Sledgehammer / Gear Grinder Reviews

Sledgehammer / Gear Grinder pros: fast game with modern day graphics with easy controls that moves from location A to B to C and so on, good amount of action and special effects, cons: some difficult races/objectives. some lack of instructions/objectives aren't clear. good game. Personal Suggested Purchase Price: $0.99 Or Less During Sale

Better to grab it at 0.79 when it really goes on sale since it's not worth the 7.99 or 8 bucks should I say. To be honest it's pretty legit minus the the voice acting and the blant story but the gameplay isn't that bad. I'm one of those people who still play old games on Steam and want something cheap but pretty good at the same time. I can play this game when I'm bored or if I'm using a low end computer if I don't have access to my PC or if I'm on the go so this can be an exception. Graphics aren't that bad actually and it's not really a blurry mess. (I mean who plays for graphics these days?).

Sledge Hammer (aka Gear Grinder) is a short but fairly fun truck combat game. The graphics aren't great and the voice-acting is pretty bad, but the action is fast and the explosions and crashes are plentiful. There's a story in Sledge Hammer, but it's merely an excuse to get the player behind the wheel of a Mad Max-styled truck bristling with weapons and armour and destroy everything that moves. Completing missions unlocks performance upgrades and new weapons for the truck, but unlocking these usually requires gold or silver rankings on each mission. Missions can be replayed once they've been finished, so it's possible to go back to an older mission and try to improve your ranking. Skins for the truck and concept art can also be unlocked. The gimmick with Sledge Hammer is the truck's transforming abilities. Depending on the situation, the vehicle can switch between Race Mode and Battle Mode at the press of a button. Race Mode increases the truck's speed but disables the weapons, while Battle Mode enables the weapons at the expense of some speed. Usually, a mission will only require the use of one mode to get through it, although quickly switching between the two comes in handy once in a while. Most of Sledge Hammer's missions will use the transport truck, but the designers did add some variety: there are on-rails shooting sequences, demolition arenas, escort missions, and a minigame where the truck is used to knock over cars like bowling pins. Other missions will have the player delivering different trucks from Point A to Point B while being chased by enemies, or piloting remote-controlled cars and guiding a missile to a faraway target. While a couple of the missions are a bit hard, Sledge Hammer isn't a very difficult game; it's pretty easy to max out the truck's performance and armour ratings, making the vehicle nearly unstoppable in later missions. Not that there's anything wrong with that; it's fun to bulldoze through other vehicles like they're made of exploding cardboard or blast them into orbit with weapons fire. Sledge Hammer can be completed in a few hours, and once the campaign is over there's nothing to do except play the story missions again. There are no achievements, so unless you really like unlocking concept art and making things blow up there's not much reason to keep playing Sledge Hammer once you've finished the story. Sledge Hammer will provide an evening or two of dumb fun and you'll never think about the game again once the closing credits start to roll. There's not much here, but what is here is enjoyable enough.

By today standards this game is dated, and so I was hoping it may still be fun. But the truth is there is very little to have fun with. The game is dated, no one plays online, the arcade singleplayer action is too easy. In just a few minutes I went through 1/3 of the races, all in first place or top speed through. Wish I could say something about this game was fun as racing with semi trucks is a really fun idea, espicially since I'm a truck driver. But sadly there is nothing I can say that is good. Even the music wasnt great for its time, and when someone was talking they talked unbearably slow or generic. 1 out of 5 stars.

Cool but short game about crazy freedom loving psycho driving armed truck and causing havoc on streets. You have races, car combat, police chases, time attacks and many more interesting missions to play and earn better upgrades and weapons for your truck.

It's a small Carmageddon-Styled game about racing your truck from start to finish including guns, guns, guns, explosions and nitro. However the game is not good but it's not bad too. It has that pretty good TruckMageddon style but it gets quite boring after a while, after the campaign you can't do anything, only repeat the missions, the graphics are kinda outdated and the voice dubbing/cover is not the best. This game was originally made by Russians and its basic language was Russian which leads to some strange voice acting and voice not maching characters moves. Overall for the price of 0,99 Euros on Steam Winter Sale it's totally worth it. A small game for couple of hours.

Russian video game industry died soon after it was properly born. Together with pretty much everything else in the country. But before that, there were some pretty interesting releases that kind of deserved attention. And this is the one of them. Do you like games like [b]Carmageddon[/b] and [b]Interstate[/b] series? Well, then keep reading. Maybe it'll worth for you to check this game out. Maybe not, though. Just keep [strike]swimming[/strike] reading. [b]Sledgehammer[/b] (aka [b]Gear Grinder[/b]) was made by [b]Targem Games[/b], the guys behind [b]Battle Mages[/b] and [b]Hard Truck: Apocalypse[/b] series and you can actually see those games on posters in [b]Sledgehammer[/b]. Even though those games were OK at best, [b]Targem[/b] got a lot of praise for them in Russia. Because hey! The guys made games and those actually [i]worked![/i] At least, sometimes they did. [i]Anyway[/i], what [i]is[/i] [b]Sledgehammer[/b]? Well, like I said, it's pretty much a mix between [b]Carmageddon[/b] and [b]Interstate[/b]. With a little pinch of [b]Hard Truck: Apocalypse[/b]. Like in [b]Hard Truck: Apocalypse[/b], you'll drive futuristic truck. Only this time the truck will also be... a transformer. Don't expect it to turn into a giant robot (there [i]is[/i] an [b]Optimus Prime[/b] joke in this game, though), but you'll be able to freely switch between the fast racing mode (your truck will run faster and you'll be able to use nitro) and battle mode (slow, but you'll be able to shoot things). And this alone is... kind of awesome, actually. I mean, [b]Carmageddon[/b]-like races with [b]Interstate[/b]-like shooting and [b]Hard Truck[/b]-like vehicles? Sounds like a cool thing, huh? And there's actually more in all that. There's both multiplayer mode and a single player campaign here. With single player campaign being divided in six chapters with about half a dozen missions each. Missions will vary, so, don't expect doing the same thing over and over again. There'll be different kinds of races, there'll be a bombing mission, there'll be a convoy mission, sometimes you'll need to escape, or drive through the checkpoints... in other words, even though the number of mission types is pretty limited, you won't get bored. Some missions are optional and every mission will come with three “medals” - bronze, silver and gold. You'll either fail here, or get one of those, depending on your performance. You'll be able to re-play missions for better rewards and your motivation for that will be prizes. See, in this game you'll also be able to customize your car. Nothing groundbreaking, pretty much on [b]Hard Truck: Apocalypse[/b] level, but hey! Customizing your vehicle and putting better guns on it is always cool. There's also a story, but... it sucks. Not really a bad surprise, huh? The games like [b]Vangers[/b] and [b]Pathologic[/b] that come with mind-blowing complicated stories are not what you usually expect from Russian developers. A lot of cheap nonsense about how porn star fights [b]Osama bin Laden[/b] to get his stolen penis back (I'm not kidding, it's actually a thing), that's more like it. And this game? It's like the cheapest attempt to make a cheap rip-off of that famous [b]Knight Rider[/b] show. You know, the one about the guy, who almost died, but ended up getting a talking car instead. Voiceover is laughable too. Remember [b]The House of the Dead 2[/b]? “[i]Seems like my advice had no effect. Suffer, like G did![/i]” Yeah, that's [i]exactly[/i] what you'll get here. Acting in this game is like... it's just... *sigh* Usually, Russian games have way, [i]way[/i] better acting in Russian versions (just because in Russia, where everybody's poor, it's easier to hire a good actor for just a few bucks). It was like that in games like [b]Sea Dogs[/b] (that one actually had the actor who dubbed [b]Gandalf[/b] in [b]The Lord of the Rings[/b] and [b]The Hobbit[/b] trilogies by [b]Peter Jackson[/b]) and [b]Rage of Mages[/b] (that one included Russian voice of [b]Optimus Prime[/b]), but... it's not the case here. Both Russian and English acting are really, [i]really[/i] awful. Fits the story, since, like I said, the story is a joke, but still, your ears won't thank you here. Unfortunately, bad acting isn't the only thing that sucks here. If you've played Russian games before, you can easily guess what I'm about to say. Yeah, the game isn't really well-made. Russian video game industry started too late and developers never had enough money and experience to make something really good and polished. You know the drill. If Russian game at least starts without giving you [b]BSOD[/b]s and errors, it's considered to be a [i]huge[/i] achievement for the developers and you should praise the freakin' sun for that. Or [b]Beebo[/b]. Seriously, guys, praise the blue god, he's awesome. [i]Anyhow[/i], [b]Sledgehammer[/b] isn't the worst example of Russian games. It works pretty fine, it doesn't crash, there's a gamepad support (that actually works pretty fine even with [b]Xbox One[/b] controller) and all in all the game feels... OK. There's still a lot of crap here too, though. For example, don't expect tracks to be polished (some of them are full of stuff that will lead you to cheap deaths), balance simply doesn't exist, while some goals... well... let's just say that all you had to do is follow the damn train, [b]CJ[/b]. You know what I mean, I'm sure you do. Let's just say that those "trains" will happen here more often than you'll want to. So... yeah... If you want something perfectly polished with a really nice package, then you should think twice before buying this. [b]Sledgehammer[/b] reminds me a bit of another game. Russian [b]RECOIL[/b] rip-off called [b]Killer Tank[/b]. Some things here feel totally fine, while the others are way too cheap and unfair. [b]Sledgehammer[/b] is a mixed bag. Some missions are cool and fun, while others are way too unfair and crappy. Up to the point where you'll be ready to rage quit it. Almost finished hard mission, almost did it, almost did it... [i]dang[/i], the truck you were supposed to protect stuck and won't move anymore! That's how it is in this game. If you're ready to suffer through all that, [b]Sledgehammer[/b] can also provide you a lot of fun. Hence the thumb up. Also, keep in mind that we don't have much games in this genre anyway. So, it's not like we can be picky. But if you're like [b]Rorschach[/b] from [b]Watchmen[/b] and don't want to compromise, then, well... you have been warned. Like most of the other Russian games, [b]Sledgehammer[/b] feels a lot like Soviet car. It [i]will[/i] get you there, but don't expect a comfortable ride.

I liked the original concept of this game. You are an escaped convict who get entangled with mob clans so you fight against both the law in order to escape and mob members and bosses. You have a license to destroy everything in your path (traffic cars, buildings etc ) and even receive bonuses for doing so. It reminded me of Carmageddon that I played in the 90's. You have a campain with many types of missions, like: armed truck races, battles with cop cars and other types of armored mob cars that attack you, slaloms, time attacks, deliver merchandize missions, protecting cargo etc..... Some missions are better then others. With time you upgrade your truck. Pretty simple, but very straightforward and polished. Graphics is ok. Buy only when on sale because otherwise it's too short for the price.

The first impression of this game is that graphics do look rather dated, but I have never been one to get hung up on graphics. You are driving a truck that can switch between a race mode with jet engines on the back and a battle mode where it is bristling with weapons and spikes how can this not be awesome? However it somehow manages to be mediocre. As you progress through the game you unlock new weapons and upgrades for you truck. The developers have tried very hard to add a variety in the missions but they basically all come down to racing or destroying stuff. The story is okay, it strings the races together but it is nothing spectacular. This game will provide a few hours of anarchic fun but it is not one you are going to keep coming back to.

A decent vehicular combat game, but with a truck instead of a plain car. That in itself makes it worth a recommendation for me. The graphics are nothing to write home about but the gameplay is solid, and it's always fun driving around blowing up other cars. The AI starts out braindead but as you progress, it begins to give more and more of a challenge.