Developer: Unfrozen
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
Rrp: £23.99 (Gog.com, Humblebundle and Steam)
Released: 23rd April 2020
Available on: Gog.com, Humblebundle and Steam
Played Using: Mouse and keyboard
Approximate game length: 14 Hours
After a thousand years locked in your tomb what would be the first thing you’d do? Well if it were me it would be see how the world has changed and what I can take advantage of, but that’s just me. It seems that most would immediately start a bloody path of conquest… each to their own I guess.
For every successful game that exists there will be dozens that attempt to ape it. I’m sure there will be many that look at this game, especially its combat, and just think “Oh it’s Darkest Dungeon again.”. I can’t disagree that at the surface level (and yes with its combat) the similarities are undeniable. However, once you dig into this game even by a small modicum the differences become very apparent.
Since I’ve made mention of it we may as well cover the part that is most similar to Darkest Dungeon, the combat. Just like with Darkest Dungeon combat is turn-based with a strong emphasis on minion positioning. Depending on where your minion is positioned different attacks will become available. However, there are a few differences to cover. Firstly, during combat Iratus can cast spells to aid his minions, the only limiting factors being he can only use one spell per round, he has to have the mana to cast the spell (represented as a blue ball) and he has to actually have researched it first. The spells that you can learn and perform can have all sorts of effects, such as healing minions, damaging enemies, increasing hit chance and even just moving a minion on position backward of forward.
The second difference is that as your minions attack and take damage they’ll accrue ‘Wrath’, (which is represented as a red ring around your mana) this is used to power your minions ultimate abilities. Your wrath resets at the end of each combat but the starting amount can be increased with artefacts worn by Iratus and by constructing (and improving) a specific building within your graveyard.
A third difference is that as you win battles not only do your minions gain experience but so does Iratus himself. Each time he increases in level he gain a ‘talent’ point that can be spent in one of four skill trees; Alchemy, Magic, Ire and Destruction. The skills within those skill trees will give either passive effects to your minions or new spells for you to cast in combat.
Your minions can perform three types of attack (although not all minions can do all types); physical, magical and stress. Physical and magical attacks simply lower your enemies health and are the most common of attack you can perform. Stress, though, is used to reduce your enemies mental state eventually getting them to a point where they’ll go insane, which can have various effects… or they become inspired which is rarer but all positive for them. If you keep stressing an enemy after they’ve reached their limit (represented as a purple bar) they’ll die of a heart attack.
The enemies that your minions defeat will drop components artefacts, items diggers souls (covered later) and brains as well as giving experience. Artefacts are potent pieces of equipment that you can place on Iratus himself to gain some kind of effect, such as your minions having extra attack power. Items are for your minions to use, once applied to a minion they are permanent and will be destroyed if they are replaced. Brains, now these are interesting, each minion you create has a brain, as they fight, win and gain experience they will start to level up and the level of the minion is indicated on the brain itself. The higher the level the higher the ‘IQ’. Every so often, a group of enemies will drop a brain, if the number on the brain is higher than the one in your minion then you can swap out the brains and gain that many instant levels. Components are by far the most versatile and important resource that you will gain. These are used to create new minions and perform acts of alchemy (more on that later). The type of minion you create depends entirely on what components you have available to you (and if you’ve unlocked that minion). There are ten components that your minions will harvest from the living as you play; armour, dust, blood, bones, hearts, rags, skulls, weapons, flesh and ectoplasm. Each of these components also comes in as a colour coded rarity; white is common, green is uncommon, blue is rare and purple is legendary.
As I mentioned in the above paragraph each minion is made up of four components. The rarity of those components doesn’t change anything about the minions initial creation, it won’t be more powerful or anything like that. However, once a minion is created you can swap out any of these components for one of the same type that’s of a greater rarity. Doing this will give the minion more ability points to spend within its stat screen.
Earlier I mention about how the IQ of a minions brain shows a minions level, but I didn’t speak on what gaining a level actually does for a minion, so lets rectify that now. Each time your minions gains a level they will gain ability points that they can spend in their stat screen to increase their raw attack power, evasion, defence etc. But another thing a minion gains through levelling is the ability to upgrade a move they can perform. This isn’t given upon every gained with every level but by the time the minion hits level sixteen they should be able to have every move upgraded. Upgrading a move isn’t a simple case of just increasing the damage potential though, for example the fallen dhampir minion has a move called ‘masterful thrust’ which deals 80% of its potential damage while ignoring that enemy’s blocks. But you can upgrade it one of two ways, you can make it deal 100% of the damage (while still ignoring the block) or alternatively you can make it so it will never miss (and also avoid the block).
Some minions won’t be unlocked until you accomplish certain goals such as reaching a specific level or completing the game on a specific difficulty. Once these minions are unlocked though they’re available for every playthrough thereafter regardless of the difficulty selected.
Between combats you can improve Iratus’s graveyard where there are several buildings you can construct and staff. These buildings will grant active and passive benefits such as increased experience or allowing minions not in combat to heal or gain a little extra experience. Doing this requires you to expend the resource known as ‘diggers souls’.
You can also perform alchemy between combats which allows you to use up components to do one of four things; create some minor magic items for your minions, change three components into one of another (with a chance of the rarity increasing), burn components to restore mana or do the same to heal your minions.
I have to say I had a lot of fun with this game, its definitely a lot shorter lived than Darkest Dungeon but has quite a lot of replayability. I fully intend on purchasing the DLC for this game eventually since from what I’ve read it adds in several new mechanics as well as expanding upon the story. Honestly if you enjoyed Darkest Dungeon then I honestly can’t see why you wouldn’t also enjoy this game.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Darkest Dungeon
Deep Sky Derelicts
Slay the Spire
