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Iratus: Lord of the Dead Review - Feeling Cute, Might Raise The Dead Later
Developed by the relatively new Russian studio Unfrozen and published by Daedalic Entertainment, Iratus: Lord of the Dead draws inspiration from such titles as 2016’s Darkest Dungeon to create a dark turn-based RPG that reinforces the notion set by such games as the Overlord series: Sometimes it’s good to be bad. Having started development in 2018, Iratus drew considerable attention when it launched on Steam Early Access last year. In addition, a DLC expansion entitled Wrath of the Necromancer is currently in the works for a September release, ensuring more world-razing fun and debauchery in the near future. In the meantime, the main game already provides enough wickedly engaging gameplay to entertain an aspiring villain.
Players are put in the role of the titular Iratus, a dark necromancer who - as depicted in the game’s black and white, motion comic style opening cutscene - once raised a great army of the undead before being defeated by a heroic group of knights and sealed in a stone casket to ponder his errors for all of eternity. That is until he is unearthed by a band of hapless miners to rebuild his forces and take revenge on the world of the living. To do so, he and his newly-reconjured army of the damned will have to battle their way through a variety of dungeons as they ascend from the mines Iratus was trapped in all the way to the towering cathedral that houses the beings who vanquished him. It’s pretty much a standard “villain seeks revenge” plotline, but Iratus: Lord of the Dead provides plenty of dark humor and macabre personality to keep things relatively fresh.
The game plays out in traditional tactical RPG fashion, with players sending a squad of minions through a total of five lengthy dungeons as they battle their way toward a showdown with the given area’s boss. Players transverse these dungeons by clicking on an enemy marker or object of importance on the in-game map, resulting in either a battle, an upgrade for either Iratus or his minions, a cache of bonus items, a ritual sacrificing of a minion in exchange for bonuses, small mini-missions or even the chance to raise an extra minion. The dungeons contain many branching paths, but players can only move forward once a choice has been made, requiring some thought as to whether they want a Mana boost or a new item.
Battles unfold on a 2D plane, with participating minions standing single-file and being issued commands like physical strikes, spells, or even stat-altering Stances by clicking on command buttons on the bottom of the screen in order to maim, curse and even immolate those who would defy them. The game’s vast array of various undead forces each carry up to 6 attacks that either can only be accessed from a certain position on the field or require use of an in-game resource called “Wrath,” which fills as your enemies attack you. Iratus himself commands these forces from his personal chamber, as well as unleashes magic spells to attack his enemies using a secondary Mana resource. Your enemies, who range from lowly gravediggers to armored knights, have two separate health bars: a red one for physical and magical attacks and a purple one for psychological damage called “Stress” which, when drained, can result in said enemy attacking their squadmates in confusion, trying to flee the battle, or even dying of a heart attack when it hits zero. Battles are often a matter of choosing which meter to drain, as certain enemies are more vulnerable to certain types of damage than others.
With Iratus’s necromancy powers, players can use the resources gained from battle, such as their enemies’ organs and skeletal remains, to create new minions in one of the game’s unique hooks. After a minion is brought to life, the parts used to create them can be switched out in order to boost stats and even increase their experience level. In addition to minions, these resources can also be used to craft new weapons, armor or even magical amulets for your forces to draw dark power from, and even Iratus himself can be equipped with certain items or even destroy them for more experience points, which he can then use to unlock additional spells and upgrades via game’s “Talents” tree. Finally, players can build a base of operations in the Graveyard outside his domain using yet another resource called Digger’s Souls, converting Iratus' former prison into a mighty fortress with areas designed to help heal minions and increase their power.
When starting Iratus: Lord of the Dead, the game provides a disclaimer warning that the battles ahead will be challenging, and there are up to four difficulty settings. After the hour-or-so long tutorial, Iratus lives up to that warning, as enemies can take a great deal of damage in addition to dealing it out. Even at the game’s easiest setting, be prepared to lose many minions, especially in the later levels, and once a minion dies, it’s gone forever. This makes strategy all the more important, as well as taking advantage of resources like stat-boosting equipment parts and the Graveyard’s healing Mortuary building to keep your forces in tip-top shape.
Outside of the battlefield, Iratus’s music gives off an appropriate goth-like atmosphere, with the haunting organs and sinister scare cords one would expect as the dead rise from their graves in search of revenge. As for the voice acting, Iratus is given a gravelly British tone courtesy of longtime computer game voice actor Stefan Weyte, with enough dry wit during post-battle observations to give him a personality beyond the generic dark overlord he appears as on the surface. The 2D, sprite-based art style reflects the grim yet humorous tone the game as a whole retains, featuring a mix of vivid color palates and grotesque designs for characters, in addition to enemies progressing through a battle covered in their own blood and internal organs.
Iratus: Lord Of The Dead is a fun, darkly amusing dungeon crawler for those looking to bring destruction to the world rather than salvation. Its mechanics are simple to learn yet difficult to master, and there is plenty of challenge to go with the fun novelties of using fallen enemies as building materials for your cannon fodder minions and literally scaring your foes to death. If players don’t mind the punishing difficulty in later chapters, Iratus: Lord Of The Dead serves as a decent way to burn through a rainy day – just as the corpse-like Bride of Iratus burns through those who stand in her way with a trio of flaming arrows.
Iratus: Lord Of The Dead is available for PC.
