[Disclosure: A preview copy was provided for the contents of this article]
When brought to my attention, HammerHelm brought immediate excitement. Here was an adventure game centered around building a settlement for dwarves while simultaneously exploring and defending that settlement from various threats. I cannot say where or when I began to love base or town management, but it is a feature I have a great adoration for, so I couldn’t wait to give this game a try.
Upon starting the game it was a bit rough. As with most games, my first endeavor was heading to the options menu and learn the keybindings. Some of the keys are rather weird. For instance, kicking is set to K when keys closer to WSDA are not assigned to anything. If it was keyboard only this decision would make sense, but in practicality, it meant I never used kick in-game. I would have remapped some of the keys, a task I do after some playtime if it is needed, but an encounter with a bug in the options menu left me shy to return to it.
Simply exiting the menu from the keybinding screen caused the game to enter windows mode. Returning and fixing the settings would put it back to full screen but each ESC or clicking the X would return the game to windows mode. Only a restart was able to resolve the problem, but I became rather shy regarding a return to the options menu. Plus the game is rather chill and easy, so it never became a necessity worth risking a repeat of the issue.
Once in the game graphically it was okay. Not terribly impressive, but possessing a unique charm that grew on me the longer I played. Until it became cozy and I had found myself attached to the aesthetics. Absolutely finding myself adoring the three-dimensional health boxes that float over enemies rather than being a mere element of the hud. A small, yet rather charming feature.
A tutorial walks you through the initial exploration and town building mechanics, but once it is complete it is up to you to discover how to continue your progression through the game. Fortunately, a bit of intelligence goes a long way and the system itself isn’t harsh with its penalties. If you run out of food because you were never told to build food or beer, then you will suffer a moral decrease which comes with a decrease in productivity. This went a long way in overcoming the lack of guidance, by giving leniency for missing something.
As I said the game initially is a bit rough. I wondered why I was required to hold resources instead of using the town storage as a central repository for all crafting interactions. Eventually charming the randomly generated dwarfs gave of more an appearance of a multi-culturalist message. Not something I want to deal with in my entertainment, but eventually you just kind of realize there is no political statement, they’re just RNG’ed. An option to tweak them would have been nice. A few NPCs I wanted to change their hairstyles, colors, and vests to make the village more mine rather than the product of an RNG system.
After playing for a bit the game simply chimed.
I found myself engrossed in the gameplay loop of heading off on some randomly generated quest, returning to build or craft some more before heading off on the next one. The world map isn’t huge, but it is big enough to feel large without dragging out the game with artificial lengthening measures.
HammerHelm’s current build leaves some room for improvement, but it also provides ample amounts of content. Were it not my desire to not burn myself out before the complete release I could have easily sunk hours and hours into the game. Alas, when it was complete with an improved combat system, more quests, buildings, and monsters I would not have returned.
Those that do Early Access are in good hands with this project. The developer has been both active and communicative with their community. There is a bevy of content already completed and functional in-game to boot.
At the moment, HammerHelm is available over on the Steam store for $14.99.
