Iratus: Lord of the Dead
Main game
2.96 average rating based on 48 ratings
- Developers
- Unfrozen
- Publishers
- Daedalic Entertainment
- Platforms
- Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows)
- Genres
- Indie, Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS)
- Themes
- Fantasy
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Iratus: Lord of the Dead?
Related Content
Slightly less dark dungeon
Playtime: 14 hours (completed campaign on Cakewalk)
Intro
Iratus is basically a "fairer" version of Darkest Dungeon. You move through a maze picking between available paths, fight enemies, gather stuff, construct buildings, craft and level up. Combat consists of 2D turn-based combat with (up to) four warriors on each side. Attacks are limited based on the position of the attacker and possible defenders.
The Good
- You can quicksave, so you can just load if you lose.
- The Cakewalk difficulty setting lets you just play the game without grinding or strategising.
- Despite the necromancer theme there's a decent variety in units.
- Solid variety in enemies.
- The bosses are neat. The "witcher" boss was a nice touch.
- Most unlockable units can be gained by playing normally (and attacking your own team).
- You get lots of parts (used to create units) so a unit dying isn't too big of a deal.
The Bad
- Confirmation screens have to be clicked, Enter, Space or Escape don't work.
- The game displays a pointless confirmation screen when booting.
- There's no replay value. You can get all the items and try out all the units the first time.
- A run takes ~14 hours which is far too long …
Playtime: 14 hours (completed campaign on Cakewalk)
Intro
Iratus is basically a "fairer" version of Darkest Dungeon. You move through a maze picking between available paths, fight enemies, gather stuff, construct buildings, craft and level up. Combat consists of 2D turn-based combat with (up to) four warriors on each side. Attacks are limited based on the position of the attacker and possible defenders.
The Good
- You can quicksave, so you can just load if you lose.
- The Cakewalk difficulty setting lets you just play the game without grinding or strategising.
- Despite the necromancer theme there's a decent variety in units.
- Solid variety in enemies.
- The bosses are neat. The "witcher" boss was a nice touch.
- Most unlockable units can be gained by playing normally (and attacking your own team).
- You get lots of parts (used to create units) so a unit dying isn't too big of a deal.
The Bad
- Confirmation screens have to be clicked, Enter, Space or Escape don't work.
- The game displays a pointless confirmation screen when booting.
- There's no replay value. You can get all the items and try out all the units the first time.
- A run takes ~14 hours which is far too long for a roguelike.
- Unlocking Dhampirs requires outside knowledge and can take several runs.
The Ugly
- Clicks often don't register, which can even make you lose a battle.
- The game does not explain how to reorganise spells (apparently you can right-click on them).
- There's no proper way to regenerate mana or talents (player skills) that improve spellpower, making a magic-oriented build non-viable.
- Every time you change to the maze map you have to select your "battle group". Every single time. And these clicks often don't register, and the selection is only indicated by a vague yellow haze. It is beyond obnoxious and could've simply been fixed by... keeping the fucking group selected. FFS.
- There's not enough variation in combat for a 14-hour game.
Conclusion
Iratus is one of those games that is just "okay". It's not as obnoxiously grindy as Darkest Dungeon and IMO the more playable of the two, but not something i would recommend. Especially not for freaking €30 (!!). There are countless better strategy games and roguelikes that are often cheaper too.
jademonkey's review of Iratus: Lord of the Dead
I did a run of the tutorial difficulty and half of a run on standard, for ~15 hours of play time.
Iratus follows the Darkest Dungeon formula fairly closely, but instead of trying to survive eldritch horrors, you are the horror. There's a lot to like about the idea, and Iratus does a good enough job with the units and combat itself. In fact, I think it actually does a better job than Darkest Dungeons in those regards.
Unfortunately, nothing else is quite up to par. The voice-overs have none of Wayne June's charm, and are sometimes even outright grating or uncomfortable. The artwork is serviceable, but not particularly memorable. There are some issues with the English in a few ability or item descriptions, which occasionally make it difficult to determine how things function. It feels like they had a writer fluent in English handle most of the game, but then a different dev went back in and added a few things without putting them through the normal writing process.
Most damningly, Iratus misses out on one of the most necessary characteristics for a roguelike -- variance between runs. Once you unlock a unit type, you are always able to …
I did a run of the tutorial difficulty and half of a run on standard, for ~15 hours of play time.
Iratus follows the Darkest Dungeon formula fairly closely, but instead of trying to survive eldritch horrors, you are the horror. There's a lot to like about the idea, and Iratus does a good enough job with the units and combat itself. In fact, I think it actually does a better job than Darkest Dungeons in those regards.
Unfortunately, nothing else is quite up to par. The voice-overs have none of Wayne June's charm, and are sometimes even outright grating or uncomfortable. The artwork is serviceable, but not particularly memorable. There are some issues with the English in a few ability or item descriptions, which occasionally make it difficult to determine how things function. It feels like they had a writer fluent in English handle most of the game, but then a different dev went back in and added a few things without putting them through the normal writing process.
Most damningly, Iratus misses out on one of the most necessary characteristics for a roguelike -- variance between runs. Once you unlock a unit type, you are always able to build it as long as you have the necessary resources, and you generally will. You'll generally even be able to make a new unit of the same level as the ones you've been using due to enemy brain drops, further reducing any feelings of uniqueness to a run. There are few truly random events, and they rarely have long lasting effects. I don't think I saw a single item in the second run that I hadn't received in the first. As far as I can tell, you'll fight the same bosses each time as well. Each run needs to feel substantially different for a roguelike to be worth it-- otherwise, I'd rather just play a game that's designed for a single playthrough. Games like ToME handle that mainly through having a massive variety in classes, and DCSS/Brogue through forcing you to react to what's available in a run. Iratus doesn't really do either.
If you enjoy the Darkest Dungeon formula and just want more of that style of combat, I think Iratus is worth a shot for you. Similarly, if you prefer less variance, you may get more out of the game. For me, there just wasn't quite enough run variety or charm to counterbalance the inherently frustrating nature of this style of game.
Oh they made a dark dungeon clone with the personality of a mobile game ad
This is free in the Epic Store this week:
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/iratus-d0e5ba
It was previously given away on GOG.
