The Iron Oath, despite its rough start, is undoubtedly an exceptional turn-based strategy game that you won’t put down.
2023 has been a wild ride, and this year has had no shortage of phenomenal games that have captured our hearts and attention, both AAA and indie. Now, with it being so late in the year, you wouldn’t expect to see a game that would grab attention so late, one that would lead you to spend hours and hours playing it, unable to put it down. The Iron Oath is a unique pixel turn-based strategy game set in a grim world, and despite a rocky start, it will have you completely enthralled by the end of it.
Now, it may come as a surprise to learn that The Iron Oath is made by Curious Panda Games, a small indie studio consisting of only two people. The studio doesn’t really have anything under their belt aside from another game called Rhythm Destruction. This interesting take on the shoot ’em up and rhythm genres attempts to get the best of both worlds. Though it is incredibly ambitious, it didn’t quite hit the mark for many. Nevertheless, the game gets you pumped and in the zone and shows the studio’s incredible promise, as shown in their next game – The Iron Oath.
The setting for The Iron Oath is a dark and grim world known as Caelum, where war is forever raging, with near-constant bloodshed and betrayal. You play as a group of mercenaries who seek their pound of flesh after being betrayed by a former ally. Now, revenge doesn’t come cheap, and on your journey of revenge, it not only requires you to manage resources such as gold and supplies but also the passage of time and the effect combat has on your fellow mercenaries. You will need to adapt to the world around you, or you may find yourself and your allies first in the blood-soaked mud.
From that oh-so-lovely description, you would think that The Iron Oath would be the Dark Souls equivalent of your typical turn-based strategy game, but in reality, it’s quite the obvious. The Iron Oath wears its inspirations on its sleeves and takes many of the best aspects from games such as Divinity: Original Sin, XCOM, and Darkest Dungeon to deliver a game that is an incredibly approachable entry into the turn-based strategy genre. Despite having many similarities to other games, The Iron Oath makes sure it can stand on its own two feet and doesn’t come across as a shameless clone.
In The Iron Oath, you will need to manage your mercenary group, which consists of many different people with many different types of classes and abilities. These classes include spell-slinging wizards, Storm Callers, bow-wielding Huntresses, and deadly warriors such as the Pyrolancers and Guardians. While these aren’t your standard RPG bands of misfits, they work with the standard mage, warrior and rogue character archetypes but with the developers own fun twist.
Many of these classes are hybrids of your usual RPG classes, such as Pyrolancer, which is a mix of fire mage and spearman. This is especially notable in one of the unique classes of The Iron Oath, the Valkyries, who are powerful spear-wielding maidens that can easily cut through your enemies but can also help support and carry allies. That is, if said allies can still fight.
As mentioned earlier, one of The Iron Oath’s biggest inspirations is that of Darkest Dungeon. If you rely too heavily on certain mercenaries, those same mercenaries will slowly become more injured and more stressed. If they become too stressed, they will snap and start attacking your party, or if you don’t treat injuries, those mercenaries might just drop dead mid-combat.
Managing mercenaries is a careful balancing act of lifting spirits with ale at the town’s Inn and repairing injuries at the infirmary, which will take about five whole days. You will need to do this while also making sure you don’t go broke in the process. Just like in Darkest Dungeon and games like it, it is sometimes best to bid farewell to your battered and bloody mercs than to keep them around, as while they are still usable, they are more of a liability in combat.
As you adventure with your merry party of blood-hungry mercenaries, you will come across numerous different areas ranging from cities to dungeons, and in each of these, you will encounter different events that also have the possibility of drastically changing the game’s story. The world of Caelum is a living world; what this means is that the story of The Iron Oath is forever branching out. What at first seems like a simple revenge plot can devolve into a story of political intrigue, betrayal, and war, and this is a story that spans over decades.
Sadly, you don’t exactly have time to soak up all those lovely consequences of your decisions as you are on the clock. Yes, unlike in most games, time is actively ticking by, meaning you have no time to fuss about, especially in combat. The combat in The Iron Oath is the game itself and is probably one of its best parts. Once you enter a dungeon, you will need to navigate with care as you will encounter many enemies along with traps. It cannot be overstated that you need to disarm traps as they can turn an entire party of healthy mercs into a group of bleeding and dying mercenaries, one sneeze away from death’s door.
As for actual combat, it takes place on a grid-based system, and you will need to navigate your mercs across it. This surprisingly flexible system allows you to flank around enemy units, moving over to cover or sneak behind enemies to give them a deadly backstab attack. Just keep in mind that whatever you can do, the enemy can do as well, so you may need to plan a few turns ahead to avoid being surprised. It should also be noted that most of your powerful attacks and spells have limited charges that you will need to manage during your exploration of the dungeon.
Now, with all the management of unit health, sanity, food, gold, and even your own abilities, you would think that things could become overwhelming, but that isn’t the case. The Iron Oath is a surprisingly easy-to-understand turn-based strategy game that doesn’t overwhelm you with its mechanics, and thanks to its in-depth tutorial, you will most likely understand everything about the combat by the time you head out to go head-hunting for revenge.
However, The Iron Oath has one major flaw, and it’s one that affects most aspects of the game, and that’s its UI. The UI itself isn’t bad, but it just has a couple of flaws that bring down most of what makes the game fun. One thing that you will almost immediately notice is mercenary health because, at first glance, you can’t immediately tell how badly injured a character is. There’s a red overlay over their portrait, but nothing that means they have a fractured spine or a broken arm. There are a few other issues, but the combat health system is the most notable.
However, there is one thing in The Iron Oath that stands out, and that is its gorgeous pixel art. The sprites are packed full of detail, which is no easy feat considering the medium. Despite the grim, dark setting, the game utilizes color incredibly well and often uses vibrant greens and rich purples to add more life to the environment. This doesn’t take away from the dark setting of the game itself but actually makes the dark elements of its narrative stand out much more easily.
Overall, The Iron Oath is a good game and a great entry into the turn-based strategy genre. Despite the need to manage resources such as mercenaries and funds, the game never becomes too overwhelming, even with more intense difficulties. Though admittedly, it still suffers from some of the faults of its inspirations, it still builds upon the mechanics. The game is easy to get into and hard to put down, and while it’s no Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s certainly worth your time.
