Perhaps it’s the thrill of exploration and the prospect of loot, the hunt for the next contract, or the excitement of finding a new opponent to challenge, but they’re really starting to come into their own. But this is already an engrossing and hugely promising tactical RPG.Mercenary management strategy games have been gaining a lot of steam and interest lately.
The roadmap suggests that more are coming, along with more quests, environments and enemies-more of what it's currently lacking. The story is reactive and the combat satisfying, even with the small number of classes currently available. I'm interested to see how The Iron Oath will develop over the coming months, as compared to many early access games it has launched in a remarkably solid state.
I can't say I'm keen to visit more aesthetically identical dungeons, but I would definitely return to that map, which is beautiful and a joy to traverse. Oh, there are stacks of towns to visit, and piles of dungeons to clear out, but not enough varied art assets to make any feel unique.
The biggest issue at the moment-and it's a common one in early access games-is content. Jobs that wouldn't leave my mercs in the infirmary-or the grave. After that, I tended to focus on the shorter, less stressful jobs. Despite this, I still found delving into dungeons to be a tense, satisfying experience-the first couple of times. There are jobs that take place on the overworld, and jobs that have you spelunking into dungeons, and your rewards for the latter-a few more experience and renown points-are hardly worth it. And what do you get from all that effort? Well, not very much. At the end, your mercs will be bruised and probably injured, requiring stays in an infirmary. The closest comparison is Darkest Dungeon, as you hop from node to node while managing dwindling resources, including health potions, bandages, and abilities that (only potentially) recharge when you make camp. Your mercs are more than happy to descend into monster-filled dungeons packed with obstacles and branching pathways. On the whole, though, battles are enjoyable and tactically rich thanks to the thoughtful use of terrain and abilities. When the participants are bunched together in a mass of sprites and interface icons, it can be difficult to read the battlefield. Positioning is everything, which can make the fixed viewpoint frustrating sometimes. Rarely do your abilities just cause damage to your opponent you're laying a fire trap with your pyrolancer, then using your pugilist to push the enemy into it. There's light and heavy cover, but that's only part of The Iron Oath's emphasis on terrain, as there are also spike pits and holes, and sigils that trigger magical effects when stepped on. You can take just four of your company into fights, on smallish hex maps with a smallish number of enemies, which really gets you into the heat of battle quickly. When combat breaks out, either in a dungeon or out on the overworld, it's handled swiftly and gracefully, in the tried-and-tested turn-based tactics manner. A higher reputation leads to better shop prices and jobs, while a lower one may put a bounty on your head. Jobs, for the most part, are typical sidequest stuff: clear out these monsters or escort this caravan in exchange for cash and renown that increases your standing in that part of the world. These factors change as time passes, but I couldn't detect any notable fluctuations to the economy in affected towns, while it hardly matters which type of monster you've been sent to kill as part of a job. If there's undead in the region, there will be more jobs asking you to hunt them down, while bandits supposedly increase shop prices in nearby towns. These might sound dramatic, but mainly they decide the types of jobs on offer. Little icons by each town tell you which factors are currently affecting them, including the presence of bandits or monsters, or environmental effects like dust storms. To be fair, there is plenty of stuff going on in the background.
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