Hammer of the Gods Review
Hammer of the Gods puts you in charge of a Viking clan. As a Viking worthy of his name, you must invade countries, plunder cities and fight your enemies -- all in an attempt to please the Gods and win Odin's favor. You can choose to play a tutorial scenario, a short mode where you must complete twenty quests to win, or the full-length campaign where only completion of Odin's final quest will achieve victory. Multiplayer options (Play-by-email, four players on a network, or two players on serial link)
Four races are present in the game: the Humans, the Elves, the Trolls and the Dwarves. In order to complete Odin's final quest, each race has victory conditions. The Humans must possess magic weapons, the Elves must control a fixed percentage of the population, the Trolls must control a large army and the Dwarves must own a large amount of gold. Similar to its spiritual predecessor Machiavelli The Prince, each turn in Hammer of the Gods is divided in sequences of play. You may receive messages from other players or reports about attacks, choose the next quest (after one is completed), move units and fight, send messages to establish diplomatic relations, resolve attacks by garrisons from nearby enemy castles, and finally be informed when a quest has been completed. Diplomacy will allow you to establish treaties for peace and trade. You can suggest peace, declare neutrality or war, and concerning the economy, you can offer limited, partial or full trade, or barter for specific goods.
Quests, which make the game stand out from the crowd, are undoubtedly the best feature of the game. Given by Norse Gods, they vary from easy to very challenging. The easiest will be to give one of your daughter in marriage to a God, or find and raid a monastery. For more powerful gods, you must fight skeletons, giants and even a dragon or conquer several cities. Rewards are important as they provide you with magical weapons or spells, special ships and powerful creatures like wizards, drakes and giants. Naturally as you work your way up toward Odin, the most powerful God, quests become increasingly more complex and require you to juggle a fine balance of military might, economic prosperity, and diplomacy to succeed.
Overall, I find Hammer of the Gods to be one of the most refreshing turn-based strategy games ever. It plays like a cross between Machiavelli the Prince and Heroes of Might and Magic within a unique setting that is well taken advantage of. Definitely a forgotten classic that deserves a second chance-- and Hall of Belated Fame status. Two thumbs up!
Hammer of the Gods Feature
- Multiple quests and adventures with dozens of solutions
- One to four players via network, modem, or e-mail
- Over 2,500 frames of rotoscoped animation.
Hammer of the Gods Overview
Hammer of the Gods is a strategy game that recreates the world the way the Vikings experienced it. The gods are a real consideration in the decisions made and glorious death one of the highest goals. Unlike other strategy games, the building of the empire is not necessarily the ultimate objective.The player competes against other players to earn the favor of the Norse gods and become the Hammer of the Gods. The player can raid coastal villages, conquer cities and then link them together by building roads. Next, build castles to protect them. The particular path that the player follows to victory will vary based on the "family" of gods that is chosen at the beginning of the game. Maintaining honor in the eyes of the other Vikings is important throughout the game. The four paths are Human, Elf, Troll and Dwarf. Any of these may become Odin's chosen leader on Midgard by completing his quest and ensuring the player's place in legend.
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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 15, 2010 12:55:19
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