TheDarkestDungeoninfluenceis clear
from the off, with its flat, side-on
perspective, punishing difficulty, and deep
tactical combat. Russian developer
Unfrozen wears its influences proudly on
its sleeve. But visually it has more in
common with a Blizzard game – a dark
fantasy world with wispy magic,
chunky monsters, and an ornate,
decorative interface.
Iratus, being a Dark Lord, doesn’t
get his own hands dirty. Instead he
sends minions to do his bidding. When
you kill a human they drop body parts as a
kindofdisgusting loot: limbs, organs, and
othersquishy bits. And from these you
onjure up foul beasts to do your
ng,including banshees, dark knights,
ies,phantoms, and vampires.
u create these creatures with a
e crafting interface, and it’s possible
efupa newly created minion’s power
eding it brains – one of the most
valuable things an enemy can drop.
Eachmonster has a skill tree with a
ariety of powers, buffs, and other
l abilities, but they’re also disposable.
diesit’s not the end of the world –
can just create another to replace it.In practice this is a fairly simple
turn-based strategy game, with a
back-and-forth flow reminiscent of an old
Final Fantasy game or, more recently, Slay
the Spire. But the sheer volume of abilities
is where the real depth lies.
There are hundreds of ways a combat
encounter can play out and various
different types of damage to deal
including, my favourite, stress.
Some monsters such as the banshee,
a screeching, white-eyed spectre in a
ragged wedding dress, aren’t particularly
powerful, but have powers that will sap an
enemy’s sanity. Deal enough stress
damage and it’s likely your target will go
mad and begin attacking his own allies.EARLY GRAVE
Between battles you can retreat to Iratus’
spooky, moonlit graveyard and give
injured minions time to heal. He’s not
totally evil. You can also use resources
harvested in combat to build new
structures, in turn unlocking more exotic
monsters to fight with. With each
successful battle you move deeper into a
dungeon, leading towards a final clash
with a boss, which Unfrozen says
could take up to ten hours.
It’s a roguelike, so if you have no
minions left and no body parts to
make new ones, it’s game over.
The subject matter is pretty dark, but
this is an enjoyably tongue-in-cheek game.
Iratus is voiced by Stephan Weyte, who PC
gamers of a certain age will remember as
Blood protagonist Caleb, and he chews
the scenery magnificently. He’s one of
those pantomime villains who really revels
in being evil, and the chance to play as the
bad guy is always welcome in a game like
this. But what’s his grand motivation? His
mission? I asked Unfrozen and the answer
was simple: death.
Iratus: Lord of the Dead doesn’t have
much in the way of new ideas. It’s a
collection of systems borrowed from a
bunch of successful PC games, and quite
blatant about it. But thanks to some lavish
artwork, a feeling of polish, and that
monster creation system, I’m more
intrigued to play the final game that I
thought I would be. But if it’s a game with
a gentle difficulty curve you’re after, Iratus
may not be the emo necromancer for you.
Andy KellyI
magine Darkest Dungeon, but instead of
playing as a group of adventurers
battling terrifying monsters, it’s the
other way around. In this turn-based
strategy game you play as Iratus, a very emo
necromancer who loves killing people, stealing
their body parts, and creating monsters from them.A roguelike where you play
as the bad guyIRATUS: LORD
OF THE DEAD
IT’SPOSSIBLE TO BEEF UP A
NEWLYCREATED MINION’S
POWERBYFEEDING IT BRAINSRELEASE
2019DEVELOPER
UnfrozenPUBLISHER
DaedalicLINK
http://www.iratus.orgNEED TO KNOWPLAYED
ITBanshees can scare
canco human enemies to death.
biddin
zombi
Yo
simple
tobee
byfee
v
E
va
useful
Ifone
IratusIratus:Lordof the Dead
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