Put the kettle on, grab a comfy chair, and start making one’s “Tesla Approved” Electric Rifle.

Upon sitting down with a nice cup of tea and looking over the mails sent to me by the senior staff, I noticed one discussing a Steampunk game, which is a genre that interests me the most, so I decided to read on. Now, rather than leaving in a funk like Sir Pikedevant after reading some of the classifieds, I found it quite interesting. While some comparisons are made to Life is Feudal, which is the same engine, this is of course, several hundred years into the future.

STEAM HAMMER is now in Steam Early Access, and is what you would expect from a large Open-World Sandbox game, just with a different take than what we’ve typically seen at the moment. Not locking down to different class types helps open it up, but rather than locking down to the deep rooted Steampunk, we have jetpacks and energy rifles, along with coal powered Airships, so… Airship Pirates anyone?

In keeping with being an open sandbox, dig for supplies and forge both weapons and armour, starting off with a small thing in a shed and finally ending up with large factories, at this time there are 40 different weapons and armour choices, as well as over 100 different building types ranging from small houses to heavy walls. Of course, if you make a massive mistake with your settlement, you could always just burn it down.

No doubt combat will happen, so you will have to rely on skills to succeed, as well as your “Tesla Approved” Electric Rifle (patent pending.) Now, you don’t have to just be a simple farmer, you can easily double up as a gunsmith and when the need arises, grab your heavy rifle and be a Stormtrooper (I know we can’t because of lawyers and stuff…but it would be bad-ass to see this).

Of course terraforming will play a large part in the world, so you can dig mines, tunnels, build up a modern motte-and-bailey castle, but it wouldn’t be Steampunk without the Airships, and there are many a good source for those, ranging from a nice little runner, to the Graf Zeppelin, and all the way to some of the most complex ones, which will hopefully make the enemy say “Deep into that darkness peering. Long I stood there, wondering, fearing” – Edgar Allen Poe.

If you have made it this far and are interested, it is time to get a cup of tea and head on over to Steam and get yourself a copy of STEAM HAMMER. It goes without saying, all Early Access games have features that are not yet finalized, but some good concepts that should work very well can be seen thus far within STEAM HAMMER.