Iron Reckoning

Imperfect but interesting game. This might seem a bit negative, but I really did enjoy the game. The standout is instantly the blade-dash element. I'd hesitate to say the movement is great, as the on-foot speed feels absolutely glacial compared to the blade-dash, and the air-jumps don't seem to continue momentum, meaning the only real way to build speed is via the blade. However, that blade dash is really cool for movement and it's really enjoyable. I feel it'd really benefit from the different movement styles all feeding together instead of standing apart. The combat breaks down a little, especially when ranged enemies come into the equation. The intro cinematic sets up a sleek and cool character who slices through enemies, unfortunately most of the combat feels a little more like beating a neon car-door with a sledgehammer. It's not bad when there are a few of them around, but the noise starts to get to you. The ranged enemies are also problematic, sending near constant fire towards the player. While there is a shield to avoid the damage, I can't help but imagine enemies that picked their shots and hit harder would feel much more exciting to fight than enemies that constantly pepper the player with plasma balls. The sword combat works well enough, and using the blade dash to launch yourself into the air, then slashing up a flying drone does feel really good. The ranged combat, however, doesn't work as well. The players bullets move very slowly, and don't hit with much impact, leaving long-range combat feeling a little like shooting paper wads in a windstorm. IT works, but it doesn't feel good. The cut-scenes are a mixed bag as well. I like the camera work, it generally feels dynamic and inspired, but the actual animation lets it down. Some actions and effects work well, while others feel awkward and stage-ey. The world seems interesting, and while the world design is bare to allow for the movement mechanics, there are bread crumbs of a world and story I'd like more of. Overall it sort of feels like a take on the Tribes vibe of sort of space-tribal aesthetic. If paired with some of Tribe's short time to kill and powerful weapons, a sequel/spinoff would be very exciting to me. I'm only a little over an hour in, so I can only judge certain elements for now, but I think it's an interesting game, worth playing if you're a curious player like me who likes to explore weird worlds and has a tolerance for some jank. However if you need high polish and seamless storytelling, this will probably leave you wanting more.

You navigate through large sprawling areas, and can travel at great speed, and to great heights. Which is incredibly fun.

I'll preface by saying that I assisted as a Beta Tester, but I'm sincere when I say that this game and its developer show a lot of promise. Iron Reckoning is very ambitious in its world, action, and story, and what it lacks in production and polish as an indie game it makes up for in a very strong foundation for something bigger. ...This is one way of saying that the movement is sick and Iron Reckoning is honestly worth playing just for how fun it is to traverse the world and invent your own ways to fight in combat. It can hiccup and hit strides at different times which is to be expected, but unlike similar games I've played that balance on this wire, I can definitely say I enjoyed my time overall with this one. If you're looking to get lost for a good amount of hours in a more open-ended hack and slash experience with the built-in indie allure of being something strange and new, consider giving this one a shot.

Of Vagabonds and Wards. Iron Reckoning is a game about traversing large, mostly empty levels, until you get to the giant, towering bosses, and then you need to break their glowing power sources until they explode. Both these elements are built around the game's core unique mechanic, that is, the traversal. The protagonist, Jaenna, can do the regular 3rd person action game sprint. Sprinting depletes stamina (the transparent blue bar behind the HP bar), and it doesn't last very long. Which is why you will probably spend most of the game not doing that. Instead, Jaenna will use her unique “bladestrike” ability-- which allows her to spawn and throw infinite daggers, and launch herself in the air after them. This isn't quite the “teleport to a thrown projectile” mechanic you may have seen in a bunch of recent 2d games- the system here is a bit more complex, especially since once you've launched yourself, hitting the jump button gives you multiple air dashes- but each one takes a portion of your mana/energy bar=- as does launching yourself after a new blade (spawning blades is free). Essentially, until you run out of energy,you can stay airborne. And the game's level design is bult around doing just that. There's no ability or stats progression across the pretty short game, and your sense of progress largely comes from mastering the physics of the travel system, knowing the right time to launch yourself (the daggers have a parabolic trajectory when thrown, and you want to launch yourself when they are at peak height, for more momentum), and the way to maintain momentum to overcome obstacles and reach objectives. And the game does a fine job testing you across the 5 chapters of the story. The objectives come either in the form of massive climbing challenges, or the boss fights against the golem-like mechs called “Vagabonds”. There is no real fall damage, and you can always slow down your fall by triggering the sword attack animation, which kills all momentum, including downward. The fights are not exactly difficult, because the massive weapons don't pose a direct threat, and can easily be dodged. The main intent here is to convey the sense of scale, which is absolutely immense- each one is easily at least a hundred times Jaenna's size. There are few ridges where she can stand to regain energy to continue her ascend, so the fights are a true test of the game's traversal system. And honestly,these set pieces are absolutely the game's highlight. Again, they aren't difficult, and technically, if you want to spend like an hour, you can whittle down each Vagabond's hp by hitting whatever bit is closest to you, and not target a single weak spot- but to do so would rob yourself of the experience of being on top of an absolutely gigantic machine and dismantling it, despite being a mere insect to its bulk. Besides the Vagabonds, the game features melee and ranged combat again the machines and the Ward Clan humans that serve/worship them. Melee combat works by chaining attacks into a combo with timed inputs- completing a full combo allows you to regain a portion of HP bar that can auto-heal. There's also a block command, and hitting it at the right time to parry can stagger enemies. The encounter design tends to favour mobs that swarm you from all sides, so picking fights and extricating yourself is a big part of it. There is also a ranged mode. In ranged mode, Jaenna can either shoot energy projectiles, or put up a shield to block incoming ones. Both actions take up the same power/mana bar as does your bladestrike, and it recovers much quicker in melee mode. To be honest, I found the best use of this is to circle-strafe when dealing with ranged enemies, while having target lock on, as that works as aim assist. It's also worth noting that the most dangerous ranged enemies are turrets, and the shield doesn't really block their projectiles. Overall, the combat is functional, but it's probably the least exciting part of the game. The levels are huge, but largely empty. The only real collectibles are the journals of a member of a previous expedition to the islands, which slowly gives you more backstory about what is going on. These journals have alphabetic labels, so you can always know if you missed one. Backtracking and looking for the ones I've missed proabbly amounted to a big chunk of my playtime (even though it also meant I got to redo a bunch of Vagabond fights, improving my skill at them, which was thrilling) Graphics are functional, but not really exciting. The main template is green field with big hills, though you get some ash desert thrown in as well. The important things are clearly colour-coded in red, which stands out against all backgrounds, which helps. The music is largely ambient, but has a few decent tracks. The game's story is... a bit odd. The game opens up with Jaenna killing a bunch of Wards, with no real backstory, unless you go digging in the menus and read it. The central conflict between her and the primary antagonist doesn't really become clear until the very end- and the extended ending cutscene tries to do a sequel hook, while also introducing a bunch of questions and making you wonder what everything was. Frankly, it' an odd, and a bit awkward story. The voice acting here doesn't seem professional, but it gets the messages across. The main question about the game is whether it's worth buying. This is a very budget Unity project, and there's a lot of aspects here that are unremarkable. At the same time, the sheer sense of scale that is evoked by the Vagabond fights, even if they lack difficulty and a sense of true danger, is really worth experiencing. The traversal is genuinely fun, once you master it, and it allows you to bypass most enemy mobs towards the endgame. I did an ultra-completionist run, and it took 10 hours to hunt down every journal via backtracking, and beat the final boss. A simple linear run can probably be done in a few hours, once you've gotten the hang of the movement. This is an interesting experience much more than it is a good game, but fundamentally, I still think more people should give it a try.

Jeu avec des bonne idées, mais manque de choses qui peut faire en sorte que le jeu soit long sans avoir que des long couloirs avec des endroits vide et des ennemis trop simple à contourner via bug. Des boss impossible à comprendre comment les battre sans utiliser des bugs de collisions Pour ma part le Boss Final à été une purge tellement ils sont inaccessible et qu'il n'y a aucun moyen d'y accéder sans bugs. La direction artistique est pas top car la musique se déclenche quand elle veut et pour les graphisme on dirait un jeu prototype, malgré que celui-ci ait apparemment une histoire (mais dont les cinématiques sont un peu long avec des effets de caméras par obligé d'être là). De plus le jeu à la manette à quelques soucis et il n'est en plus pas adapté au clavier.