The Iron Oath

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In "The Iron Oath," lead a mercenary company in a grim fantasy world through tactical combat and strategic decision-making. Oversee recruitment, operations, and missions to ensure your group's survival and success amidst the world's political turmoil. With a dynamic, evolving setting and focus on long-term consequences, this RPG offers a rich, immersive experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

77%

Audience ScoreBased on 550 reviews

story59 positive mentions

grinding23 negative mentions

The game features beautiful pixel art and animations, creating an engaging visual experience.
The combat system is tactical and satisfying, with a variety of classes and abilities that allow for different strategies.
The writing and story are well-crafted, providing an interesting narrative that keeps players invested.

The game can feel repetitive, with limited enemy variety and similar quest types leading to a grindy experience.
Character progression feels shallow, with capped attributes and limited impactful upgrades, making it hard to create unique builds.
The user interface can be clunky and unintuitive, making it difficult to manage characters and understand mechanics.

story
294 mentions
20 % positive mentions
72 % neutral mentions
7 % negative mentions
The game's story is generally well-written and engaging, featuring a mix of main quests and side missions that provide a decent narrative backdrop. However, many players find the overall plot to be somewhat generic and repetitive, with a lack of variety in mission types leading to a grindy experience. While the dialogue and character interactions are praised, the story's pacing and depth are criticized, particularly in its current early access state, where it feels unfinished and could benefit from more content and variety.
- “The game's extensive storytelling is another strong point, drawing players into a deep and engaging narrative.”
- “The writing is very good and the two main storylines are quite detailed and interesting, leading to multi-map, multi-party, larger fights.”
- “Iron Oath is a dark fantasy turn-based tactical RPG, where you guide a mercenary company on a quest for revenge, all while navigating the troubles of the peasantry, the battles of great houses, and a demonic, otherworldly threat called the blight.”
- “The story is okay, but I don't feel like I'm really working towards something.”
- “The game's story pacing is unbearably slow.”
- “The story is generic and every twist is predictable.”
gameplay
151 mentions
33 % positive mentions
59 % neutral mentions
8 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "The Iron Oath" features a compelling mix of tactical combat and mercenary management, drawing comparisons to titles like "Battle Brothers" and "Darkest Dungeon." While the core mechanics are engaging and the art and music enhance the experience, players have noted issues with repetitiveness, limited party size, and a lack of depth in progression and enemy variety. Overall, the game shows promise but requires further refinement to fully realize its potential.
- “The Iron Oath proves that gameplay trumps graphics.”
- “The classes especially make things interesting as they don't fit easily into typical fantasy roles, but the mechanics of how those classes work and synergize together make the combat something you look forward to doing again and again.”
- “The gameplay is great, the mechanics of going into the dungeon and the more time you explore, the more bad negative traits you accumulate, which makes the game very interesting.”
- “The lack of any sort of 'sort' or find feature here is extremely painful and makes utilizing the entire mechanic needlessly painful.”
- “Gameplay is repetitive and uninteresting; enemy variety feels low in that every encounter plays out in basically the same way.”
- “The gameplay is simplistic and doesn't introduce you at all to the mechanics; it just throws you into battles with opponents that are as or more powerful and then leaves your characters with 45 days of fatigue.”
graphics
83 mentions
40 % positive mentions
57 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a charming pixel art style that evokes nostalgia, with many reviewers praising the quality of the artwork and animations. While some players appreciate the retro aesthetic and find it visually appealing, others criticize the graphics for being simplistic and reminiscent of older games, suggesting that they lack the polish of more modern titles. Overall, the art style contributes positively to the game's atmosphere, though opinions vary on its impact on gameplay and character engagement.
- “The artwork and animations in the game are a visual feast.”
- “First of all, the pixel graphics are a joy to look at, and simply ooze atmosphere - everything from the overworld map, to the city screens, to the building interiors and combat... units are lovingly animated - they move, they fight, they die, and they do it all with style!”
- “The entire visual aesthetic is an homage to stylized brutality, and its pixelated world straddles the fine line between retro and contemporary, managing to nail that perfect mix without straying into tryhard territory or overstaying its welcome.”
- “Worse graphics, worse gameplay, worse tutorials, and worse combat.”
- “The graphics are from the stone age; if updated, this would be a great game instead of just a good one.”
- “The graphics are very much SNES-level 16-bit garbage and hurt your eyes.”
music
30 mentions
73 % positive mentions
17 % neutral mentions
10 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its exceptional quality and ability to enhance the immersive experience, particularly during gameplay and storytelling. However, some players found the music repetitive or lacking, detracting from their overall enjoyment. Overall, while the soundtrack is often highlighted as a standout feature, opinions vary on its effectiveness and variety.
- “One of its standout features is the exceptional music, which sets an immersive tone for the gameplay.”
- “The soundtrack is amazing.”
- “Stand out for me though is the sound/music, the score is awesome and full of atmosphere, really sets the mood if you're trawling through a dungeon or bumbling around town.”
- “Music is repetitive and annoying; graphics are very much SNES-level 16-bit garbage and hurt your eyes.”
- “I really am not pleased with the music choices in The Iron Oath.”
- “Music is lackluster, story extremely dull (not that this game was advertised for its story, but still), and I got very bored just barely after it was too late to refund it.”
grinding
24 mentions
4 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
96 % negative mentions
Players consistently find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly in combat and resource management. Many reviews highlight that the difficulty scaling primarily relies on health points, leading to unchallenging battles that feel more like a chore than an engaging experience. Additionally, the need for constant equipment repairs and the convoluted character upgrade system contribute to a sense of monotony, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the game.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Fights get really grindy and repetitive the more you get into the game; it could be more interesting if difficulty scaling wasn't mostly HP-based.”
- “All in all, the game just feels very grindy with very little advancement.”
- “Was fun for about 6 or so hours, but once you get into the core game loop, it becomes really grindy and tedious.”
replayability
13 mentions
23 % positive mentions
54 % neutral mentions
23 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players find enough value in multiple playthroughs and potential mod support, many criticize its lack of depth, randomized elements, and limited content, leading to a consensus that replayability is currently low. The absence of a generated map and repetitive side jobs further detracts from the experience, although some hope for improvements through future updates.
- “I think it has replay value and you can continue to play even after completing both main storylines.”
- “Great game, lots of replay value and depth.”
- “There's talk of mod support as well, which adds to replayability.”
- “Basically it presents as Battle Bros with cooler graphics and more exciting fights, but it lacks the refinement and balance of its parent that gives it the replayability.”
- “Last but not least - unfortunately, the map is not generated, which means replayability is actually not that big.”
- “I was holding off on buying The Iron Oath for a long time due to some reviews commenting on its shallowness and lack of replayability, and I wish I had listened to them.”
character development
7 mentions
43 % positive mentions
14 % neutral mentions
43 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is noted to be present but lacking depth, with players calling for more personality, diverse classes, and engaging ability improvements. While the character art is appreciated, it is considered limited, and there is a desire for enhanced systems that include richer story elements, city activities, and skill synergies. Overall, the system is seen as balanced and easy to understand, but improvements are needed to elevate the experience.
- “The character development system is very good, balanced, and easy to understand.”
- “Improve existing systems, make the trade interesting, improve the character development with more personality, more equipment, more different classes, and more interesting ability improvements (instead of just +1 range as a filler).”
- “Looking forward to character development depth, story, more city activities, guild management, some quest diversity, synergy between class skills, late-game skills to aim for.”
- “Character development is there; however, it is pretty bare bones, and compared to the monster arms race, you seem generally a bit behind.”
- “The character art seems very limited for a game that is all about character development.”
- “I am looking forward to character development depth, story, more city activities, guild management, some quest diversity, synergy between class skills, and late-game skills to aim for.”
optimization
4 mentions
50 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is a mixed bag; while it features smooth gameplay and effective skill optimization that enhances combat variety, players have reported issues with performance, including frequent stuttering due to a lack of FPS locks. Additionally, fatigue mechanics can hinder performance, creating frustration when resources are limited.
- “Now, to the positive: there is so much skill optimization that, if you carefully fill your mercenary roster and spread out the various abilities among your crew, the sameness of the combat can be greatly offset.”
- “The story is actually decent, the gameplay is smooth as hell, very well optimized; no GPU spikes.”
- “Fatigue that leaves you with -25% performance and you don't have enough gold to rest and eat to be able to get rid of that fatigue.”
- “Decent game for early access, but what annoys me the most is that it just goes full yolo on FPS and ignores FPS locks, making stuttering quite frequent.”
atmosphere
4 mentions
75 % positive mentions
-50 % neutral mentions
75 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised, characterized by an exceptional musical score that enhances the mood during exploration and combat. The pixel graphics contribute significantly to the immersive experience, with detailed animations that bring the world to life, creating a vibrant and engaging environment. Overall, the combination of stunning visuals and a captivating soundtrack establishes a rich and spirited atmosphere.
- “Stand out for me though is the sound/music; the score is awesome and full of atmosphere, really sets the mood if you're trawling through a dungeon or bumbling around town.”
- “Overall this game has a lot of spirit -- decent writing, incredible atmosphere with amazing visuals and score, and a satisfying combat loop that keeps you on your toes.”
- “First of all, the pixel graphics are a joy to look at, and simply ooze atmosphere - everything from the overworld map, to the city screens, to the building interiors and combat... units are lovingly animated - they move, they fight, they die, and they do it all with style!”
- “The atmosphere feels flat and uninspired, lacking any real sense of immersion or engagement.”
- “Despite the beautiful graphics, the world feels lifeless and devoid of any meaningful interaction.”
- “The sound design is underwhelming, failing to enhance the atmosphere or draw players into the experience.”
humor
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by occasional funny and unexpected dialogue that feels endearing, though it often comes across as amateurish and reminiscent of old-school writing styles. The comedic elements evoke a sense of nostalgia, with a playful tone that aligns with a medieval fantasy setting.
- “Also, the occasional funny and unexpected bit of dialogue pops up.”
- “It's kind of endearing, but amateurishly written in an old-school Lord British kind of style, with a lot of shoulder-grasping and back-clapping while laughing heartily, for we are in yon Elden times, huzzah.”
emotional
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
While some players find the story engaging and feel a strong attachment to the characters, others criticize it as overly lengthy and boring, suggesting that it detracts from the game's emotional impact. Overall, the emotional connection varies significantly among players, with some appreciating the narrative depth and others feeling it hinders their experience.
- “Some people may not be into the story as much, but that's only a minor part. It still had me engaged, and I normally hate stories, but this one made me feel more attached to my mercs.”