Hammer of Virtue isn’t normal when it comes to the convention of modern-day games, nor would I say is the Just Cause series. Both aim for style over substance but I’d also liken No Pest Productions’ latest title to the Earth Defense Force series. This is due to using its characteristically “last-gen” open-world graphics to do the really fun, stupid thing of destructible cities and vast numbers of horrors on the other side of whatever weapon you’ve chosen. What the programmer, studio owner, and listed Steam publisher might not like as a comparison is that Hammer of Virtue was made on the same budget as the original series run of Doctor Who.

It is as if someone has been playing Game Dev Tycoon and maxed the slider for cool ideas and programming all the way up, leaving some things like direction for the player on the floor. As I said the other day talking about the release, Hammer of Virtue is “silly” in that way that isn’t too “look at me I’m so funny” but is very much based on trying to be fun. Where fun is the focus, all other things like common sense or simple player-aids like tutorials, descriptions of UI, and otherwise are not only out of focus, they are not even in the picture.

As can be understood from the article the other day, I went into Hammer of Virtue with a lot of excitement, wanting to enjoy it. Then I got hands-on with the stiffness of this day-old Kanelbulle, and I thought that the promise was running away the morning after like a one-night stand, half-dressed and trying desperately to call a taxi and delete your number. It wasn’t one particular thing that stepped over into “who made this with hammers for hands.” It was simple things like volume sliders being just shy of maxed out and when maxed out distorted everything to high heavens.

Melee combat (the focus/entirety of the gameplay) then felt slow and about as fluid as swimming through a sea of trifles. How about the fact that when you realize the mistake of maxing out the volume effects (which includes the voiceover) and you decide to pause once you suffer the initial cutscene, returning to gameplay after sorting your mistakes cuts off the voiced line? The only way to hear what was supposed to be sputtered out meagerly to low-quality microphones is to “give up to menu,” and reload the level. There was also the typical Japanese thing of B or circle being accepted instead of A or X, which you only find out by backing out of something you want to accept.

I might as well tell you how to play since the training level doesn’t unlock until you’ve completed two already. Simply don’t bother with keyboard controls as that’s 2, X, E, and Q for your light and heavy attacks, and Y, A, B, and X on a controller, with a block asking you to hold the spacebar or right trigger then knowing which direction corresponds to the incoming attack. How do you know which is the incoming attack? I believe much like the political change of the 60s, it is on the wind. Particularly with the bears, as they seem to have a limited sense of motion, and thus the height change in their arms isn’t obvious.

What we’ll loosely call the tutorial level is also as helpful as my description of the blocking and parrying system. It is dominated by a bored woman telling you “Wrong,” “Incorrect,” “Protect yourself,” and “bad.” Well thank you captain beige knickers, do you want to give me any direction here, or tell me where I am going wrong? Maybe since there is a lock-on system the target above the head could give some kind of indication as to what you are supposed to be blocking (Kingdom Come style). At least then I’m not looking at a model with about as much intuitive movement as a bus through a brick wall.

“Is there anything good?” Buildings and other objects break apart very easily, I can say that with a straight face. Though it does also mean the frame rate is about as stable as a house of cards in June in Iowa. Sometimes the game sticks to 60, but it also drops to the high 20s, and regularly dips to the low 40s. With system requirements asking for a 6th gen i5 processor, 12GB of RAM, and a GTX 1070, my PC should handle that with lots of capacity to spare. Though the in-depth graphical options of resolution and toggling between full screen or not will do a lot to alleviate that problem.

Trite sarcasm aside, the only options that have some proper depth to them are the controls. They would have to be, as that’s the only place to understand Hammer of Virtue’s gameplay before you get to the tutorial level, which once again only comes after the half-hearted attempt at what we’re generously calling a tutorial. The sound options are only broken up into two sliders, with another option between classical music or Limp Wristed with their hit “Rollin’ (creative commons library).” For the sake of my bin, I’d like to turn off the sometimes motion blur when the frame rate decides the cool ideas are too close.

In truth, Hammer of Virtue’s combat is fine, but its presentation is lacking, and overall its packaging as a game hits the bar but doesn’t knock it over in the pole vault of Steam’s absolute garbage Olympics that are held daily. I’ve only myself to blame really from reading the press release, looking at the game, thinking the gameplay mentioned would be fun, and building up a little bit of hype. With a frame rate on the rocks anytime a light breeze touches any of the physics objects and melee combat lacking the fun weightiness you’d expect, ambition seems to have outreached the ability.

Overall, despite coming into Hammer of Virtue with excitement, I’m leaving wishing I never came at all. The story didn’t try to get in the way and what little it needed to do to set up the weird premise was done. Yet when it came time to give you as a player a sense of what to do, you are left with pressing buttons to see what happens. Rightfully (as I don’t normally say) “silly” in places, there is an ember of something fun and enjoyable. Sadly, it is under the rubble of a house that is causing the frame rate to second guess itself like a politician after being asked a tricky question.

A PC review copy of Hammer of Virtue was provided by Jens Kolhammar for this review.

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Hammer of Virtue

4

Score

4.0/10

Pros

• Ok "silly" combat, if lacking some weight.
• Destructable surroundings.

Cons

• No direction until after you've figured it out.
• Poor options for a PC title.
• Lurching performance.