This game's been my favorite pastime for the last... I think 3 days. I knew about for a while, but only recently discovered it's already in a downloadable state.
Hammerfall page on Fun-Motion.
HammerFall is a physics game. More specifically, it's the Half-Life 2 of the indy arcade games. Moreover, it's russian-made, but it has english language as well.
The player in the game controls a.... well, a machine. We russians call it "pepelaz", I suppose a fitting name would be "propshafter" from Carma2. The machine's a DaVinci-esque "mechanical barrel" with a prop up top to keep in in the air. The "barrel" can use a wide variety of melee weapons from rock-on-a-chains to poleaxes, and a few ranged ones as well. All the fun in the game is about HOW the player uses those weapons.
All the control's in the mouse. You move the mouse to move the machine, and the weapon that's attached on a pivot follows, according to physics. Swing yourself in a small arc, and the weapon will gather momentum and spin around. That's the whole thing. There're quirks like locking two weapons together or adding gems and shields, but these are the basics.
The goal of the game varies. In warrior mode, you follow the story, training and acquiring new weapons and abilities in the process. Training Hall mode places you in the armory, where you accumulate weapons you find on your quests, plus gives you a barrel (real barrel) to train on. Nice way to switch weaponry between missions. Duel mode pits you against opponents in an enclosed arena. Grim mode leads you through a series of encounters with a lot of monsters. Hammerball is a competition to accumulate as much points as possible by whacking a falling cannonball as high as you can with a large mallet. There may be more, but I haven't unlocked them yet.
All in all, the game's very interestng. There's no multiplayer yet, but the game's a single-man development, and only in the beginning of the cycle. It's already playable though, barring a few rare bugs.
Some hints.
Be advised, you will need a lot of tablespace for this one. Prepare accordingly.
The story starts pretty slowly, but picks up in a while. Don't give up after the first few missions.
Don't underestimate the "mace". It's got stupendous damage potential because of the chain.
Don't fight momentum. Use it, to escape or otherwise. Don't rush attacks, practice wide swings with quick finishers.
Finally, the game has a 1-hour "demo timer" for each profile (despite the game not being finished and being free, yes). However, there is a way past it. Create two profiles, in the first and second slots. Spend the entire 1 hour limit in them. Delete them. Create a new profile in the first slot. It should have no time limit.
[ May 24, 2008: Message edited by: Sean Mirrsen ]
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Topic: Hammerfall - the HL2 of indy arcades! (Read 14240 times)