Iratus, Lord of the Dead (Roguelike, Turn-Based RPG)

If you like Darkest Dungeon, this game should be right up your alley. Very enjoyable, fun twist on DD, and reasonably difficult.

The major change from Darkest Dungeon (besides the whole, you are the bad guy who uses stress attacks on the good guys) is that the game has a much faster progression with no backtracking. If you get wiped out of all of your units and parts to build units to a hard fight (typically the bosses) you have to restart your run, there is no regrinding up a squad like DD had.


That said for those who want to play, be forewarned against the first boss on your first play through, he will probably push your shit in unless you research him beforehand and bring a specific comp. The way this game works, is you start with 6 base classes and unlock more through doing stuff in game (unit reaches level 5, drive X enemies insane, etc.). On your very first run you will most likely only have the six starter classes who have limited ability to deal with the first boss outside of a couple different comps. Once you unlock at least the Lich/Mummy he becomes MUCH easier as you get better access to repositioning and stress stacking abilities. A lot of people on the Steam Discussions were losing their mind that he is so hard at first attempt. I failed my first run on him, got him on the first try on the second run, and the second boss on the third try of the second run. Currently doing the third level (final of Early Access, full game has five levels).

Also, your progress for unlocking new classes rolls over from playthrough to playthrough.

This is actually super different from DD aside from the actual flow of combat itself. Minion management, base management, all the crafting etc are completely different. You cannot grind xp here, and your minions are even more disposable than they were in DD. It's also much, much shorter and designed more similarly to a roguelike ala slay the spire where you play multiple runs using different strategies etc.

My only problem so far is that most of the minion unlocks are largely just upgrades, which invalidates a lot of the earlier minions pretty quickly. Also there's launch DLC that contains minions which is pretty faggoty.

Welp, I am totally playing this over the weekend. Take my money.jpg.

I've read many of the reviews, and I know what to expect. But the potential good outweighs the potential bad for me. The launch DLC comment is a little concerning, but I am in regardless.

One review talked about the difference between this and DD in how your guys were throwaway but in this game they start as throwaway and then they are critical in the final runs in that you have to do perfect or fail. Clearly that reviewer never did the actual Darkest Dungeon or some of the final forms of the bosses, because that exact issue existed in DD as well.

Just to illustrate what a front-line, A+ gamer I have become in my dotage, I did not realize I had to put minions into the buildings to gain the benefit until I watched a recent review. For some reason I just thought they were primarily global passives and just plowed on.

Yeah, I am the bestest at games. I should start streaming.

This game is in release and on sale now. I picked it up yesterday and have been really enjoying it. Obviously, it is very similar to Darkest Dungeon but I personally find the mechanics a bit more forgiving. You can see your next fights in a map and plan a route to the boss. Some people probably don't like that very much but I do. Unlocking characters is interesting and some of them play quite differently. Right now I'm in the second map running primarily a Mummy, Daughter, Zombie and DK (in that order back to front). I haven't really been focusing too much on a Stress build yet because it seems more hit-and-miss. Anyway, I think it is pretty fun.

Glad you brought it to page one. I keep hearing about it with Shadowlands in WoW's "Torghast" roguelike announcement, but never seen it in action. Looks like its worth a play if it's not to expensive.