Iratus: Lord of the Dead

A rather fun, incredibly well stylized strategic game, basically a much simpler, less rng-containing Darkest Dungeon game where you play as the bad guy.
It is still fairly challenging and it offers a tremendous amount of ways to play, was a fun journey through and through.

fun

pile of garbage

Cute indie game, good mechanics, nice skins, funni narrative

To be fair, its pretty much a bare-bones DD. The difficutly is not even close and the builds are much more simple. Took me four stagers (levels) to lose a battle, BUT, the game was made with love and is an absolute blast.

Drives me crazy and i love it

Hot take: I actually enjoyed this more than Darkest Dungeon.

good way to spend a quick 15 to 25 min at a time

Excellent Darkest Dungeon style Roguelike.

Highly recommended, stands on its own merits.

Comparing this directly to Darkest Dungeon (not DD2) since that's what most players will be doing.

Iratus:
Far less RNG
No grinding, less time wasted on leveling new units
More flexible for build experimentation
Play as the bad guy
Token system similar to Darkest Dungeon 2
Runs on potato PCs

Darkest Dungeon:
Much more depth
Unparalleled atmosphere
Iconic artstyle and aesthetic
Also runs on potato PCs

Final verdict:
Iratus is the best $4 I've ever spent on a game

A hidden gem and my new favourite game!

Nice twist on Darkest Dungeon.

love the game, but after some time i couldnt start my game anymore without getting a bluescreen of death.

"Rogue-like" does not describe the game well. Create minions from multiple types, and unlock more types. Each has 6 basic powers. Including, melee, various magic, ranged, defense, buff, de-buff, etc... Powers can be tweaked. Minions can be equipped (a little). Pick 4 you have developed, and lead them into a battle. You will mostly be casting spells in the battle. Battles are 4 on 4 (mostly) and tactically simple. Battles provide the rewards for minions and their boss (you). Boss development includes potions, spells, alchemy, etc. Simple to grasp, but lots of options and layers. Once you unlock something it remains unlocked, both good things and bad things, in subsequent play throughs. Minions will die. Just as you can critical your opponents, they can critical you. Plan to replace folks. But you won't have to start your new folks @ level 1, the game keeps you in the flow. The mix and match options to create various teams with different strengths and vulnerabilities, and finding the tweaks and gear to make a sweet team is the core challenge. Sadly, there are some weak types and it would be better if some rewards tied back to more of the stats and skills, e.g. potion making. The artifact system is weak. It needs some sort of player driven growth, level savvy rewards, or both. The things that do grow are good, but almost everything SHOULD progress, many things don't. Still, it is very much a, "just one more battle" game. Pro's 65% Cons 35%
(Play hours are inflated by me having the game on in the background, I have played through twice prior to this review.)

this game delivers a fresh twist on the tactical roguelike, making it a blast for strategy enthusiasts who enjoy a darker aesthetic. One of the game's most commendable aspects is its reverse dungeon-crawling approach, which puts players in the shoes of the undead, commanded by the nefarious necromancer Iratus. This innovative perspective allows for engaging gameplay mechanics, such as managing various minions and utilizing a plethora of unique abilities to conquer foes. However, despite its intriguing premise and artistic charm, the game can feel somewhat repetitive over extended play sessions. The difficulty curve is also quite steep, which might get on the nerves of casual players. Nonetheless, for those willing to embrace its challenges, it really offers a fun experience that stands out in the crowded landscape of strategy games.

This game crash my PC

This was is great. I had a lot of fun playing it, but forgot to leave a review. The game balance feels right, and if you plan your strategies with your units, you should prevail. Really nice look and feel. The developers obviously cared about their game, and it shows. Looking forward to the release of their next game.

4 years since release and the game still feels unfinished. It's a like Darkest Dungeon clone that was put into an Easy-Bake Oven but someone forgot to plug it in.

It has a lot of cool ideas, decent designs, items, etc. But it all just ends up feeling unpolished and copypasta'd.

Gameplay feels bloated. Artificial complexity.

yeah man all good I like killing the guys and watching them turn to dust Its dope

Un autre jeu à mettre dans votre collection. Superbe visuellement, intuitif, atmosphère glauque, bien structuré et plusieurs façon de progresser. Et en plus !!!!! *** ENTIÈREMENT EN FRANÇAIS ***

I really liked this one, it's a good contrast to darkest dungeon

You travel through randomly-generated maps that remind one of Slay the Spire - a few different paths with different basic encounter types along each path you can see before you choose a direction.
Each encounter is like a battle in Darkest Dungeon, where your forces fight the good guys.

The game is a fun Darkest-Dungeon-like, but it is ultimately too slow and repetitive for its own good. In darkest dungeon, you're characters only ever level up 6 times. That makes each time they level up feel super valuable. In this game, your characters level up constantly and because of that, each level isn't nearly as impactful. So you spend a lot of time looking at stats and adjusting them slightly, especially once you unlock the building to help level characters which you aren't sending into battle.

Not only that, but some of the characters are just straight up way more useful than others. As the game progresses, it tries to introduce more risk reward mechanics. Characters hurting themselves or buffing the enemy to deal extra damage and such. But in a game where losing one character means losing so much progress, you never want to hurt your own minions or buff the enemy, because it is just more effective to use minions which deal damage consistently (or have AoE effects which just make every other ability inefficient). So you end up alternating between maybe two-thirds of the minions you have and trying to avoid using the rest as much as possible. Because this game isn't as complex as Darkest Dungeon, where some heroes really shine in specific encounters but are terrible in others, these kinds of mechanics just end up feeling more frustrating than anything else. It also takes so long to unlock new kinds of minions, because instead of them having a chance to randomly encounter them, you have to meet certain thresholds to do so.

The number of trinkets available to place on your minions is also criminally low and many of the mechanics, like building your own trinkets or going on quests feel under baked. They don't adjust relative to everything else as you and your minions level up, so they end up feeling obsolete relatively early in the game. Maybe if I played the game longer and got into those really difficult later levels, I would feel some sense of scarcity and appreciation for these mechanics. But as it is, I don't have the patience to keep grinding that long.

Finally, the "hardcore tactical rogue-like" gameplay contrasts heavily with the "boobs and blood" aesthetic of the game. I wouldn't mind the weird objectification of what are essentially dead bodies so much if the game just committed to being a cheesy romp. But the crypt-keeper puns and juvenile visuals don't complement the tactical decision making. The main voice actor does a great job, but the material he's working with doesn't do him any favors. In Darkest Dungeon, you want to hear Wayne June's little comments about the game. The timber of his voice and the quality of his dialogue adds to the game, it doesn't become an annoying detraction after a few hours.

So, yeah, it's fun and tense when you first start out, but as it unfortunately becomes a slog. If you can get it on sale, it's got a few hours of discovery and enjoyment before the cracks start to show.

Loved this game had a blast playing through it even more than darkest dungeon. Would love a sequel, its been 5 years.

love

Good game if on sale. Variety of minions and builds along with several difficulty settings give the game some decent replay value as well.

Reverse Darkest Dungeon!

You essentially are the bad guys causing insanity on the good guys, instead of going insane yourself.

This game is definitely a mixed bag. I got it on heavy discount (3$) And it was well worth my 15 hours for one run. The definite problem is that I have no drive to go back in for another run. As others have mentioned, it does tend to lose its luster after a while and get samey, especially as you start to see the finish line of all the things unlocked. After hour 12 I think I just wanted to finish one run and be done.

If you're a Darkest Dungeon fan and you want something that scratches that itch with a spin on it, this is well worth below 10$. Anything above, I'd wait for a sale.

its okay sweetie we have darkest dungeon at home

Great Turn based game.
Pretty simple design but there are lots of things to unlock along the way. keeping it interesting.
great art style and design too

Really fun and challenging

So you have seen the pictures and thought... hmmm.... This looks just like Darkest Dungeon.

So they took the look and feel of Darkest Dungeon then for the gameplay they based it on, well, Darkest Dungeon.

Jokes aside. It a DD Like game yet there is enough here to have a lot of fun with and find the team meta etc. In the sales it is worth a look.

Update: Almost through first play through that it starts you on in easy mode. I can see once the difficulty ramps this could be punishing. But I like the mechanics also. Well worth the current sale price.

8/10
Not so fun as Darkest Dungeon

Great game to play

Fun until the end, starts using OP mechanics and its just a dead end until it forgives the players

I really wanted to like this Darkest Dungeon spinoff but its just so.. meh.

i mean, its just been 12 hours since I started and I already see it as a big chore to continue, maybe Im missing something because the game is alright, its decent. Sound, music, art, story, mechanics.. everything is.. alright but.. its just.. like.. being on a diet and eating the same things for weeks, its ok but theres no excitement or fun or anything, its just a time sink.

Im supposed to be curious about new team builds and do research on the most effective way and quickest way to deal with enemies but somehow, im not. Its like, there is no good incentive to pour brainpower on the game, something is missing and I cant quite put my finger on it, maybe the reward isnt worth the efforts?

As achievements go, most are easy to get with a few tricky exceptions but I already see that the grind achievements are horrible and it will take me tedious weeks to complete.. kill 1000 enemies in a zone? with 4 enemies per battle and the battle taking from 2 to 6 minutes.. thats a lot of time wasted grinding.. well, whatever.

I might update the review after I hit hour 100 to see if I was able to find fun in the game, as for now, I cant really recommend this grindy mess. Its not a bad game, its just.. one more in the pile... very meh.

This game is strategy great. You have to plan and battle. The game looks good too. The audio will have you wanting the soundtrack and the vocal quips and dialogue toasts are great too. There are different difficulties so you can play easy and win or fight losing battle and have to restart.

The ghoul makes me act up fr fr

buying this was a mistake
the game was made for countless DLCs - new costumes, Halloween pumpkins, new character, another one buy buy buy buy...
this is so annoying and I hate this approach from developers
I'll return the game

I was lured in by the prospect of Darkest Dungeon but less frustrating. But it just isn't very fun. None of the characters I built in the first couple of battles did anything interesting that would make me want to keep going.

The control scheme for Steam Deck is atrocious, too. I don't want to mouse over everything and keep clicking triggers to emulate mouse clicks. I have buttons and a D-Pad. Let me use them.

GREAT GAME
I find this game more enjoyable than Darkest Dungeon.
Instead of having to worry about managing and mitigating endless negative dice rolls. I have actually focus, play, and enjoy the game how I want to play it.
This game also has GAME SAVING AND LOADING.
This is great because:
If you encounter a game-breaking bug, it doesnt ruin your hours long run
If you make a mistake because you are just "figuring out the game" it doesnt ruin your run
If you just want to replay a fight, go for it!

It's an alternative version of Darkest Dungeon, where you play on the evil side. It is simpler that DD, but it also offers some unique mechanics and I wouldn't call it a lazy clone, it is actually a good and somewhat original game, so if you enjoy Darkest Dungeon, then definitely give it a try!

good

It's a darkest dungeon style game. Always wanted to play one, but here the battles are boring and repetitive, and too grindy.

Funniest part is to open new monsters. But if you find the proper combo, you easily clean up the 90% of dungeon, switching combo for 1-2 encounters and then go back. Overall is good, i do remember cleared it up on PS4, the bad thing, i didn't remembered i've even played it before i bought it again. So it isn't something you remember after you play

Good tactical game, great variety of monsters and enemies. Combine that with different items, spells and potions and you will spend a lot of time on working out effective tactics. For me that is part of the fun. This game requires thinking and punishes you if you are under prepared on higher difficulties.

very good warning game becomes quite punishing later on though if you get unlucky

Well, I would recommend the game, mostly to RPG mechanics lovers.
The game is a good RPG, but as it relies a bit on luck, I would not recommend so much busting your head for the hardest difficulty, as units.. eh, minions, die a bit too quickly and you have to really be adept at using your chosen team to even try.
Other difficulties are good and suit their titles :)
It does take time to be familiarized with your own units, so prepare to spend some time just watching their abilities description sometime on your first playthrough, so you understand the game for further levels.

Overall, a very enjoyable RPG.
Warning for those who want a... story and such. There isn't much.
The game is focused on mechanics of units (and Iratus) for fights, upgrades, items, abilities.

i've played darkest dungeon and i've played this game and honestly i like this game a lot better. i'm a very casual gamer and this game feels a lot more user-friendly and less demanding. it's much easier than darkest dungeon so if you liked darkest dungeon but thought it was too hard, this is the game for you. the biggest difference is that in iratus you don't have to play through an entire dungeon in one shot, you can do one battle and then return to base and regroup and send out a different squad of monsters for the next battle. plus the character of iratus can cast spells in combat to help the monsters. the art style is very cool, there's lots of options in combat, all the monsters all have clever animations, there's plenty of upgrades and management to do in between battles, and the overall story is pretty cool as well. the repetitive dialogue and corny one-liners get old real fast though.

8/10