The Iron Oath has managed to shine in a 2023 full of great RPGs

2023 has been packed with fantastic RPGs, and even a die-hard fan of the genre might struggle to find all the hidden gems. One of these titles is The Iron Oathwhich left Steam Early Access in November – we reported on it while it was in Early Access, but developer Curious Panda Games has beefed up the game with several major updates on the way to a final release.

The Iron Oath puts the player in the role of the leader of a mercenary company who has recently been betrayed and is looking for recovery. Unfortunately, you live in a hostile fantasy world under siege by dark forces. The writing style and world building are a bit standard, so there aren’t many surprises when it comes to that The Iron Oath‘s tradition. But that’s okay, because that’s all just preparation for the real drama: leading a huge group of mercenaries, most of whom are so rude that they get badly injured, die in battle, give up, or defect with low morale.

“Much [early access] “We adapted to what the fans wanted, not what we wanted,” Curious Panda programmer Chris Wingard told Polygon. “We had a plan, but the fans had other priorities.”

Image: Curious Panda Games/Humble Games

“Our biggest update by far was our combat and enemy update, which came out in March. We didn’t actually intend to do that, but there was a lot of feedback about the combat – not enough variety between encounters and so on,” adds artist Nick Mueller. “So we added a number of enemy variants and enemy elites to provide variety.”

The Iron Oath started with six classes and now offers eight, most of which deviate from the typical fantasy form. The Guardian and the Ranger are both archetypal paladins and rogues, but the Valkyrie, the Pyromancer, and the Pugilist are all novel takes on warriors. Later in Early Access, Curious Panda Games added new classes: the zone-controlling Icebinder and the Bardic Balladeer. Each class has branching talent paths, allowing the player to experiment with different builds. One Pyromancer might be suited to playing a support role and helping complete tanking tasks, while the other might focus on pure fire damage.

It’s easy to build a bond with the best members of your team. A strong party member can lead a team of newbies through tough battles, save difficult situations, and serve as an anchor for the rest of your squad. However, it’s not a good idea to rely too heavily on just one or two of your mercenaries. The player must constantly update his squad.

When you pick up an adventurer at an inn, you’re immediately given a choice: Do you want to sign a one-year contract with room for renegotiation? How about a five-year contract? The latter offers security – you have it blocked – but requires a higher upfront payment. Even a well-paid mercenary might quit in disgust if you repeatedly betrayed his core morals.

Image: Curious Panda Games/The Iron Oath

This system of recruitment, retirement and the occasional tragic fall is reminiscent Poacher myth. However, in The Iron Oath, you don’t fake a handful of legacies. You build your company and tell a unique legend.

A smaller group might consist of six or seven warriors, and the loss of just one of them could have devastating consequences. Endgame quests require at least 10 party members to rely on, and a particularly ambitious leader could fill their bench with a few dozen scrubs to overcome any challenge.

Managing mercenaries is difficult even at the best of times. Traveling through the overworld killing bandits and monsters is enough to weaken your company’s resolve and rank. Things get more difficult when you are forced to enter a dungeon. The Iron Oath takes a fair amount of inspiration from himself Darkest Dungeon

Wingard notes that there is “a decent amount of RNG” in these dungeons; Each dungeon has its own modifiers, both positive and negative. The longer the player stays in depth, the greater the risk of adding worse negative modifiers. They also have to manage their group’s health, skills and morale.

“We don’t want you to lose a character and feel like you have no control over them,” says Wingard. “This should never happen – there is always a way out.”

The Iron Oath is a focused RPG that excels as a mercenary management game, both in small battles and on the larger scale of maintaining your warriors for years or even decades. “We were pleasantly surprised by the response and how things turned out,” says Wingard. “We are already planning another roadmap.”

“We definitely have a lot more to introduce into the game,” says Müller. “At the moment we have completed our Betrayal campaign, but there [are] definitely more stories we want to tell with the game. There is at least one more major campaign that we will implement next year.”

The writing in The Iron Oath is simple, but it is enough to keep the player moving forward and advance his band of mercenaries. Then the real tension ensues – sprains and bruises lead to serious injuries, fighters have to spend time on the bench, and your MVP might just die in the fight. Despite so much competition from other role-playing games, The Iron Oath manages to stand out with its clever mix of inspirations from Dungeons & Dragons, Poacher mythAnd Darkest Dungeon. The Iron Oath is available on steam and GOG.