Iron Tides

This was such a fun game and it had so much potential.
And after they released a map making tool I sure though that this game was going to manage to earn a place in my favourites tab...
And then they abandoned it. The story/campaign was never finished and the devs cut and ran.
After scrolling through my library and seeing this still in it, I was hit with some nostalgia but ultimately just felt disappointed.
Save your money. Don't support people who don't complete projects that they were paid for.

I lovely little tactical battler game. Kinda reminds me of old-school games like Might and Magic 2.

I wept real tears when my viking died. But then I honored them with more bloodshed.

Good game while it worked, now it will not start-up and the devs have done a runner. Please don't start what you can't finish.

This is a slick little turn based tactical with the usual bells and whistles. Improve your ship, level up your warriors, recruit more, and kill enemies to take their stuff so you can improve your ship, level up your warriors, recruit more, and rinse and repeat. Has a fairly linear "campaign" but I think only the first act is available so far.

As others have noted, game is abandoned and not worth whatever they're charging for it.

This is one of the closest translations of dnd combat I've seen. Excellent elements of strategy in troop placement on a grid-based setting, and party-member selection/ability combos. I enjoyed the combination of resource-management when controlling the ship itself, and the turn-based combat when controlling the crew. Excellent value. Endless side missions, tough (but short) story missions. I wish there was more control over abilities (have to find preferred abilities among randomly-generated characters) and leveling (few upgrade options). I ran out of things to spend gold on (maybe include a customizable weapon system?) and was always short on honor (the other currency). The creators have stopped updating :( Need more games like this!

Took my Kickstarter money and left. No word, no apologies and no notice. Just left.

Since they aren't too big on trust, I'd recommend NOT BUYING this product.

The thousand plus people who sent them money just got screwed. If Crash Wave Games ever decides to make another game, you can be I'll be there to let others know the truth.

The fights are repetative but the game seems interesting. No updates in 10 months though so it looks abandoned and I am getting a refund.

Abandonware. Once it was a very promising turn-based game. There is no new content since winter 2017. Avoid this game and save your money.

Pros:
+ Nice atmosphere,
+ good writing
+ good music,
+ proper Vikings culture,
+ fun warrior voices
+ neat character progression makes me want to see this game completed.

Cons:
- Poor tactical scope.
- Fights become too repetitive, because of simplistic square-based battleground,
- most fighters cannot attack diagonally, just like in chess.
- Screen shake strains the eyes
- Small fonts all over the place, but the worst are the character sheets: if a character is a veteran with lots of skills, the fonts become even smaller toward microscopic, in order to list all their talents in the already smallish, pop-up sized character sheet window.
- On the battlefield the leftmost row - where the players viking party sometimes begins the fight - usually remains almost off-screen: good luck reordering your fighters strategically, when you can't see, which fighter is there, they are pushed off-screen, without the option to zoom out the camera to see everybody perfectly.

I love character development and progression in turn-based RPGs, that offer lots of reasons to play and invite to come back for more: I adore reading character sheets, skills and weapons descriptions, because its exciting to witness my fighters become stronger and watch their skills develop. In battle reading the enemy fighters' skills and my warriors' skills is crucial for successful tactics on hardest difficulty levels. This would give the real taste for this nicely developing game ==>

==> Unfortunately the small and - on the character sheets - tiny-microscopic fonts give me eyestrain and **headache** even with glasses after about 15 minutes. When I come home, tired from work, I want a leisure activity, to play a game offering unrestricted fun, where tactical descriptions are displayed in a proper size and I can read them effortlessly, almost without looking or squinting, so playing a game remains a leisure time and doesn't become a struggle.

I would even wait for the developers to -- maybe -- listen to a suggestion to increase their truly small font size - which probably needs some pop-up window resizing. However the developer did not respond to these forums for six months. It appears only the community manager is active, relaying player requests. I understand early access too.

But if a game gives me a splitting headache after 15 minutes of play, I cannot recommend it to older players. Not every turn-based fan is young nowadays. :(

Iron Tides isn't a very good game from what I expected prior to playing it. I'm very partial to both Vikings and RPGs, but unfortunately this doesn't scratch either of those itches. The Steam description mentions raiding but the lack of actual excitement or feeling at all doesn't seem to show any real truth there.

The Simulation tag is a little inappropriate, I think, unless we're talking about simulating a mobile game. The Rogue-Like description used applies only in its very very pale comparisons to Darkest Dungeons. You require food, there are consumabels, you can starve to death, characters die and are lost forever.

Unfortunately for Crash Wave Games, their characters at this stage in development don't really mean a whole lot. Character (and ship) development is linear and simplistic. Active abilities seem to be randomly assigned out of a set of two per level and the next tier of passives is gated behind investing in the previous ability as opposed to level gated as one might expect.

It should be noted that, in the current iteration of the game (as of this writing v1.69), there is no gear for characters which even further restricts the individuality that the characters might otherwise be able to achieve. Stats are displayed in percentages (by and large), and are affected entirely by the passives that you take while you're leveling or through the buffs that you've got a 50/50 shot of finding on a character - Though that certainly does help its description of being a more casual tactical experience.

I'm really.. confused, honestly. This reminds me a lot of a tablet game that just hasn't been ported yet. Given what the game is advertised, and what it had the potential to be with its clear inspirations from Darkest Dungeon, I can't help but to be disappointed. While the accessability and low hardware requirements make it an easy pickup, it'd take a special kind of dedication to get a dollar per hour out of this game. Cannot recommend.

This is a fun turn based game. Know this:
1. It is incomplete, you only have about 3-6 hours of play right now. 6 campaign missions availble as of 9/29
2. You can grind, but not required.
3. It is fairly easy, but you can lose your best hero if you are careless. I played on normal [level 2 of 4 settings]
4. The gameplay is well paced, I don't seem to feel like I spent to much time in menus or shops. The missions can be completed in under 20 mins, I think.

A light tactical game with enough interesting and varied elements to keep you engaged without straining your brain or making you resort to obsessive record keeping or number crunching.

Randomly generated side missions let you proceed at you own pace, giving you time to learn the game and improve your party before proceeding along the main quest line.

The character mechanics are interesting. Characters are generated with randomized skillsets that you unlock with experience. Each character gets four active combat skills ( randomized ) and then a larger list of passive skills ( also randomized ). The passive skills provide benefits like more health, increased accuracy, critical chance, etc.

Travel is by longboat which you can upgrade to improve character stats and also other game mechanics like food consumption and inventory size.


The system is surprisingly intuitive and the different character classes work well together. The randomized skills lead you to inventive tactical parings.

Battlefields vary as does team placement and allowed team size. Before the battle starts, you get to choose which members from your longboat to bring and where to place them. This adds another layer of strategy to the experience as you can see your opponents and their placement.

Character death is permanent, but the loss of a party member is not a catastrophic blow to proceeding along the quest line. You can recruit new heroes at your main camp after each mission.

Game difficulty is up to the player. Not only is there a difficulty setting in the options menu, but you can choose to tackle missions with a smaller size party than recommended, or use party members of a lower level. You can grind random missions for experience, or not.

The overall effect is a feeling of freedom to play the game as you want to play it without the constraints of an Orwellian master plan you will be punished for not following.


I'm really enjoying the experience and looking forward to the full game release. If you're searching for an engaging tactical game in a Viking setting, give Iron Tides a try.

I must admit, this game is pretty great. It has some really good strategy elements, combat is pretty polished/satisfying, and the map stamina mechanic is pretty well balanced. Dev team seems to be pretty active and involved with the community too. Although this is an Early Access game, if you are a fan of turn-based strategy, this is definitely worth a look.

(copied from someone else, too lazy to write my own review, still do agree with everything and it's a great game)

This is a great game. I normally play big productions like Rome II or the Civilization series but I found that this quaint little game is just as enjoyable. I really look forward to all the new features and levels. Thanks!

Great TBS Viking game, having fun with it. Plays well and looks promising. Will update this reveiw in the future as content come. So far so good.

I must admit, this game is pretty great. It has some really good strategy elements, combat is pretty polished/satisfying, and the map stamina mechanic is pretty well balanced. Dev team seems to be pretty active and involved with the community too. Although this is an Early Access game, if you are a fan of turn-based strategy, this is definitely worth a look.

Definitely an interesting game. I did hear about the Kickstarter, but didn't bother supporting the game, not being too interested.

After buying it on launch and a difficult beginning (patched in a record time, which shows the commitment of the devs, not like in some other games....), my opinion changed. It’s actually rather enjoyable (especially if you’re crazy about Vikings….), and has about 6-8 hours worth of content (with more to come).

But I hope the devs will come up with something different to do than just repeating similar missions until your characters have the level to defeat the bosses, as, after close to 12 hours, it starts to feel really repetitive.

Recommended 100%.

In my original review I pointed out there was a save issue preventing from playing the game. The issue was fixed in 48 hours or so, with the addition of difficulty levels and some balancing, as some enemies were too strong.

Just...WOW!

I am not very far into this delightful gem but from my ( very jaded) exp with turn-based games this one could turn out a true winner.

I love the graphics; so simple yet whimsical. The exploration / food usage is an interesting touch.

About the only complaint I have is in the "overview" map you cannot pan the camara with WASD or arrow keys...one must use cursor.

**Update** 7 hours into the game and I think this is turning out to be a fine example of turn-based gaming. There seems to be a very good balance 'tween making you fill overwhelmed and over-powered! This is a very good game!

Rivscore- 91 / 100

This is a great little game. If you enjoy turn-based combat, give Iron Tides a try.

The abilities for your units are varied and interesting. Combat is fun, and you'll be fighting 90% of the time. Jumping across impassable terrain with my Valkyrie, having my Vanguard buff her with an extra move to spear the flanked enemy to death is genuinely satisfying.

There is an enjoyable depth to the combat. You'll be constantly figuring out what sequence of actions will be best. My favourite example of this is the Beserker. He lands a critical strike every first turn of the match, gains action points when killing a bleeding enemy, and gains health when he lands the killing blow. I use this guy like a self-healing bowling ball.

I'm excited and hopeful to see a less linear character progression system, to customise my units based on their role (for example, one Valkyrie has a jump ability to flank as mentioned, and another has a HUGE aoe heal). I'm also hopeful for more classes.

If anything, the combat is too easy. I have sailed through the campaign so far--no pun intended--with little resistance. The AI often outnumbers you, but you are given many more action points per turn. The enemy always flow towards your units, and they'll flow at different rates. This is easily exploited by defending choke points and picking them off one by one. I look forward to a more hardcore/ironman mode, where perhaps my units have less action points.

To be critical to a degree most will think ridiculous, the opening text would benefit from a rewrite. The word "grew" is used five times in short succession, which I found distracting.

Great game so far. Get it.

First Impressions

Response to JimDeadlock's review:

Tips for new players