Iron Diamond

This game shines with its top notch exploration has really cool mechanics later on in the game. while the difficulty is on the easier side there are some platforming and puzzles moments that will give you a run for your money and speaking of money this game is only 4.79$! absolutely insane. way too cheap for what you get. 7/10

I was really happy with this game, and it deserves to be way more popular than it is at the time of this review. Extremely competently made with a keen and wide understanding of other metroidvanias. This game was so much better than a lot of games I hear called great metroidvanias. I am extremely extremely hopeful that the creator (or creators, but I think it's mainly one) continue on and make another metroidvania, even if this one didn't end up hugely successful. I expect it would be received well and widely praised. I strongly recommend this to all metroidvania fans. For the quantity and quality of the content it would easily justify a $15 sales tag, IMO, making it a steal of a price. Great, great work! Make another metroidvania!! Equal in quality with Kyle Thompson's metroidvanias like Islets, Crypt Custodian, and Sheepo.

Iron Diamond has some fantastic level design with many branching paths, nonlinear order for collecting abilities, opportunities for sequence breaking, etc. The first hour was a bit slow but things really pick up after that. The combat is simple but satisfying, and the bosses are interesting to fight but not overly difficult. Personally I like the art style but that will be subjective for everyone. It's easy to tell the solo dev put a ton of effort and passion into the game and I think it paid off. It’s also worth noting that all of the QOL issues reported early on have been patched. For fans of MVs, this game is a steal for less than $10.

I came away from Iron Diamond with mixed feelings. To be upfront, I didn’t like the art style, I didn’t enjoy most of the music, and I found the writing uninteresting. These things weighed against my personal enjoyment, but despite all that, I could still feel the passion behind the game, and that passion was enough to carry me through to the end. What makes the game work is its movement. It’s definitely on the floaty side, but that looseness has a charm to it, and it’s the reason why exploring the world feels worthwhile. Combat, by comparison, is fine—functional but nothing that stands out. The game is very easy overall, and I managed to finish it in under five hours without a single death. That ease makes it a poor fit for veterans of the genre, but I think it has real value for younger players or those just getting into Metroidvanias for the first time. This is a budget title, and it does feel like one, but I don’t think that means it feels cheap. It’s a compact experience made with care, and while I personally have no desire to replay it, I still enjoyed traversing the world the developer put together. I hope they continue to make more games, because Iron Diamond feels like a solid stepping stone and a sign that their future projects could be much stronger.

It's a little rough around the edges, but overall a fun experience. 7.5/10

Iron Diamond is a surprisingly solid MV for its price point and let's be honest not particularly amazing visuals (they get the job done). It starts rather slowly and being really linear and nothing special but after a point a few hours in I was really having fun. This is not a combat MV, I died 6 times throughout the entire thing. What it focuses on is exploration and it does so very well. There were many points where I both had options in which order to tackle at least some biomes and had to really think and mess around to find the progression point. Collectibles are also very valuable to get both for straight pickup rewards and for spell/armor/weapon upgrade merchants. Story is nothing special, but it's really fun from a gameplay perspective.

If you want to support a solo dev who poured four years of his free time into this passion project AND get a very well done, small gem, metroidvania, buy this game. It's only 8$ and fully worth the price. Yes, the art will drive some away (I personally find it charming), the controls can be a bit rough at times, the combat is simplistic, but that's nothing compared to the fun I've had (and will have) playing this game. Like I said, the combat feels a bit simple, but it's really not the focus of the game. The focus is mostly on exploration and in that aspect, it absolutely excels. The map is pretty decently big for (again) a solo project, you get a bunch of new abilities (Off the top of my head, probably 8-10) throughout the game, very well spaced out too. It never feels boring, there's always something new that unlocks. It's also a game that doesn't overstay its welcome, going probably from 6 to 12 hours depending on what completion percentage you're going for (for example, it took me about 12 hours to get 90% completion, but I got lost quite a few times because I forgot about a new area that I had discovered or an ability, stuff like that). So fun, short, inexpensive, what more do you need? I fully recommend everyone who's even mildly interested in this one to buy it, even if just to support a solo dev who's really nice and, even after game launch, keeps patching bugs and adding QOL elements. He listens to feedback and does his best to fix what's not fully working. And I admire that. Buy this game. Now.

Très belle surprise que ce petit metroidvania développé par 1 personne. Et bien c'est un passionné ! Pas mal de contenu, si vous arrivez à passer les graphismes "roots" et que vous êtes un fan de metroidvania qui a déjà épuré les meilleurs titres, vous passerez assurément un bon moment !

not the prettiest game visually, but for $8 it's a fun and exploration heavy metroidvania. You quickly accumulate more iron (the currency) then you'd ever need, but it doesn't negatively affect the game in any way. Worth picking up for metroidvania fans to support a solo dev and have a ~10 hour game

My review is based on playing on 'normal' difficulty with 100% items collected. Pros: - Great non-linear exploration - Movement upgrades are fairly unique, and even the typical ones are more interesting than usual - Combat upgrades feel very strong - Story is decent and doesn't get in the way of the gameplay - The game is pretty easy on normal mode, but a challenge mode exists for those who want it Cons: - Bosses aren't particularly great. One in particular has some really weird hitboxes. Most bosses felt like they had way too much HP, even when I was melting through all the regular enemies in their areas. - Movement feels a bit floaty - Music was fairly forgettable