I played the early access and am now trying the finished released. I've got some impressions that I'd add to my review, but we can't edit those so I'll post them here instead.
The biggest difference between early access (barring the last levels being added) is that the tinkering options have been expanded upon further. You have a lot more room to personalise your units than in Darkest Dungeon, where your heroes are basically all identical barring what quirks they get. Not so in Iratus. In Iratus, the minions you build are comprised of four components, have two gear slots, get a full set of abilities and can level up. Each of these sets can be tinkered with.
The components have different levels of rarity and add different stat boosts to the minion, plus you can still change them for new ones after the minion has been built. The gear also have different levels of rarity and either add a generic trait (15% restore health on damage dealt) or unit specific traits. The abilities then, unlike in DD, can be upgraded once but have divergent options that can can change a lot how the ability functions. Lastly, the stats of the units themselves you can also upgrade separately with stat points gained from levelling up. While each minion starts out identical this way, you can change them a lot and get very different units and you have a lot more control over how you build them than in DD. Separately from the minions themselves, the gear and skills of Iratus then further improve your units across the board (HOMM style).
The levels you go through are also more in the style of Slay the Spire than DD. You start at the bottom and work your way up, picking what route you want to take and having fights and events along the way, trying to get strong enough to beat the boss that's at the end. I think they levels have been made bigger as another change in the final version.
All in all, a good game. Probably the best Darkest Dungeon inspired game that adds enough to be distinct on its own terms.
Post edited April 27, 2020 by Fortuk
