I’ll be the first to admit, the isometric RPG genre is something that I haven’t been able to get into in years. Games such as Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2, as good as they are, just haven’t reeled me in, so it was going to take something a little special to pique my interest in the genre. Iron Danger might just be the game to do that.
Iron Danger is a new action-role player from publisher Daedalic Entertainment, which we had the chance to preview. In the opening moments, you are fleeing for your life, dodging explosions and fire to make your escape. Before long a sink hole has opened up and you have fallen in and died — is this like a Dark Souls style Iso-RPG? It is not, and your death was seemingly planned to reveal the true nature of the game, that battles can be won and lost in a heartbeat.
Generally, Iron Danger works similarly to many other hack and slash/action RPG titles, with movement, attacks and other actions all being handled by clicking around on screen, but there is one key difference. Iron Danger has a time/turn based system focussed around heartbeats. For instance, after your untimely demise, you are able to reverse time by selecting one of your previous heartbeats. These heartbeats are all stored in a row near the bottom of the screen, so choose a heartbeat that occurred prior to your death, and voila, you can change your fate and not fall down the hole.
Shortly later, you are faced with a turret dishing out one hit kills with reckless abandon. Your attempts to pass by, or find a way around to the turret to destroy it, prove fruitless, until you discover the dodge skill. You can back the game up to a point before being killed, choose the dodge function, and instead of running out in front of the killing machine, you perform a tactical roll into cover, and avoid the whole death issue altogether.
Later on in the game you begin the fighting proper, with your heroe at times taking on several opponents at once. This is where Iron Danger comes into its own, and is the hardest, but most rewarding part of the game. On a number of occasions I found myself outnumbered, but thanks to the heartbeat system, taking them on became more of a tactical engagement.
There’s a number of options available to you; knock back, attack, block and dodge amongst others. The game will freeze allowing you to plan your movements and attacks accordingly, only coming back to real time once you decide what you’re doing. This part of the game feels a little like a turn based battle game. Being hit doesn’t end the game either, just rewind time to before the attack happened and try something new.
While this may sound like a cop out, it actually isn’t. Working your way through fights is like trying to tackle a puzzle of sorts. Got hit last time? Block next time. Attacked from behind? Dodge. Didn’t work? Try a knock back. It is also possible to fight your way into a corner, where there’s no positive action that can get you out of your situation unscathed. In Iron Danger, every heartbeat counts.
Iron Danger has a great soundtrack composed by Ilmari Hakkola. The title music is particularly spellbinding, really capturing the tone of the world with a folky track that is fairly traditional fantasy fare, but is possibly some of the best you’ll hear; easily right up there with the likes of Elder Scrolls. The in-game music manages to keep up the quality of the soundtrack, without being too overbearing as you try and tactically work your way through the level.
The graphics are cartoony, crisp and chunky. They’re colourful, detailed and very well animated — I can really imagine the characters from the game looking perfectly at home in a tabletop board game. They really reminded me of many a happy time building miniatures during my childhood.
Iron Danger takes a number of cues from similar games, but takes inspiration from them and runs away with it. Feeling rather akin to other hack and slash RPGs, it really pulls away from the competition with its unique turn-based, time-reversing mechanics. Action Squad Studios deserve credit for creating such a unique title with such a small team.
Iron Danger is released on PC later this year. A Steam key was provided by PR.
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