Iratus: Lord of the Dead

This game (even as of 3-18-2020 and early access) just absorbed 2 hours without my noticing. I have experienced no bugs as of yet, and the games graphics and animations (again my op) are superior to darkest dungeons, (which I have, but stopped playing). This has many levels and places to put your points, and so you can have different builds, I am playing on "Cakewalk" as it is my first runthru. (but as I like to win) I may not try harder settings. :) I find this a very good game to play if you like roguelike games.

A great idea, with pretty good realization, but disappointingly ruined with a few horribly implemented mechanics (made even worse after the latest update). Yet another oh-so-hardcore game that hides just plain bad balance behind 'git gud'. If you live under the misconception that you can be 'gud' at throwing digital dice, or if you have the time and patience to grind through uncountable 'nope, you just lose now' moments, and having your time wasted with random nonsense, good for you, you'll find a lot of fun in this game. I did until the point at the last level, where all semblance of reason just crumbles. Unfortunately, I have neither time nor patience for this.

I love the concept and aesethic of this game a lot. For most of the time the gameplay is far superior to the Darkest Dungeon cobblers of shit dice rolls and an absence of the ability to strategise. But... The rogue-poo tendency is still present and this can really upset battles...I've had characters on the final level one-shot on easy mode. I've had super strong characters deal weak damage for reasons I can't work out and are not apparently obvious via UI (again on the final level). I also hate the fact ALL abilities are essentially gated depending on your position. It's dumb. They cleverly implemented a mana and wrath system and yet only 3 out of your 6 abilities are available per turn, sometimes the 4th depending on the wrath available. Why does position have to relate to your skills? Why can't position only matter for physical damage? Why is the rogue-poo so poo? And yet... The sanity and physical health system seem well balanced and provide a neat combination of party, or you can go full mental or full physical for a laugh and it still plays really well. I also like the materials system and the use of the graveyard to assist with healing, wrath etc. The idea of leveling up Iratus and equipping him with items really allows for some subtle choices for combat. The encounters can help in many ways but I wish there was more of them and less of the tedious ones (raise a minion). But... Several of the minions need to be unlocked before you can make them. Developers: STOP DOING THIS. STOP LOCKING OFF CONTENT YOU BASTARDS. I'm not motivated to play on, I'm motivated to call you out for doing this nonsense.

IRATUS is an almost copy & paste job of DARKEST DUNGEON, but where the original was *original* and had some fresh ideas for a "rogue"-like game, IRATUS' only claim to fame is, you play as the bad guy. This ditches the "insanity" meter, a core gameplay element of DARKEST DUNGEON and replaces it with... nothing. While the art design of DARKEST DUNGEON was artistically very original and destinct, IRATUS looks cheap. The undead look rather goofy than scary. All in all, this is a second rate DARKEST DUNGEON that omitts DARKEST DUNGEON's core element, adds nothing new and does everything just ok'ish. 1 hour in I found myself wanting to play DARKEST DUNGEON instead and ended up refunding this. I guess it's ok if you can get it on sale (like for $10). It does offer good tactical combat and the voice acting is done by Blood's Caleb guy. Yeah, they even copied that narrator only monolgues from DARKEST DUNGEON. Do let's sum it up: Pros: + tactical combat (not as difficult as DARKEST DUNGEON) + voice acting Cons: -- carbon copy of DARKEST DUNGEON - ditched the insanity mechanic withouty a replacement - graphics look goofy - rather poor when compared to the far superior DARKEST DUNGEON Bottom line: Go play DARKEST DUNGEON instead, you'll be happy you did!

I was a bit hesitant about the game after I first came across it on a twitch stream. It looked like a quick attempt to invert the Darkest Dungeon setting without the fantastic graphics. That was not a fair estimation. Yes, this is a spin on the Darkest Dungeon system of combat. And, yes, it doesn't have the wonderful graphics that DD has (or the brilliant narration, or the lovely soundtrack). But, BUT, it does manage to stand on its own feet. Once I saw the graphics on my actual monitor rather than my phone screen I realized they were actually quite decent. I like the painterly style, and the animations were acceptable. The combat system is interesting, and pushes the DD style in different directions. You have two avenues of attack; health, and sanity. Building parties that attack one or the other (or even both) is a fun little challenge. There's a solid selection of different unit types, each of which can work in different ways depending on the upgrades chosen. I have only played one playthrough. It took me just short of 20 hours. I did it on the second difficulty "More Pain". I'm not a tactical genius by any means, but I'm familiar with the genre and this difficulty was too easy. Well, mostly too easy. I had 2 teams that could pretty much demolish any enemy parties. Except the final boss of the final floor. The final boss is an absolutely brutal, borderline unfair fight that chewed through all my existing soliders and through several additional freshly created teams until I finally figured out a composition that could defeat it. All that to say, if you're considering this game, I'm pretty sure you've got enough experiece in the genre to punch of the difficulty a bit. Personally, I'm not overly inclined to another run just now. Maybe in the far far future. I'm confident that many other players would get much more gameplay from this game than me though. 4/7 - Not just a Darkest Dungeon clone, keep an open mind and give it a spin