Iron Tides is a turn based, survival game with rogue-like elements. Oh and VIKINGS! Developed by Indie dev team CrashWave Games Inc. Iron Tides was kickstarted back in November 2016 and had reached its goal by over 72%. Iron Tides is currently available on Steam for Early Access with a 15% early access price tag.
As of its current early access release, it has 100+ unique battlefields with 8 to 15 hours worth of gameplay.The seas you travel are procedurally generated with 25+ custom battles while working on the six main quests currently available in the game. Four characters types are available at the moment with a fifth promised “soon”. Each character type has seven different skill available to them as you level them up making them feel and play a bit a little to a lot more different each one. For example, the Valkyrie has a leap skill to get her over obstacles and right into the heart of the melee battle. Eleven Steam Achievements are available currently and there is a fairly nice level editor in the game.
That’s nice, but how does it feel?
Iron Tides gameplay is divided into several parts. You have the ship traveling system which has you moving block by block in one of four directions to cross the map, with a little more of the map being revealed the further you go. As you travel that takes stamina, which depletes faster the bigger your crew. Throughout your voyage you will encounter islands in your way making you back travel and waste precious stamina, various discovery encounters which may get you food or other items (some make you chose between food or gold) and pirate encounters! Pirates can be on their boats or in their home bases.
We’ll get to the pirates in a second, but remember when I mentioned stamina getting used every time you travel a square? So guess what happens when you run out of stamina? Your crew starts to take health damage. This can start to turn deadly in some instances if you do encounter pirates. Thankfully there are items like fish you can use to increase stamina and that also start to regen health for your crew, but using those things means using gold to buy them or hoping to discover them at sea. While there are various items you can buy and discover as you sail, you only have so much room on your ship for items. Another thing to keep in mind, weighing food over more plunder to bring home and sell for more gold.
So, about those pirates. You can encounter various groups out on the sea and engage them in the games strategy roguelike combat. Each character has a certain amount of squares available to them movement wise and then their range for combat. Your Hunter is going to have more range to back up your Vanguard as he pushes forward with his shield out to fight the oncoming horde. Each character has “fury” which account for how many of their skills they can use. The basic attack skill is 1 fury, so generally you can walk up to something and smack it 3 times. After you use up your fury, you can decide which way your warrior is facing, fairly important since it affects blocking and dodging! And yes… Vikings can and will die in battle and be lost forever.
But why risk all that death fighting and exploring? For glory and gold! These are your main currencies in buying items, recruiting Vikings and upgrading your ship. In between missions, while you’re at home you can do all these things and increase your chances of coming home again a little bit more.
Overall Lost Tides feels fairly solid for an Early Access release and fills the Viking niche quite well. The roguelike elements don’t feel too punishing which equates to a fun game. And a fun time had by all. Go check it out!
Score: 8/10
Pros:
- VIKINGS!
- Solid strategic play
- Loads of content for the cost
Cons:
- Fights can feel repetitive
- Low budget visually
