06/hammerwatch-ii-launches-august-15-for-pc-later-in-2023-for-ps5-xbox-series-ps4-xbox-one-and-switch)
neutral · AI labelView post →Yeah, don't buy this game is abandoned (hasn't been updated since April of 2024), i had more fun with Hammer Watch one, i remember when the trailer came out for this game i was hyped, but this game feels boring, i don't feel a sense of exploration, the combat is boring, you get punished for dying by loosing a lot of gold, some of the dungeons feels empty, enemies feel way to out scaled on normal difficulty btw, the controller support hasn't been improved, its like its meant to be used on…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Abandoned too soon to develop their actual game, letting this feel like a proof of concept. Avoid, at best avoid the developer in general, trying to milk you by releasing content pieces as new games with similar names to confuse people. Scam dev.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game so far. My son loves Minecraft dungeons and I don't, I got him into this game and he hasn't remembered Minecraft Dungeons since. My wife, my son, and I all three play this game as an evening hobby. This is a great RPG, and with all the patches since launch I haven't had a single issue with the game. The retro style, themes, and enjoyable play bring me back to happier times of my youth. I whole heartedly recommend this game. Get it, get your boys to get it, and settle down for an…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Claims to offer full controller support. Controller inputs literally do not work, plus several necessary actions (like taking a potion) are not mapped to controller inputs. Switched to keyboard and mouse to continue playing. Now I get to experience many game-breaking and game-crashing bugs. This game is borderline unplayable. The bugs are nearly intolerable. Save yourself the suffering and DO NOT PLAY this game. If you must play, do not play solo. Playing with someone makes the game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Every dungeon is a maze. There is no town portal spell. You will constantly get lost and find areas you have to come back to. Then spend hours trying to find your way out again.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →do not download this you want to play HEROES of hammerwatch. this is just hammerwatch
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pixel art that is incredibly detailed but so tiny you can't make anything out, a day/night system where the quest npc's go to bed and you have to PAY to skip to daytime, and dull caves that you have to backtrack all the way out of after reaching the end and getting nothing. Save your time and money, play Heroes of Hammerwatch again.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fix your game. I couldn't even start a game with friends without major bugs.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm sad to leave a review that says I cannot recommend this game. I want to love it. I just can't. I might keep trying but honestly it's just not fun to take a quest and fail it because it's timed AND you do not know what to do or where to go to complete it. They sort of throw you in the deep end and tell you to sink or swim in this game. I am used to that to some degree in many games I dearly love, but I feel like most of my time here is spent wandering around trying to find out how to get…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This review is from the perspective of the Wizard Class(My favourite Hammerwatch class) on Serious mode(Hardest difficulty). After finishing the first Hammerwatch Game, I was eager to give this a go. I cannot however recommend it. I finished Hammerwatch on Serious mode and despite the difficulty, it never felt unfair. Hammerwatch 2 however, is a slog to get through. There is a distinct lack of reward for exploration (The odd chest here or there if you're lucky) and if you venture off even…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought game when it shipped. Critical error causes co-op client to crash every zone transition around the time you get the quest to obtain the hookshot. Maybe it's good for solo plays, but don't bother if you wanted to do co-op.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dont you dare to release another game under maximum/modus publishing. They have forgot so much about this game that they didnt even dare to update their logo. Hope Crackshell publishes Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 by themselves. Positive review because the game is pretty good, hope they were able to patch the game to fix the obvious issues the game has
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Steam Cloud save sync issues on some games. I just built a dedicated Linux gaming machine. Brand new parts and I installed Pop!_OS last night. At first Steam wouldn't load from the Pop Store install. It would quickly flash the app then disapear. Repeatedly until I exited it. So I removed it then installed it via `sudo apt install steam` and then it worked. I was able to sign in and download Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice edition. After it finished installing I got a notification that there…
neutral · AI labelView post →To me this is the logical evolution of the first Hammerwatch game. This is what I was expecting Heroes of Hammerwatch to be. The game has its problems, for example navigating the UI with the controller is far from great but I really am having a blast. I have seen some complaints about the lack of markers in the map. You are expected to read but the flavor text is mainly optional. All quests give you a summary of where to go and what do to under the long text of the NPC, so if you just read…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I found this to be the best Hammerwatch there is, its not a roguelike, it is a campaign, it has a story. If you like oldschool hard quests to figure out, this is the game for you, you need to backtrack and look at things and explore things, and read the actual quest log, there is no arrows pointing you to where you have to go and what you need to do, really a rewarding experience. Day and night cycles can at times be a bit annoying but you just run around and explore or sleep at an inn to pass…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not recommented. So much frustrating design choices and missing QOL things that should be norm. I very rarely quit on a game. But this one i can't finish because playing is more chore than fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In this day and age where reviews are not really reviews, I'll just say for the moment that this is the greatest single-player sAlrpg ever made, with great "survival & crafting" elements that are fully unfolded, utilized and enjoyed on 'serious' difficulty. s = skill-based A = ACTION l = light rpg = role playing game I played ~200h with 3 different characters and on all 3 difficulties, the only bug that I experienced was the one where the tiles of hidden paths are not visible and sometimes…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Could have been good, but instead turned out to be a bait and switch. (Only got a couple minor patches despite having major issues/lack of finished content)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Review 26/12/2024 Gameplay is similar to Hammerwatch 1, albeit with some new mechanics. Open world is very beautiful and the travel system between towns is a nice feature. Unlike Hammerwatch 1, this is not so linear, since its more open world you can travel more and take on quests to level and gear. Plays very much like a 2D Diablo rpg with gearing and levelling progression. However, as I am playing with the wife, this game is extremely RNG, especially when it comes to certain items you need…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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