Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 - The Good, The Bad, The Questioanble
Heroes of Hammerwatch 2 is an ARPG rogue-lite developed by Crackshell. Released in 2025, HoH2 reminds us that numbers go brrr is even more fun with friends.
We play as a dude who seeks to help end the evil of the mysterious dark citadel and that's all the plot you're going to get buddy.
Gameplay involves collecting relics that give you new abilities until the screen looks like 3 simultaneous Rammstein festivals have converged. Then you die, lose half your gold, buy someone a house and do it all over again.
The Good
Character building is sufficiently complex but not overwhelming. There's only a handful of abilities to pick from but when you tack on carry-over buffs, relics, special abilities, weapon preferences and what not it gets pretty deep. You only have to watch a 10 minute YouTube walkthrough to know what you're doing instead of a 5 hours one. Very reasonable.
I like that leveling up the different classes gives a bonus to your other classes, encouraging players to try different ways to play. The meta progression in this one is quite satisfying and I like that pretty much everything you choose to do helps you advance. I always felt like I was making progress both in terms of getting better at the game and at sinking hundreds of resources into making an inn that houses exactly one person.
The Bad
I would have killed for the ability to save keybindings per character. You're encouraged if not borderline required to play different classes. Depending on their equipment and load outs are going to favor using different button combinations. Having to go into the menu and switch around keybindings every time I swapped classes got obnoxious quick.
It's one of those quality of life things where over time it will really gnaw at you. You start by thinking it would be nice if they added it and by the 80th time you're remapping your keys you've already hired a lawyer to write a strongly worded letter requesting restitution for the mental and physical suffering you've endured.
The Questionable
It's an incredibly short game which, in theory, is fine. It's just a little disappointing to get psyched about picking up a new game to play co-op with a buddy and you finish it in roughly 3 play sessions. And that includes one session where your friends kid spills orange juice on his keyboard in the middle and you get to listen as he tries his best to not commit a felony.
There is a new game+ mode but it lacks depth. A persons 'forever' game is already a coveted spot and co-op forever games are even more rare. Hammerwatch simply doesn't offer enough variance between runs to warrant toppling the Slay the Spire, Balatro or whatever MMO/Live Service game you play to kill time when you aren't in the mood to play something you haven't played before.
Final Thoughts
As a co-op game I would recommend it with the caveat that there isn't much meat here. But co-op people are generally starving for non-live service games so while this is a simple one, it still scratched that itch for a few hours. It did last long enough that finishing the game was satisfying but I was A-okay putting this in my 'don't need to ever revisit' group.
Interesting Game Facts
Do yourself a favor and check out Crackshells homepage. Do it.
Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts. What did you think of the game? Did you have a similar experience or am I off my rocker?
Posted Apr 8, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC