Hammerwatch II
Hammerwatch II
Game
Game2025
Heroes of Hammerwatch II
Developer Crackshell
A rogue-lite action-rpg that offers extensive persistent progression. Build your town, upgrade and equip your heroes, before taking on the ever-changing Dark Citadel - either solo or with a team of friends. From the Steam store page
306 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 2, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
62
Fresh
168 positive · 105 negative
95% range 56–67%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 168 | 105 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 9 | 2 | 16 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
3,993 of 4,779 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
60% recommend · 148 yes, 100 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 248 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (5,413 of 6,598 positive).
Many players praise the game's satisfying gameplay loop and meta-progression, especially in co-op. [1][2][3] Some reviewers criticize the game for being overly grindy and unbalanced, with limited build variety. [4][5][6] Several players note that the game has improved since launch but still feels incomplete to some. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
This is from a patch or two ago but I think most of the points still apply. * a lot of the game is just unbalanced. * many skills and weapons are worthless, specifically anything that doesn't pierce targets. Maybe those weapons/skills are good for bosses, but bosses make up such a small percent of the game on higher difficulties that it's not worth the investment. This also makes some classes just worse: i.e. the …
- [14]
It takes about 8 hours to reach the end of act 1 and then you realize the biggest problem with this game. There is no act 2, after you defeat the final boss of act 1 you unlock NG+ and the cycle continues. Not worth the price, maybe if it was an early access title for 1-2$ but there's just not enough "game" here to call it a finished product.
- [1]
- HoH2 is my first Hammerwatch game. - I've played 246+ hours. 90% Steam Deck, 5% Computer, 5% TV with Steam Deck - I've played 99.9% with controller (Steam Deck, Xbox and Stadia controller) - I've played 95% solo, 5% multiplayer with one other player I highly recommend this game. I grew up playing NES, SNES, RPGs, Diablo 2 and grew to love dual-stick shooters. This game has a good mix and just enough to keep you …
- [2]
Genuinely a delight to play, especially when you send a juiced up lightning bowling ball down a hallway and wipe dozens of enemies out. Each class and specialization feels fun and unique, and the meta-progression from leveling classes and donating resources makes each run feels like you are making meaningful overall progress, even when you're leveling alternate characters. I particularly enjoyed the feeling of …
- [4]
It's good but way more grindy than I'd prefer. when I start a run, I normally enjoy it for the first 30 minutes and then the back 30 minutes is just me kiting a mob of the same type of enemies out of rooms x100 knowing that I am getting outscaled. Eventually I just accept that I will die against a boss or my max hp will get too low from constantly getting revived that I just die for good. The characters are also …
Summarised from 34 of the 284 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 Heroes of Hammerwatch II talk about fun co-op action RPG with satisfying progression; those who didn't talk about very grindy, especially at the start. Which matters more to you?
Reactions
60 of 306 · most liked firstI both recommend this game and don't at the same time. As you can see I got a ton of hours out of it, but almost all of those were because I was enjoying it with a friend. We are able to play almost anything co-op together well past the point we would have stopped otherwise. For this type of game it is pretty solid for quite a while, so if you're looking for something to pour hours of grind into, this one might be worth your time. But that's where this game also falters. At first it feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is from a patch or two ago but I think most of the points still apply. * a lot of the game is just unbalanced. * many skills and weapons are worthless, specifically anything that doesn't pierce targets. Maybe those weapons/skills are good for bosses, but bosses make up such a small percent of the game on higher difficulties that it's not worth the investment. This also makes some classes just worse: i.e. the ranger who has to use bows. Without the lvl 10 upgrade, there is literally no…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've just about had it with their garbage. The game has been released over one and a half years ago, and the base game is still unbalanced and bland. Updates have been scarce and underwhelming, usually making my experience worst. They are visibly already more focused on milking the remaining player base of their money, with overpriced DLC, which should have been part of the main game. I suggest to just buy the first game instead of this one. Show them you are not just some mindless consumer,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you dont enjoy the first hour of the game just refund it because the gameplay does not change. Every class has basically fixed abilities so there is nothing to try out and the roguelike mechanics do not matter either. Its just trinkets and baubles making you take less damage or deal more. basically main stat + 5 Diablo meme and the city you build has kinda the same function. numbers go up and it gets a little easier. This game is basically Children of Morta but without the pretty graphics…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Playing as single-player, the grind is real, entirely too real. Progress involves dozens of hours of fighting the exact same enemies, in the exact same map/segment positions, with exactly the same behaviour each time, etc. Want to kit out the town/vendors/etc?? Cool -- hope you've got a few dozen hours to sink into it to get the basics up and running.
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 gave the game the 2-hour try; I liked everything about it except for how it controlled, and I can't get past that, so it's a refund for me. Let me explain my issue and you can decide whether it will be a problem for you. I was expecting either an ARPG (Titan Quest/Diablo) or a Vampire Survivors control scheme. It has some of these aspects, but leans heavily into the "back up, shoot things that are chasing you" mechanic. This requires two directional inputs (where you're going and where…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been here since the release of the first game. This one always leaves you wondering what the next cool thing you'll unlock will be, until it stops abruptly not that far into it and you're left hoping for the next update. But it never comes, and with the latest dlc, the developers have proven they're more interested in making a quick buck than ever changing or adding anything substantial to the game. It especially stings after so many years of experience, feedback, and big promises. Your money…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a huge fan of Heroes of Hammerwatch 1, this is a massive disappointment. Hammerwatch, Hammerwatch II, or Heroes of Hammerwatch... it doesn't matter, it's basically the exact same game over and over. The roadmap they provided is an absolute joke; most of those features are already fully playable through community mods anyway. This is definitely NOT a 1.0 full release. It feels like an Early Access game disguised as a finished product. The state of this game is a joke. Avoid it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It takes about 8 hours to reach the end of act 1 and then you realize the biggest problem with this game. There is no act 2, after you defeat the final boss of act 1 you unlock NG+ and the cycle continues. Not worth the price, maybe if it was an early access title for 1-2$ but there's just not enough "game" here to call it a finished product.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I found this game to be surprisingly unsatisfying to play. I thought I would love it considering I'm a fan of both ARPG and roguelike games. In addition, the pixel art is gorgeous and combat feels snappy, so why did I quit the game feeling disappointed? I think that the design principles at the core of this game made it unenjoyable for me. Hacking through monsters should feel fun and rewarding. However, the act of doing it becomes meaningless the second you think about its implications.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game. Sadly, the beatiful pixel graphics are the only good thing. The rest, while promising on paper, is just an annoying mess of many fundamental desing flaws. In no particular order: The progression is PAINFULLY slow. When you die (happens a lot) you lose a good chunk of collected resources, which makes it even worse. Some of the permanent upgrades are gained per-character, which means that you have to start grinding it all over again if you want to try a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is okay. Once you hit end game, you realize the customization and build flexibility is rather small.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very grindy, ultimately kind of dull. Progress feels like chipping away at a brick wall, until suddenly it collapses and you've finished the final boss. The flashy effects actually work to it's detriment too, very often you can't see what's happening underneath all the bright lights and particles. It's not necessarily bad, it just ends up feeling hollow and kinda unfinished.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →- HoH2 is my first Hammerwatch game. - I've played 246+ hours. 90% Steam Deck, 5% Computer, 5% TV with Steam Deck - I've played 99.9% with controller (Steam Deck, Xbox and Stadia controller) - I've played 95% solo, 5% multiplayer with one other player I highly recommend this game. I grew up playing NES, SNES, RPGs, Diablo 2 and grew to love dual-stick shooters. This game has a good mix and just enough to keep you coming back for another run. Maybe try different equipment or maybe re-spec a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played ~10 hours of the game before it became too monotonous to hold my interest. It's really fun, but it felt shallow/incomplete. Pretty sad to come back a year later and see that basically nothing has changed :(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game had an initially good hook, strong progression with a nice theme, fun abilities, etc. But then ... I hit effectively two walls. First was, I believe, the first boss, some kind of totem that has multiple stages. Getting to it wasn't easy, and then I wasn't aware (or prepared for) it's multiple stages ... so when I ground through the first stage, I breathed a sigh of relief only to get hit with the next stage. Second was the incredible drop off in progression. Each run would net…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game itself is not bad, it is fun, but its clearly not finished. There are some basic UI options missing and there are quite a few bugs. The real downer is once you realize the whole game is a hamster wheel. It never ends. You complete 1 difficulty, another unlocks, you get +5 to max level, gear scales, and its endless. Not to mention you HAVE to level every character, because all of them give bonus to all your other characters. I just spend too many hours before googling anything about the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Idk why people don't like this game. It's like the first one but better. After you get some stats under your belt, it is a phenomenal game. 9/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros: 1. It works (0 bugs found, it doesnt crash, at least for me) Cons: 1. Instead of looting few meaningful items that actualy make each run feel different, you loot a billion meaningless tiny items ehich you can't even feel - therefore each run feels the exact same. 2. You clear the same maps every time, very little content. It just takes a long time to clear a full zone, that's why it kinda feeld like there's something to do, but it's very repetitive. generaly boring game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played for 75 hours and launch around when the game launched and had a great time. The game updated and now that I launch the game again, all my characters are deleted? You can't just delete 75 hours of progress and then expect a positive review.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A beautiful game ruined by too much grinding. You will spend most of your time fighting the same enemies at the same locations. There is nothing fun in this game after a few hours, unless you happen to like endless grinding without real progress. Devs, please, fix your game! I love the visuals, the soundtrack is great and playing is smooth. And this works great on Linux!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I do not recommend this game for anyone. I have 120+ hours, every character has beat the boss at lvl 20, and some have advanced further. The final boss fight and the quest fights against the wraith are very unenjoyable. They are highly repetitive, and both constantly either silence you, teleport, or evade all your attacks, and the wraith runs away constantly. So you spend 5-10 minutes chasing the boss all over the place. It sucks, worst part of the game. Who cares if I can beat or not, who…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was a huge fan of the first game, have over 100 hours on it, my group and I were very hyped to play the second one and I can say that without a doubt that this is not at all a good sequel to what we fell in love with. They have lost all the charm the first game had to offer. Abilities are less flashy, it takes longer to grind for anything, new game + and the show curse mechanic is some of the most irritating and cringe game play mechanics ive ever experienced, mob density is much lower so its…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Genuinely a delight to play, especially when you send a juiced up lightning bowling ball down a hallway and wipe dozens of enemies out. Each class and specialization feels fun and unique, and the meta-progression from leveling classes and donating resources makes each run feels like you are making meaningful overall progress, even when you're leveling alternate characters. I particularly enjoyed the feeling of progression as the town grew and evolved as I upgraded each building, providing buffs…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Too barebones, feels and plays incomplete. First 10 hours are a grind of the first couple zones to be stronger than wet toilet paper.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely love this game, but it has a glaring issue with the save files - Please, get it sorted, it is incredibly frustrating to suddenly lose all of the progress on a character and having to start from scratch - Make it simple to save, make it efficient.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is really fun, had a blast with friends. But after 60+ hours, all my characters, progress and saves have been randomly deleted and looking through support posts, that's just it, nothing to be done about it, a bug that's been reported countless times since release. Literally just bought the DLC as well just for it to sting a little more.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →FOR ANYONE WHO LOST THEIR SAVED FILE I created a ticket with Team17 and was giving information on how to recover my save data. C: >Users>"Username">AppData>Local>HeroesOfHammerwatch>save_backups Once you reach your backups rename one "0.hps"(make a copy for safety). Now open game, look at the profiles and your original should be there. Once you swap to that profile, copy that file. One of the options in game will allow you to copy it to steam cloud or manually. I copied a version to steam…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →played the game quite a bit. enjoyed it alot. After a break from the game, when reinstalled to play the expansion, it deleted my friends save data. refunded the expansion until they fix that issue.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →new update didnt use old save even though it was still on the computer every time you launch the game it makes a new backup save overwriting one of your old saves that was till there but it just chose not to load hope you realize that and make copies of them before it can back up your new empty save 9 times and you actually lose everything forever also taking this long only to add epic equipment and then scaling the enemy hp even higher as a reward is a joke bork bork bork
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amazing Hammerwatch Game!!! In all honesty I got this game gifted too me by a friend. I have all the other Hammerwatch games. So this helped me complete my Hammerwatch collection. (I did buy the new xpac Celestial Ruins DLC! The priest Rocks! lol) As for the game its real good, very Hammerwatchy if you played the other games. It starts out slow and yes you will die a lot. Its got that Diablo feel and I'm sure this plays real well on Steam deck. I love the pixel art of Hammerwatch games,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A ton of fun but gets stale eventually. Once you unlock all a character's abilities the game changes very little. I enjoyed pushing through a few new game plus levels, but saw no reason to keep going after that. You don't get new skills, the levels and buffs while nicely randomized become overly familiar, same for the enemies. Loot is pretty simple, sure you could grind mountains of currency for enchanting and upgrading new loot but you'll be putting the same buffs on the same gear with the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Has a LOT of potential. Early game is painful. you lose 40% of all materials gained which makes pushing further than you should be at a low level feel very unrewarding. The runs take a long time. Even without the -40%, your rewards are pretty minimal and after a run you're still in a similar spot as you were an hour ago. It feels like the game time-locks mid game from me even when I won my first run, because there are so many things to upgrade in the town that give minimal character upgrades.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is fun, but progress in a game like this makes a world of difference and somehow my progress was wiped even though it has cloud saves. I'm giving it a thumbs down because that's a major setback that's both daunting and discouraging. Checking the forums, it happened to a number of people around the same time as a patch.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gameplay is fun for the first few runs as you level up, but quickly becomes a stale grind of running the exact same content repeatedly for very small gains. The variance is too low, and even with the new maps these don't add enough to break the monotony. The game looks like there is a lot to it, until you play. It does not feel like a complete game and is not early access. I just don't think you get enough for your money. Buy on sale if you like the genre and you'll have a decent time…
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 →There goes the weekend - rogue-lite action-RPG Heroes of Hammerwatch II is out now https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/01/there-goes-the-weekend-rogue-lite-action-rpg-heroes-of-hammerwatch-ii-is-out-now/ #HeroesofHammerwatchII #PCGaming #LinuxGaming #SteamDeck
neutral · AI labelView post →Unfinished, tedious, and hostile. HoH2 has an absurd number of stupid mechanics and game breaking glitches, from starting an online game to just reading item descriptions, players will be dealing with trash gaming at it's worst. You need all the trinkets and skill orbs, and drinks, and blessings, and Architect bonuses to be granted to you every run in order for any build to be successful. If you don't join a game at the right time you simply will not be given any of these items. You can't…
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 →In their attempt to make the graphics more detailed, they've made the game itself nearly unplayable. In the first game, you can clearly tell an enemy attack or AOE from the environment, but majority of the attacks in 2 are barely distinguishable from the environment.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fantastic co-op action RPG. The game does a good job of encouraging you to play all of the classes by giving you account-wide buffs for each classes level. The gameplay loops are satisfying and it's definitely more of a slow burn that reminds me of the old Gauntlet games, but feeling yourself get incrementally stronger is satisfying. Things that would be cons for some people: - It's very light on the roguelite elements, basically just shuffling the map and enemies around but you're going…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game can appear to be very grindy at first BUT don't let that discourage you. I pushed through and boy am I glad that I did. Once you start to build up your characters in the beginning and improve your village things really start to get interesting. It can be discouraging to die at first but over-time you will start to notice that things are progressively getting easier. I highly recommend starting as a Paladin-class and reading a few of the guides that have been made to get started…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a weirdly repetitive game. You can choose a class and swap that around but otherwise you basically don't have any real choices... Like, you grind forward on rails with your given class's progression also being on rails and there's not much loot. Customizations are mostly +X to stuff so they don't really add flexibility or choice or anything meaningful. IMO, this entire game could have been an Idle RPG cause player-thought is not a requirement. It's the kinda game to play if you just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Get Heroes of Hammerwatch 1, graphically better (imo) - not a pixelated filter on a 3D game and more of a voxel art game. Somehow they made it more boring and way slower than the first one, nothing is really as satisfying or as snappy as the first one. 60 hours in the first one, 30 minutes in the second one to realize that it just looks cheap, weird font, no animation for buying buildings or anything of the sort, just a camera pan and a name at the top of what you just bought. If you really…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When HoHW2 came out, the reviews made me pause, but then I checked it out a short while ago and the reviews were much higher and I decided to give it a shot, and I am so happy I did. It is much more fun than I would've thought, and a great improvement to the first game. I really like the way the game works, the changes back and forth from doing a run and coming back to the town and spent your gathered ressources on new buildings or upgreades, and upgrading your heroes is just great fun, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall it is a good game to enjoy. Simple enough and the learning curve isn’t much. You could die a lot especially at the beginning of your character level, and it isn’t quite depend on how well the gears your luck could give to you. The graphics are good but not superb. I mostly only play the game on my steam deck , most of the time it haven’t been problematic but IF you like to use SD sleep during the game, then the game will start very laggy after the game being slept and my 90% of the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →after update, save data got deleted, rip 80+ hours of playing. so pissed off
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it had great potential but; lacked more in-depth upgrades or progression for the town, maps and challenges were feeling too repetitive with no real sense of progression, real upgrades being too costly because it ended up funneling into one mastery currency. The cherry on top is locking ♥♥♥♥♥♥ content behind DLC.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely loved the first Heroes of Hammerwatch (HOH). HOH2 is nothing like the first. This game was a complete disapointment for me. I was uterly bored and disgusted from the very first few minutes, all the way to an hours later. I kept playing it thinking that HOH2 couldn't possibly be as bad as I was experiencing. Alas, it was. I simply cannot bring myself to launch this game. I can not recommend this game but I can recommend its predessor.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →a lot of improvements since the game came out. looking forward to the new DLC. really appreciate the ability to leave a multiplayer game and come back to it on a later date with no issues.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's good but way more grindy than I'd prefer. when I start a run, I normally enjoy it for the first 30 minutes and then the back 30 minutes is just me kiting a mob of the same type of enemies out of rooms x100 knowing that I am getting outscaled. Eventually I just accept that I will die against a boss or my max hp will get too low from constantly getting revived that I just die for good. The characters are also super basic for too long. They get more abilities and stuff later on but it does…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Heroes of Hammerwatch II is a well made classic dungeon crawler with some RPG element. There is many different class to choice from and you can make lots of different builds with each character and there is a simple base building system. Also its a solid co-op game with up to four people. Pros: - Retro graphic - Decent soundtrack - Replayability Cons: - Grinding
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is called an action roguelike when the randomization is to a minimum, the most interesting mechanic of this game is it's skill tree and classes, but the issue i have is how slow and linear the progression is. The gear progression in the game is not that intuitive and its frankly a pet peeve to me how I would get a lvl 6 rare gear and use it until a lvl 7 common gear replaces it for higher stats and better damage in general. I like that weapons like the axe has a slow wide swing…
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 →poor management, few sparse updates and now that a new team is in charge the game is getting a price increase that doesn't validate the stuff that's getting added
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Add this to my growing list of games where I can't tell the foreground and background apart from each other...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely love this game but unfortunately with how we waited 4 months for this DLC and it turned out to be so incredibly underwhelming in comparison to how much love the original game DLCs got (Heroes of Hammerwatch). I can't sleep at night recommending this game to someone until they actually give a DLC that has something in it *cough cough* Pyramids of Prophecy. Also for the love of god buff bleed, you have buffed it a hand full of times and it literally does nothing, adding an item…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like this game just go play the first one. I just fail to see where this is a improvement from the first game in the first couple of hours. Maybe it gets better but the 1st one was already stupid good at this point 1. maps are too big and empty. it's not fun having to walk all over the map to collect items and such 2. not enough mobs, no dopamine. every little mob seems like an elite (i literally can't tell clearly as in the 1st game what is and isn't an elite) 3. dash addition is bad…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun and incredibly replayable twin stick ARPG. First few hours was a tiny bit slow. As I unlocked the town buildings, the game soon exploded with many options for upgrading your character, items, and more. There's a huge amount of variety between items and character classes. Even if haven't leveled up your character too high, you can become pretty OP'ed with permament weapons and per run trinket perks. I think I got to the last boss in under 6 runs. Despite the level layouts changing,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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