Ironcast is an upcoming game from British indie studio Dreadbit that will make its way onto Xbox One on March 4. The game originally released last year on Steam. Ironcast is a mix of a match-three game with some RPG elements which grant it a certain unique gameplay style inspired by the English Victorian era.
The plot of the game is quite interesting. The game, as I’ve mentioned, takes place during the late 19th century during the Victorian era where a new material, Voltite, has been discovered by the French who aren’t willing to share it with the rest of the world. Somehow the British Empire was able to steal a sample of it, which results in a war between both countries. This war went into a stalemate for years, until the British developed a new weapon, called Ironcast. This new weapon gave the British an advantage but the French decide to bombard the British nation, targeting and destroying their Ironcasts. A small group of Ironcast Commanders are able to survive the attack and it’s now up to them to save and defend Britain against the French invaders.
The gameplay of Ironcast is kind of simple, although it might look a bit confusing at the beginning. The core of it is fairly simple, using a turn-based method where you have to destroy the enemy’s Ironcast or Steamtrains while you try not to be destroyed by them. To do this you will be using the traditional method of shooting at them until you deplete their lives, and it’s in here that the three-match puzzle game comes in. For you to be able to attack and defend yourself you will need to collect specific nodes that will replenish your Ironcast and allow you to shoot, raise shields, and walk so it’s harder for the enemy to hit you. These nodes are divided into four color types: purple for replenishing ammo, orange that replenishes energy, green is used to repair your Ironcast and blue is a coolant, an element that prevents your Ironcast from overheating when performing actions. To collect the nodes you will be using pretty much the same method as other three-match games, the main difference being the fact of the matches aren’t locked to horizontal and vertical axes.
As you might’ve notice by now, the gameplay is divided into two parts, one is the matching game and the other is performing various actions with the Ironcast. The node matching part only allows you to make three different matches on each turn, so you need to think carefully what colors to match. The actions part doesn’t have any restrictions besides the fact that each action you make-shooting, raising shields, walking and repairing-will deplete the resources that you collect. Fortunately, the game offers you the ability to choose how you want to approach each part of the game, meaning that you can, such as, fire against your enemy, then collect some more ammo nodes and fire at him again. This offers a chance for each player to be able to decide what approach they want to make for each enemy they meet.
After each battle, you will be transported to the Workshop, and it’s in here that the RPG elements of Ironcast are more present. In the Workshop, you will be able to fully repair and upgrade your Ironcast. All the repair and upgrading actions require a specific resource, called Scrap, that is awarded to you for successfully completing your missions. You can also get some extra Scrap by collecting the Scrap nodes that sometimes appear in the puzzle area during battles. Winning battles will also grant you experience points that, once you reach a certain amount, will cause you to level up. This enables the player to choose from three perks, called Augmentations, that can help you out in the battles. These Augmentations are also accessible from the Workshop.
It’s also in the Workshop that you have access to the mission map, where you can choose between three different missions, as well as get information about the boss encounter. The available missions vary but can be broken down into three types: Battle, Survival and Trade. Battle requires you to destroy the enemy in a certain number of turns. Some Battle missions have something like a side quest attached to them like defeating an enemy without destroying his shields. Survival is basically where you have to survive a certain number of turns without being destroyed. Trade is pretty much a chat sequence where you have to complete a trade by guessing what to offer the trader in order to negotiate a transaction. There is also a side mission called Collective where you have to collect a number of nodes in a certain amount of turns.
Although the gameplay is quite simple, Ironcast features two elements that are well known to be connected to each other in a bunch of games. One is the well-known roguelike element that is present in randomly generated missions. The other one is the permadeath element, which means that once you die you will have to start the game from scratch. Well, to be honest, you don’t actually start the entire game from scratch, the only thing that you lose are your items as well as the Augmentations that you had equipped. You’re also compensated once you die as you will be rewarded with Commendation Marks that can be used to unlock more Commanders, Ironcasts, Abilities, Augmentations and Boosters. Commendation Marks can be spent through the main menu of the game before you start a new campaign.
Graphically Ironcast presents a steampunk look that doesn’t offer much. The Ironcast and Steamtrain designs are quite impressive though, but the background designs lack variety. The color scheme used, combined with the lack of shadows, gives a flat aspect to the game without any sense of depth. Surely the developers could’ve improved that.
As for the audio, it stands out a bit more than the graphics but it isn’t exactly the best out there. The background music that plays for the entire game can immerse you into the game a bit, but after a while it becomes a bit repetitive since the variety of tracks isn’t much. The sound effects are well connected with the game but they tend to be more blended with the background music due to their lack of volume. As for voice acting, there is none. All the dialogues are written onscreen with some old communication sound effects like typing machines and Morse code.
Summary
To sum up, Ironcast is an interesting puzzle game that combines puzzle gameplay with RPG elements. It can definitely be enjoyed by some players, especially those that don’t get put off by having all their progress turned to dust once they die and need to start everything from scratch, over and over again. Ironcast is a game that rewards players long-term rather than immediately. Although the game lacks when it comes to graphical presentation, it’s compensated by solid gameplay mechanics that make it quite enjoyable.
João is a games journalist, Senior Editor at XDA Developers. They contributed 156 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: previously reported for Neowin before joining XDA Developers in 2021, where he leads coverage of Windows, Microsoft, and hardware.