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Regarding Negative Reviews

90% of the negative reviews are people expecting Heroes of Hammerwatch 2, which is neither the title nor the description of this game.
The other 10% are people complaining about multiplayer save files only being available to the host. This goes hand in hand with the first invalid complaint. I doubt the people posting negative reviews about it here are complaining about the exact same functionality in Baldur's Gate 3, which is more similar in genre to Hammerwatch 2 than HoH. The quest system notably would not work if you could play your character solo, then bring it into a friend's campaign, having finished quests that the host world had not completed. This is extremely typical for the genre, and imo a good decision.


The Good

tldr; Game is good, game is fun, me play game
Playing around with your build and min-maxxing gear is pretty accessible. I'm interested to see how things play out in the long term, as well as the scope of the game. To me it has the charm of a classic RPG, where not everything is explained to you outright, which brings a feeling of true discovery.
I really love crafting and enchanting my own gear, especially with the large amount of crafting materials that can be gathered. Making your own potions adds more to your build, allowing you to select what potions to have equipped that best fits your play style or role in the party. The food buffs are actually good and pretty important, making it valuable to find ingredients, which I also enjoy.
As is with all Hammerwatch games, the combat feels very fun and rewarding. There is a lot of ability variety within classes that make builds feel very unique.
Overall fun game so far, hoping the scope and variety expands through the game.


The Not So Good

tldr; some systems are annoying or fail to impress, but it doesn't ruin the game
I do have complaints about the game, and some are mentioned in the negative reviews.
These are ordered biggest complaint to smallest.
Quest writing has been sub-par so far. Especially in the starting area. The quests for 2 of the dungeons on the starting island are "There are (wolves/pirates) over there, please go kill them and I'll give you money". I talked to some NPCs and they did mention pirate raids causing issues, but it just felt like it had no weight at all. Not everything has to have a massive story line, but when the motivation for completing a dungeon is essentially a fetch quest, it takes away from the experience.
The UI is rough, especially for combat. Massive bars spanning the entire vertical length of your screen that are pushed to either side is not readable at all. It's also very weird that EXP is there, it was relevant for HoH but not really in this game. It also makes the UI even worse, since 2 of your resources are on the left, and one is on the right, but the far right is not relevant to combat at all. The UI is also almost impossible to navigate with a controller, especially inventory and shops. I find myself reaching for my mouse every time I want to trade or level up.
The dungeon areas are... large? That's the best way I can describe them. Large, full of dead ends, and they usually contain the same 5 enemies throughout an individual dungeon. I find myself asking when the end of the dungeon is, or when I'll see a new area or enemy. More variety would be nice.
The shop system is not intuitive. They seem to be scattered around the town with no real label. When you talk to the shopkeeper, they usually say what they sell, but there is a 0% chance I will ever remember where I want to go when it is relevant.
The time system is just... weird. It probably shouldn't be a part of the game unless it plays a major role later. It really just seems like a gold sink. It's difficult, but you can get "stuck" in a situation where you don't have enough gold to rest at an inn, but it's night time and all of the shops are closed, so you just have to wait it out if you want to progress.