Iratus: Lord of the Dead

Awesome game, Combat draws inspirations from Darkest Dungeon, so you'll feel at home if you like DD. The theme and atmosphere is great, and minions management is awesome. Get it quickly :)

Thoroughly enjoying Iratus, finished the three stages on the first playthrough because I found an OP team combo. Trying out different units for the second difficulty and got mad when everyone died :D Think of Darkest Dungeon crossed with Legend of Keepers and it's exactly this. Would love even more minion and enemy types however I'm 10+ hours in and haven't unlocked all of them yet. A minion as £7 DLC is a big gripe though.

Iratus hit just The Spot for me. You get to be the evil guy here, fine balance between thinking and RNG, a bit of equip management, move-based combat, de/buff removal abilities... Fairly complex set of variables, but still in manageable size. You don't need a spreadsheet to play, but if you want to be perfect, you'll benefit from one. You choose your way through the dungeon. Between combats, there's a base you benefit from: your minions can spend the "combat time" healing or studying. Don't get too attached, though. Your minions will die, sometimes even from one-shot. It will hurt, mainly in later stages of the game, when you invested some quality materials into your mobs. There's an option to instantly level-up your new creations through brain usage, so you'll only have the expected amount of troubles. The downs of Iratus are mostly of cosmetic nature: lengthy animations (intro, combat moves...), sometimes hectic UI (when more enemies move in a row, you don't get to inspect their buffs, e.g.) and ugh, unlockable mobs. You'll only have "basic" mobs available from the beginning, and you must perform certain actions to unlock new - such as collecting resources, dealing certain types of damage etc. This kind of progression through content is in my eyes way too much mobile-microtransactions-y. But the limits are not extreme in any kind. If you'll want to unlock all, you totally* can (*: additional purchases may be needed), if you don't want, you'll enjoy the game with what you found on the way.

I was lucky to avoid the "overpriced" pitfall - I caught this when on a free offer. But £24 for the standard version and £39 for the "Necromancer Edition" is simply EX-TORN-ION-ATE. I would suggest the developers halve (*at least*) those standard full prices. And suggest *you* only ever buy when on sale (don't you always, you do, don't you?) The game is bascially just turn based "card play" combat rounds with a basic strategic map to progress along, and a simplistic menagerie of undead minions to manage. But what little it does have is BRILLIANT. Iratus himself is an absolute hoot, reminds me of "Cabal Gordon" from "Blood". The pixel art graphics are excellent, as are the sounds and music. Especially Iratus's quips and oneliners!

I dont normally write reviews but I really enjoyed this game. As a fan of both darkest dungeon and this, I think this game is slightly more fun. The structure of the leveling system in the dungeons is great and the brain system is good. The battles are more active with spellcasting etc. and the stress system which gives more options. Darkest Dungeon is pretty punishing when you lose a party whereas in Iratus, the game is salavageable much more quickly. 9/10