Stinky Game of the Month: Hammer and Sickle

Christopher Taylor falls asleep and writes a review with his forehead on the keyboard via dreampower.

For every Medal of Honour blockbuster, there’s maybe a dozen games like this – it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of them and it’s even more unlikely that you’ve ever played one of them. Sometimes, these games are actually pretty good. Sure, they’re obscure and sure, they cover some pretty obscure material, but on occasion they’re a nice change from single-handedly gunning down the population of Japan.

Let’s be brutally honest: Hammer and Sickle isn’t a nice change from anything. The premise is fairly typical CDV fare: it’s an RPG that places you in the shows of Comrade Captain, a soldier who gets up to all sorts of naughty stuff during the Cold War while doing his best to avoid starting WWIII. Sort of like James Bond, only Russian.

The interface is based on standard RPG stock, it’s just kind of retarded. Picking up items, for example, is unnecessarily difficult – it’s far too easy to miss something in a crate.

The camera is also cause for concern. The panning system is awfully awkward and by default the camera is zoomed in way too close, meaning you’ll regularly not see enemies until they’re right on top of you. And rather than automatically lop off the top of buildings, the game makes you fiddle around with the zoom level if you want to see inside.

Even at the highest settings, the graphics are terribly dated. Character detail is low, something that’s really noticeable during the frequent dialogue sequences. It’s also odd considering the game gives you so many options when it comes to customising your appearance, especially when it comes to selecting a beard.

It doesn’t impress aurally either. The soundtrack is hideous, especially in the menus. There’s none of the period music we’ve come to expect from other war-themed games. As mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of dialogue and it’s all spoken, which is a plus, but the acting is about as convincing as that on your average daytime soap opera. Your character must have Tourette’s or something, because occasionally he’ll just break into a bout of repeating a certain acknowledgement sound over and over.

Some might label it an attention span thing, saying that games don’t need Dolby Digital explosions or lone wolf gun battles against half of Nazi Germany to be fun. Perhaps that’s true, but what’s also true is that Hammer and Sickle is an obscure game that won’t be the slightest bit interesting to 99% of the gaming populace. If you’re a diehard fan of CDV and prepared to overlook the many flaws, it might be a good idea to check out the demo first – this isn’t the sort of game you’d want to blind buy.