There’s an interesting story behind Hammer & Sickle, the third game in the Silent Storm series. You see, the game started out as a mod for Silent Storm Sentinels, made by Novik & Co. Nival was so impressed by the mod that they decided to hire Novik as subcontractors to develop the mod into a full retail game. The move was a big risk for Nival Interactive, letting an untested developer play around with their baby. Unfortunately, letting Novik take control of the third game has been a mistake, as Hammer & Sickle is a victim of Murphy’s Law; everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.
"I've been working on the railroad..."
It’s a real shame too, because Hammer & Sickle has everything going for it; a unique setting, an innovative premise and a solid gameplay engine, yet the rookie studio Novik has somehow managed to let a number of massive problems slip by during the transition from concept to execution. The player gets to control a Russian spy who has to slip through the Iron Curtain into West Germany in 1949, just as the Cold War was starting up, to collect intelligence on the Allies’ activities. As good as that sounds for an RPG setting, the game quickly veers off this path onto some sort of Nazi remnant plot to draw the communists and capitalists into nuclear holocaust. The end result is a rather clichéd and drawn out romp – almost spectacular in its level of disappointment.
Even the simplest of gameplay mechanics in Hammer & Sickle are botched – expect to see this game mentioned in game design textbooks for years to come. Progression is an immense chore, with the game constantly abandoning the player, leaving him with no hint of where to go or what to do. Conversation between the player and other characters seems almost entirely random, and serves little to further the game’s plot or instruct players on what to do. This lack of direction is apparent from the very start of the game too, which takes its toll on one’s will to progress further into the piece. The game’s branching plot only serves to further convolute what’s already a confusing, frustrating experience.
Pillow fights aren't good enough for kids today
Hammer & Sickle’s take on turn based combat is quite reminiscent of popular post apocalyptic RPG Fallout and its sequel, but it doesn’t take long for the player to find out that the game is even buggier than Black Isle’s masterpiece, which is something of an achievement in itself. The game is packing all of the usual RPG paraphernalia – stats out the wahoo, perks, ability trees and such, but appearances can be deceiving, as many of these RPG elements have little if any impact on the game itself, which makes it seem exactly the same as the Silent Storm games, but with a pretty numerical overlay.
The actual combat process is arduous, with single encounters taking over an hour, thanks to the fact that the computer AI is painstakingly slow in deciding moves to take. This is further amplified by the fact that every character, friend, foe or neutral has to take a move. Most of the game’s missions require the player to move on a predetermined path, but the pathfinding is absolutely terrible, and will result in hours of running around trying to figure out what the heck to do when combined with the general misdirection of your objectives. On the positive side, the game does feature a good selection of weapons with multiple firing modes as well as a plethora of other useful gadgets, including wirecutters, enemy uniforms and explosives that will be needed throughout the game.
The Russian forces discuss the merits of dirt farming
Hammer & Sickle is profoundly difficult at the base level, but taking all of its flaws into consideration, the game seems almost impossible. The enemies are almost superhuman in their ability to detect and subsequently dispose of your troops. A single round can put an end to hours of work. Even worse is that the game puts you in some unbelievably difficult situations, like having to take out 10 of these perfect marksman in an ambush on just the second mission. The level of trial and error in the game is just inexcusable – some missions will practically require the player to have a trial run to just see what happens before they can even attempt to play through.
A convoluted interface makes navigation an arduous task in Hammer & Sickle, with three buttons needed to do simplistic things like changing weapons and positions. Presentation is solid if unremarkable, though the Silent Storm engine is beginning to show its age a little, with some stuttery animation. The game’s environments are reasonably good; representative of a war devastated Europe and full of the standard issue effects like shadowing and day/night cycles. This atmosphere is destroyed by an utterly bizarre choice of soundtrack, which haphazardly switches between elevator music and heavy metal. Voice work and scripting are atrocious, with lots of phoney accents and painful phrases repeated ad nauseum.
Hammer & Sickle is another example of how a cool concept can be completely destroyed by poor execution. Most of the game feels undeveloped, as though it was rushed through the balancing and playtesting stages – it’s just an absolute chore to play. It’s more of a surprise that veteran developer Nival let Novik put this one out, especially considering the potential damage it could do to their reputation, which has been established through released quality, polished product, which is exactly what Hammer & Sickle isn’t.
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