Developer: No Pest Productions
Publisher: No Pest Productions, Jens Kolhammar
Platform: PC, PS5
Tested on: PC
Hammer of Virtue – Review
Is there anything you need in a game aside from being able to whack enemies around with a giant weapon? Well, yes. Hammer of Virtue by No Pest Productions is the perfect example. While the game looks fun at first glance with ragdoll physics and destructible environments that you can run around in freely, the game quickly falls apart from a lack of plot, direction, or variety. And at the price this game is being sold, that’s a real travesty.
Story
Hammer of Virtue does try to set up some plot about the earth being under attack by a terrorist organization with advanced robotics. Your main character is the guy chosen to defeat the terrorist. Since there is only one power suit, you’ll have to go into this battle entirely alone. But with your giant sledgehammer at your side, no doubt you can win. The story is mostly conveyed through short pieces of dialogue at the start of each level. It’s not much to write home about though.
Graphics
While the game doesn’t look bad at first glance, this quickly falls apart. Despite having over twenty levels, there are only actually three maps. These maps also seem bigger than they really are. Invisible walls will keep you from exploring the horizon. What changes between levels is only the type of enemies and where they spawn. There’s a decent variety of enemies, at least, and they do have some cool designs. Who doesn’t like giant dinos with swords? However, that’s not enough to carry the game for long. The visuals quickly lost our interest because of how repetitive everything about this game is.
Sound
The soundtrack is similarly lackluster. Most of the music seems to not be made for the game itself but is instead royalty-free music ripped from some site. A few tracks are better than others and actually manage to fit the action-packed atmosphere of the game. A lot of them are just plain chaotic and annoying to listen to, however. Thankfully, most levels don’t last long enough for it to become a real problem. The game does have some voice acting of a woman who talks into your ear to explain your mission objective and gives you exposition on what little plot there is. The voice acting might also be the only good thing about this game.
Gameplay
Hammer of Virtue is an action game with fully destructible environments as its main selling point. The game consists of a little over twenty levels. Each level is basically the same since it starts with you being dropped into the environment and tasked with destroying every enemy robot in sight. A small radar at the top of your screen helps you find the enemies since the maps can be pretty hard to navigate. With your giant hammer, you can smash enemies to the left, right, or upwards. Later on, there is also a parry mechanic where you can block attacks if you press buttons at the right time. Sadly, this is also literally all there is to the game. The enemy types change, with some being faster or stronger. Aside from that, the gameplay becomes extremely repetitive and boring after less than five minutes. You can’t jump and there’s no health bar to keep track of.
While the environments are destructible, that only means you’re able to slam your hammer into trees, buildings, and rocks and watch them crumble. The ragdoll physics are mildly amusing, as is the fact that some enemies get launched dozens of feet into the distance when you hit them, but it’s just not enough. While you can kill enemies by launching them into solid objects or making buildings collapse on them, it doesn’t always work and feels almost random when it does. The entire game feels incredibly unfinished and as if it should be going somewhere but doesn’t. Combined with the patchy control system and the fact that with more enemies around you’ll quickly start experiencing lag, it’s a real letdown.
The game has a split-screen multiplayer mode and a death match mode. Neither ends up being a lot of fun, with that last one especially suffering from even more lag, and not a lot of other players are usually online. There’s little strategy to the game, meaning you’ll just be wildly swinging your hammer around during all the levels but even more so in PvP.
Conclusion
Hammer of Virtue really shows that having a base concept for a game is not enough. While swinging a giant hammer around at robots sounds great and manages to entertain for the first few minutes, it quickly becomes a tedious endeavor where every level feels the same. Due to the ample technical difficulties and cheap development, we can’t reasonably recommend this game even to people who like these sorts of destructive hack-and-slash titles.
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