Iconoclasts

Iconoclasts wishes to distinguish itself in the platformer genre with a complex story which drives the plot forward. In theory, this is a great idea, as it makes you more connected to the characters, the world, and gives the whole thing more depth and flavor. Unfortunately, the actual results are less great. But before we get into that: as a platformer, this really is a well-made game. The way you can enhance/combine your abilities to solve the varied puzzles is great fun. Hardcore players say it's too easy; for me, playing on normal difficulty was usually just right. Aside of exploring new areas, finding keys, and so on, you also defeat numerous bosses, and each requires a different approach. Without doubt, in terms of mechanics, puzzles, secrets and level-building, the game has a lot going for it. It's that story where it all falls apart. The world itself is interesting. The whole plot framework, which basically takes the worst moments of the church in the Middle Ages and mixes it with science fiction elements can feel heavy-handed at times, but it does what it's supposed to do. The characters, on the other hand, go beyond terrible. The main character is a silent protagonist, so it's up to the others, allies and enemies alike, to move the story forward and create conflict. And since they cannot actually have a conversation, they try to fill this narrative void by shouting a whole lot and constantly being upset. It does not help that the game wants to present complex topics in about 2 sentences. obviously without success. You'll pretty much start hating each and every one of the cast eventually. And to make things worse, the main character (and thus you) have next to no agency, as you are constantly being jerked around by everyone else, including horribly forced plot twists. I don't really drop games, especially so very close to their end. This time, I did. Despite being a great platformer, I was so fed up with the story that I could not care anymore. A shame.

Iconoclasts starts off as a good looking action-puzzle platformer with some interesting mechanics (pun intended). After more than 12 hours of playing, only the good looking part really remains with a clear positive rating. The story? A mess that starts out interesting but from the middle point on starts losing itself in overboardingly absurd scenes. The characters? Horrible, all of them. There is not a single likeable character in the game. Everyone is either a complete idiot, full "lawful stupid" paladin, self-centered ***hat or sheepish coward - and barely any of their actions make any sense. Worst of all is the main protagonist, Robin, who mains entirely character-/face- and emotionless throughout the entire game. But maybe that is a good thing, given how bad all the other characters are... The controls? Okay, but could be MUCH better. It is unnecessarily difficult to pull some basic platformer movement off. The writing? Starts off strange - every dialogue just feels off, as if something was lost in translation. And maybe it was. All I can say is that it gets worse. By the end of the game, everyone is rambling such utter nonsense that I found myself skipping through entire dialogues just be done with it. The gameplay? Full with arbitrarily self-breaking rules and absurd frustrations. I won't list all of them, as there are just too many. But have my favourite: 1) Everything in the game is roughly box-sized. You can crawl through one-box-sized tunnels on the ground. You can grab the ledge of 2,3,4+ boxes-high ledges and pull yourself up, also into a one-box-sized tunnel. But a ledge that is only one-box-high with a one-box-sized tunnel above it? Impossible. You are standing right in front of it and everyone could climb in with ease. But not our main character. Fear the one-box-high tunnel. Ridiculous. All in all, avoid this. Spare yourself the disappointment.

I am an old-school gamer. I remember "PONG", alright. I owned an Atari 2600 as a kid. I have played countless number of games - on various different platforms. And there have been some great ones. I won't bore you on naming all of the different games that have utterly floored me. I will just say that "Iconoclasts" with its fantastic story (which I haven't even completed yet), its engaging and interesting characters, its colorful sprite-based graphics (which is a breath of fresh air because this beautifully-told story can get very DARK at times!), its killer soundtrack and its FUN, FUN **FUN**gameplay... Well, you can probably guess this game has completely FLOORED me! And really, I do mean FUN! I am trying to remember when I've had this much fun playing a video game. The puzzles, platforming, the boss fights...OMG, the boss fights! Wow! They are so much FUN! Challenging, absolutely! But not frustrating or tedious, the boss fights make make you think and they are fair! You mess up - well, its because you messed up. You didn't think something through or you didnt observe when something changed. That simple. And by the way, Robin is just adorable! All of the characters are great, but spunky Robin - so brave and determined - just wow! Yes, she's the player's avatar; and yes, she's a silent protagonist. But she has her own personality distinct from the player's which is masterfully portrayed by the very well-written story and her sprite-animations. In fact, all of the characters' animations are well done. They really convey what the characters are thinking and feeling. I can gush for hours about this very, very special game. But I really want to get back to it and finish it. And probably replay it as soon as I'm done! That said, this game is very much worth any real gamers time. It's one the best games I've played in a long time! It's one of those games that makes me happy that I'm a gamer!

I was really looking forward to this one. The game looked like it was promising to deliver a classic GBA side-scroller. Sadly, I have to say I'm disappointed. The pixel graphics are crisp, and the environments are gorgeous. Character animations are great. But you can see the visuals for yourself. The sound effects are crisp and satisfying, but the music is generic and forgettable. What about gameplay? While the controls are tight with few awkward mechanics (usually around the wrench), it is pretty hit or miss. Enemies are varied, and require different strategies to kill which is nice. Traversing environments offers many "mini-puzzles" that require you to use your skillset to get by -- this is good. Large variety of bosses, which are all very different -- this is good too. So what about it was a miss? Maybe it was the back-tracking? I just didn't "feel" like I was having fun as the game continued -- maybe that's just me. One big negative for me was the story... I can tell the dev put a lot into it, but it needed someone else to review it before. The story feels like a big hodge-podge of ideas and when you get to the end, you realize that more than ever... there is no satisfying payoff. And I have to say, all of the dialogue was extremely frustrating. It was mostly tedious to read, and really bogged the pacing of the game down. There are better ways to tell a story, both interactively, and with better edited text. Imagine playing Super Metroid, and every new zone, there will be some sort of long drawn out conversation. The dialogue also feels like a text conversation between your mom, where characters will sometimes ramble and meander... like stfu and give me control back of the character. There are times while I was playing that I was thinking, "this is pretty good (4/5)", and other times I was just wishing for it to end (2/5). Overall, the game is ok, maybe you'll appreciate it more, and may find some of my criticisms invalid. This game just wasn't for me.

This is an excellent, well made pixel art game. The gameplay and controls are very good (I recommend using a controller for the best experience although a keyboard also works fine) The pace of the game, the difficulty and transition from area to area are spot on. Unlike the general trend today to make games punishingly difficult this game is refreshingly fun to play. Boss fights, puzzles and platforming always feel fair and never go into frustrating territory, when you lose you always come back stronger because you know what to do this time around. You will need to learn and improve your skills to tackle new challenges and its very rewarding when you do, it makes you feel smart ;) This is the first game I play in a long time in which I feel the balance is perfect from a gameplay perspective. The world is big enough to explore with a lot of variety from area to area without being a sprawling behemoth that takes hours to traverse. I really loved the story, ingame cutscenes and characters and became more attached to them as the game progressed. I wish more games were made this way. I didn't want the game to end. Iconoclasts does justice to the genre and its implementation is near perfect in my opinion. This is one of the most fun and balanced games i've played in a while and one of the very few that I would not mind starting again. I highly recommend this game, especially if you've been looking for a good pixel art game do not miss this one, you will be glad you picked it up.